Non-destructive RAID ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stuart Gibson
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Stuart Gibson

I have two 200Gb Maxtor DiamondMax +9s PATA drives in my tower and would
like to know from any of the experts out there whether it is possible to
connect them up in a RAID configuration WITHOUT losing about 170gigs worth
of installed software/downloads/programming files/my website/shared files
etc. etc...

Can it be done ? I have the feeling that I'll have to burn an awful lot of
rewritable CDs if I don't want to lose all my stuff, and have to re-install
everything.

Thankx.

Stu.
 
Stuart said:
I have two 200Gb Maxtor DiamondMax +9s PATA drives in my tower and
would like to know from any of the experts out there whether it is
possible to connect them up in a RAID configuration WITHOUT losing
about 170gigs worth of installed software/downloads/programming
files/my website/shared files etc. etc...
Click to expand...

What OS are you using?

--
Alex

"We are now up against live, hostile targets"

"So, if Little Red Riding Hood should show up with a bazooka and a bad
attitude, I expect you to chin the bitch! "

www.drzoidberg.co.uk
www.upce.org.uk
 
Stuart Gibson said:
I have two 200Gb Maxtor DiamondMax +9s PATA drives in my tower and would
like to know from any of the experts out there whether it is possible to
connect them up in a RAID configuration WITHOUT losing about 170gigs worth
of installed software/downloads/programming files/my website/shared files
etc. etc...

Can it be done ? I have the feeling that I'll have to burn an awful lot of
rewritable CDs if I don't want to lose all my stuff, and have to re-install
everything.

Thankx.

Stu.
Click to expand...

What RAID mode are you talking about? Given two drives you could either
stripe or mirror the data. My guess is that there is no way to manage
striping without losing data. Maybe, just maybe, it might be possible to
mirror by copying all the data to one drive and letting the RAID controller
rebuild the copy on the other drive (but I wouldn't bet too heavily on it).
The manufacturer of your RAID controller should be able to tell you if the
mirroring is possible without data loss.
 
I have two 200Gb Maxtor DiamondMax +9s PATA drives in my tower and would
like to know from any of the experts out there whether it is possible to
connect them up in a RAID configuration WITHOUT losing about 170gigs worth
of installed software/downloads/programming files/my website/shared files
etc. etc...

Can it be done ? I have the feeling that I'll have to burn an awful lot of
rewritable CDs if I don't want to lose all my stuff, and have to re-install
everything.

Thankx.

Stu.
Click to expand...

You cannot build a RAID0 array or striped array without losing (copying
off, defining parititon/format/etc, copying back) data.
..
You can build a RAID1 by rebuilding array from drive with data to (other)
drive.

Frankly, since you don't seem to have enough storage on additional drives,
implied by mention of burning those CDs, I wouldn't use your only two
large drives for a RAID0. In fact, you might find that for many uses,
having two drives connected to motherboard IDE ports is faster than those
drives in a RAID0 attached to additional RAID controller on PCI bus.
 
To convert your two drives to a RAID array you would HAVE to reformat them
and do a clean install of Windows and all your programs. No way around it.
I would recommend leaving it alone.
 
DaveW said:
To convert your two drives to a RAID array you would HAVE to reformat them
and do a clean install of Windows and all your programs. No way around it.
I would recommend leaving it alone.
Click to expand...

Hello Group, NO you would NOT have to do a clean install of windows!!!!!
I've installed 2 Adaptec Raid 2400a controllers in a windows XP-Pro system
and did NOT have to re-install anything!!!!!

Just follow the 2400a instructions from Adaptec!!!

Starz_Kid...
 
Starz_Kid said:
Hello Group, NO you would NOT have to do a clean install of
windows!!!!! I've installed 2 Adaptec Raid 2400a controllers in a
windows XP-Pro system and did NOT have to re-install anything!!!!!

Just follow the 2400a instructions from Adaptec!!!
Click to expand...

Yes!!! But!!! Only!!! An!!! Idiot!!! Would!!! Piss!!! Around!!! With!!!
Their!!! HD's!!! Without!!! Backing!!! Up!!!


[I've been celebrating another year closer to the grave, sorry if it
shows]


Dave.
 
Thanks for all the useful advice, people.

I think I'll leave it alone for now, seeing as its working.

I might have to put my hand in my pocket and buy another HD, then I'll have
a bit more room to manoeuvre. I need another one to finish off my Pentium
III standby machine anyway.

Cheers,

Stu.
 
What RAID card will you be using? Just XP software RAID? Depending on what
hardware you use, you may very well be able to go to RAID 0 or 1 without
losing any data. I have converted from a single drive setup to RAID 0
without losing any data at all-this was using an Intel motherboard with
built in hardware raid and using the Intel Application Accelerator RAID
edition 3.0. Smooth as can be but I will admit I was a little nervous while
the data was migrating over to the second drive.

--Dan
 
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