RAID question my friends

[Bungral]

Alright folks.

Quick question regarding RAID.

I'm going to be RAID 0'in my two new 1 TB Spinny F3's and just had a thought.

Once RAID'ed and I've installed Windows, software and media (minus motherboard drivers if possible) could I then take an image of that to an external drive and use the image a few months down the line on a different motherboard when I do another build?

Would the image have anything particular to that array and that controller on it?

 

[JN]

There's a few things you need to take into consideration:

1) The software for taking the image would need to support the RAID controller (ICH9/10?). There's only a few out there that do afaik but I've got a good one at home I can find out the name of later today.

2) The PC you restore to later down the line will need to be using a RAID controller natively supported by Windows. Otherwise when Windows tries to boot on your new hardware it won't be able to see the hard disks. A way around this is to install the RAID drivers for you new motherboard before taking the image.

3) If the new motherboard is drastically different, Windows will have to go through all the process of installing new drivers for it. Sometimes it's better practice to just do a reinstall rather than having loads of drivers from your old mobo hanging around.

 

[Bungral]

Aaaah that's why I said I'd not install the drivers. That said Windows would probably install some itself.

Hmmm, thing is, I'm gonna be doing a fresh install next week and probably again in 3 months... That's a whole lot of effort.

What if you were to create the array on the new setup and then install Windows and install for instance Acronis. Then from within Windows, push the image on to the drives which would just overwrite.

 

[JN]

Aaaah that's why I said I'd not install the drivers. That said Windows would probably install some itself.

Hmmm, thing is, I'm gonna be doing a fresh install next week and probably again in 3 months... That's a whole lot of effort.

What if you were to create the array on the new setup and then install Windows and install for instance Acronis. Then from within Windows, push the image on to the drives which would just overwrite.

I suppose the best question is: do you know what raid controller your new motherboard will have? My guess is that you're going to be moving to an SATA3 mobo? In which case just pre-install the relevent driver before imaging and then forget about it.

I'm not sure how Acronis works, but I'd imagine that it can only take an Image from within Windows, not restore it? Most imaging utils reboot into a DOS-type shell for that side of things.

 

[Bungral]

Yeha it would reboot into it's only lil DOS-type shell I believe.

Can't get hold of the Sata3 drivers yet though really.. Could do it just after buying the next upgrade though I guess.

Hmmm will have to think and see how lazy I'm feeling.

Cheers though matey.

I suppose the best question is: do you know what raid controller your new motherboard will have? My guess is that you're going to be moving to an SATA3 mobo? In which case just pre-install the relevent driver before imaging and then forget about it.

I'm not sure how Acronis works, but I'd imagine that it can only take an Image from within Windows, not restore it? Most imaging utils reboot into a DOS-type shell for that side of things.

 

[Rastalovich]

It's almost exactly the same as moving an install from an IDE drive to a SATA. Almost likewize to SATA(IDE) install -> SATA(AHCI). Windows is not inteligent enough to retain or offer the chance that fundamental foundation changes are possible, in terms of merely i/o, and latches onto the hal for dear life.

There are ways spoken about where u can use an imaging software and Sysprep, to firstly setup the install in preperation for a move, then actually do the move - at which point Windows is ordered to source a new set of drivers.

Haven't cracked that one yet myself. Can just about handle SATA(IDE) to SATA(AHCI).

(always recommend installing under AHCI)

 

[Bungral]

Got my RAID 0 array up and running now and am using my spare 1tb Spinny F1 as an external backup drive.

Just sent an image of my 2tb array to it as a full image (not sector by sector though) which didn't take up too much space.

I think in future, I'll just install Windows fresh and mount the archive in Acronis and just browse through the files I want.

That'll do nicely really.

 

[rzhou034]

Sorry I missed the way