cloning a drive in a raid0

[rockit31]

I have 2 wd sata raptors in a raid 0.

One of the drives is failing, (still works), and I've already received a replacement drive.

How do I clone the contents of the bad drive to the new one?

I don't want to have to reinstall everything from scratch if I don't have to.

 

[BadBigBen]

Mostlikely you will have too...

under RAID0 both drives are seen as ONE...

Now I would do a backup of both attached to external media, such as an EXTERNAL HDD or DVDs...

then replace the failing drive and reimage the RAID0...

or better yet, get another DRIVE and create a second RAID0 array, then clone the FIRST to the SECOND, then REMOVE the FIRST RAID completely.... that way you have an extra drive that you can use as extra storage...

PS: I would ditch RAID0 altogether and rather do either a RAID 1 or 5 array, takes more drives and is a bit slower, but your data is safer in the long run...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[wahnula]

My method of doing this would be to get a drive equal to the combined capacity of the RAID 0 array (Which you should already have for backup). Then I would clone the array to the single drive, boot to the single-drive clone (if the RAID 0 array is bootable) to check the clone, then replace the RAID member drive, rebuild the array, and clone the single drive back to the array.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[cdogg]

Yes, Tony has a good point. The only catch is that the bad drive has to be working well enough to boot into Windows of course (but I guess that shouldn't be an issue if you were planning to clone it in the first place).


Ben has a decent point to, but I would argue that slowing down the RAID by moving to RAID 1 or 5 would probably defeat the purpose of using RAID in the first place assuming this is a personal PC. Adding to Tony's suggestion too, I would plan on keeping a third drive in the mix so that you could use it to make frequent backups to with software like Norton's Ghost, Acronis True Image, or Farstone's DriveClone.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[rockit31]

I forgot to mention that I do have a third hard drive.

It's an IDE that I store all my personal data to. It's 250gb but only has about 20gig available.

My Raid 0 is taking up over 90gb of data so backing it up to this drive won't work.

I'm looking for a way to do this without buying more stuff.

 

[cdogg]

rockit31,
I understand you want to keep spending to a minimum, but consider this. When you get your RAID 0 back in working order, where are you going to store your backups?

With 90GB of data on your RAID, I'd say you would want at least 150GB of storage for a complete backup to give you some room to grow. That leaves you with two decent options:

1) Purchase a large 500GB drive or bigger. Sell the old 250GB on eBay to recoup some of the losses.

2) Ditch RAID as a WD Raptor is pretty fast on its own. Use the second Raptor as a destination to install items that you may not keep long term, such as games or apps that you upgrade often. Also move over some of that storage from the 250GB drive freeing up space for backups. No additional purchase required!!

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.