creating RAID 1 bootable array out of existing single-drive

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January 28th, 2004, 11:48 AM
ScorpioIlya

creating RAID 1 bootable array out of existing single-drive

Hi

My boss, is kind of anal about computer failure, and he wants a system that is pretty much trouble free....but we don't store alot of data locally, most of it is on a server that's RAID 1....He currently has a 6 month old WD 20GB drive on his system running win2k. I want to add a controller to the motherboard, and add a second drive to create an array out of it. Is there a controller that will create a bootable array out of the existing data, or will I have to move the system off, and create the array, then copy it back onto it?
January 28th, 2004, 12:00 PM
kato2274

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

Hi

My boss, is kind of anal about computer failure, and he wants a system that is pretty much trouble free....but we don't store alot of data locally, most of it is on a server that's RAID 1....He currently has a 6 month old WD 20GB drive on his system running win2k. I want to add a controller to the motherboard, and add a second drive to create an array out of it. Is there a controller that will create a bootable array out of the existing data, or will I have to move the system off, and create the array, then copy it back onto it?

the second one. to build the array it's going to have to destroy the data on the existing disk.

if I were in your situation I would find a spare drive laying and use ghost to dump his 2k partition to it.

set up the array with the two disks. boot with a partition manager like partition magic or volume manager and set up the NTFS partition on the array and make it active. then power off the machine throw the old spare drive you used to backup his partition and ghost it back onto the new array volume.

depending on how long ghosting and building the array takes you could be in and out in less than an hour.
January 28th, 2004, 01:17 PM
Ya_know

If it's IDE, you might be able to pull it off. To go to RAID 1, most controllers will allow you to clone an existing drive, all done in the utilities, (just be sure you clone the right drive).

The first thing you need to be able to do is get the existing system to boot and run windows off of the new raid controller, that is the only complicated part. Once that is done, you can add the second drive, be sure it is at least 20+ gig, and you copy to build the mirror.

A RAID 5, 0 creation would definitely want a bare drive (or one where you don’t need the data), as you would destroy anything on it when you build the array...
January 28th, 2004, 01:36 PM
jitBob

Talk him into upgrading to Win2k server add a second 20+ gig disk and just mirror it, no ghosting and no moving the data to another drive then back again. Less extra hardware to support and from there he can go to a stripped set and also has a more robust system for your small company. Just my 2 cents.
January 28th, 2004, 01:51 PM
Ya_know

Software RAID=BAD

Hardware RAID=Good!!!
January 28th, 2004, 01:53 PM
Matridom

Quote:

Originally Posted by jitBob

Talk him into upgrading to Win2k server add a second 20+ gig disk and just mirror it, no ghosting and no moving the data to another drive then back again. Less extra hardware to support and from there he can go to a stripped set and also has a more robust system for your small company. Just my 2 cents.

Problem with that is software raid has much overhead. It's well worth the extra dollars to set it up in hardware.

But like ya_know said.. make SURE you clone the right drive (i would ghost it first to be sure
January 28th, 2004, 02:00 PM
CeeBee

Quote:

Originally Posted by jitBob

Talk him into upgrading to Win2k server add a second 20+ gig disk and just mirror it

Whoa! Just consider the upgrade cost for server software alone... Better with hardware RAID!
January 28th, 2004, 03:07 PM
Ya_know

Quote:

Originally Posted by CeeBee

Whoa! Just consider the upgrade cost for server software alone... Better with hardware RAID!

Haa! Didn't even think of that! :thumbs:
January 28th, 2004, 03:28 PM
sLIVER

I'm pretty sure you don't need w2kserver to use a software raid. Sure, hardware is much better for overhead, but if the PC is pretty fast - it's possible. Control panel, administrative tools, computer management. Goto disk management, and promote the disk to a dynamic disk - then you can setup your software raid. This is all just FYI....
January 28th, 2004, 03:40 PM
CeeBee

Quote:

Originally Posted by sLIVER

I'm pretty sure you don't need w2kserver to use a software raid. Sure, hardware is much better for overhead, but if the PC is pretty fast - it's possible. Control panel, administrative tools, computer management. Goto disk management, and promote the disk to a dynamic disk - then you can setup your software raid. This is all just FYI....

2k pro DOES NOT support software RAID. Same for XP pro and NT4 workstation.
This is all just FYI...
January 28th, 2004, 03:55 PM
Matridom

Quote:

Originally Posted by sLIVER

I'm pretty sure you don't need w2kserver to use a software raid. Sure, hardware is much better for overhead, but if the PC is pretty fast - it's possible. Control panel, administrative tools, computer management. Goto disk management, and promote the disk to a dynamic disk - then you can setup your software raid. This is all just FYI....

if your pc is pretty fast?

Uhg, i take it you've never tried it and run benchmarks. The only thing software raid is good for is a temp solution in a pinch. should never be used otherwise
January 28th, 2004, 04:02 PM
jitBob

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matridom

if your pc is pretty fast?

Uhg, i take it you've never tried it and run benchmarks. The only thing software raid is good for is a temp solution in a pinch. should never be used otherwise

His work network is in a fairly small financial business and I doubt that the amount of overhead on a reasonable machine would even be noticable. I concede that cost would be an issue, however for ease of setup I still like my idea.
January 28th, 2004, 07:48 PM
sLIVER

Hey CeeBee! You're right! My Bad....

http://support.microsoft.com/default...roduct=win2000

Sorry!

Matridom: I did do it in w2k server (a long time ago...), didn't really give it a chance/full run through, just did it to do it...

I will "cower" back in my hole, and no longer post in this topic. Thought I'd throw my 2 cents on the table, didn't know I'd have them loaded in a shot gun and fired through my head. :(

edit: Hey I forgot though - I'm running 2 X 40gig Maxtors stripped on a hardware RAID controller w/XP Pro...not bad.
January 28th, 2004, 10:20 PM
Matridom

Quote:

Originally Posted by jitBob

His work network is in a fairly small financial business and I doubt that the amount of overhead on a reasonable machine would even be noticable. I concede that cost would be an issue, however for ease of setup I still like my idea.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000...s.asp#heading2

Windows 2000 Server and 5 Client Access Licenses (CALs) $999 Standard product plus 5 CALs

compared to..

http://www.bizrate.com/,mss__cat_id-...0,rf--wgg.html

Promise FASTTRAK100 TX2 ATA/100 Eide PCI 2CH RAID 0+

Found at: 26 stores
Lowest Price: $75.95

you would require 2 hard disks regardless of software/hardware setup. So your statement could only be true if the software was free.

Ease of setup?

Uhm, you have to upgrade the drives to dynamic drives in windows, makes it a PAIN IN THE *** to work with, most versions of ghost and disk managers can't touch that, and you can't even do repair installs or access from other 2k pro machines (need another install of 2k server to read, and you still have to take over ownership of everything).

Only catch with the promise raid, your probably looking at a reinstall to get the OS to boot from the raid, however, if your good, know how to deal with the boot.ini, you should be able to sneak around that. Otherwise, just slap it in, and let the mirror create once at windows, be slow for a few hours, but then all done. if you can't carry it over, the reinstall will be flawless

I've been running hardware mirroring for some time now, with 2k3 and i'll never again touch software raid
January 29th, 2004, 10:39 AM
ScorpioIlya

thanks guys I appreciate all the advice

Yeah i think i'm gonna go with the Promise controller...i was initially going to go down that route, and we've been using the TX2 for our server and with 2 Raptor Drives for 8 months now, and its been problem free.....so I think i'm gonna buy it, and a second 20 GIG drive and make sure I clone the right one. Windows shouldn't care, as long as it sees the raid as the first Logical Drive, I don't think I'll need to adjust boot.ini?

Total cost might be 79.95 + 54.00 (20 gig drive)...I might even just wait til i'm upgrading the MOBO on this whole system, and get one with integrated RAID, to save some cash....