RAID restore help needed

Hi guys,

I have a bit of a problem... my system (XP Pro SP2) is currently on a RAID 0 array but one of the drives is in the process of failing. I've ordered 2 new SATA drives to replace the array, ETA Thursday.

I have a good backup image via Ghost 9 on a separate IDE drive.

Since the new drives are each bigger than the entire array is currently I'm thinking it would be better to go RAID 1 instead of 0.. What sort of issues can I expect if I restore an image of a RAID 0 array onto a RAID 1? I'm think registry issues, even if I set the new drives to RAID 0 maybe...

Any advice on getting this to work would be greatly appreciated. Reinstalling XP and all my stuff would be a nightmare and would result in loss of much that I don't have installers for.

Advice appreciated!

Tom

If you used Ghost to get a sector copy then it may not work properly. However if you just backed up the Windows/Data image and didn't tie to the sectors the data was on there should be no issues.

Just to be on the safe side, use windows backup to create a second image (use backup everything and settings) and an ASR diskette. You will need your RAID drivers on diskette. To restore the image boot to your Windows install cd (it will format the drives and load a minimal amount of files) then using your ASR diskette it will find you external drive and begin restore. I did this just today to make sure USB floppy would work and it does.

BTW, how do you know your drive is failing?

Whether RAID0 or 1 the drivers are the same and are already within the image you took. You should be able to image the new RAID setup without a problem. I've used a RAID0 image on a single disk and RAID1 for testing purposes problem free.

Thanks for the replies guys. Things escalated, or downgraded, a bit today so I had to make a few adjustments in my plan...

I had, in addition to the new SATA drives coming tomorrow, a big new IDE drive that was going to be my backup storage drive. Still will be but for today its my primary drive.. after several more hard crashes I restored my Ghosted image onto the new backup drive and removed the current RAID drives.

tonight I'll make a fresh backup and tomorrow will restore that to the new RAID drives, in RAID 1 array.

I tried using Seagate disk lizard to clone the drive but since its now an Acronis product and their products don't like my PC, it locked up so I used Ghost. It worked flawlessly.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply. This forum contains so much knowledge and experience, I'm real thankful for it!

Tom