Raid 0 copying onto new drives?????

Flake87 · 9 Aug 2017 at 11:54

I have a Lenovo W700 laptop with two Hitachi 320GB sata HDDs in raid 0. When booting up the raid display says one of the drives has an error, although it still boots and appears to work properly.

I am told, and searching forums that this means one of the drives is on its way out, probably due to bad sectors, and that it is still possible a drive like this is able to function because of the way its designed to avoid the bad sectors and rebuild itself.

If one of two identical drives is failing, its pretty much certain the other isn't going to be far behind it either, fortunately 500GB Sata 2.5" HDDs are relatively cheap and eady to replace, but, is it possible to copy each of the old drives onto the new ones and still maintain the raid, or it is not possible and a new install the only way ?

From the limited knowledge available on the net on this, I don't believe it is possible to copy them, even if logic says that it should be.

SC0TTRS · 9 Aug 2017 at 12:04

Well RAID 0 strips the data across the drives so just look at it as one big drive (not 2 separate ones). I would recommend backing up the data now before that drive fails and you loose the lot.

You wont be able to copy the data and maintain the RAID. RAID is managed by the controller either hardware or software.

back data up > install new drives and setup RAID > transfer data on to new drives.

Flake87 · 9 Aug 2017 at 12:09

But if the drive is copied then all the striped data should be exactly the same so what is it which prevents it from being recreated ?

SC0TTRS · 9 Aug 2017 at 12:19

Flake87 said:
But if the drive is copied then all the striped data should be exactly the same so what is it which prevents it from being recreated ?

What's copied/backed up is just data in the form of files and folders, and doesn't know if it was spread over a number of drives so you could backup from a RAID to a single drive if you wish.

The RAID part is done separately and is setup before any data is on the drives.

HoneyBadger · 9 Aug 2017 at 18:09

Yep, the RAID is done at the hardware level so the software isn't aware of it. If one of the drives is failing (Look in your windows event viewer for CDC errors) then you need to get your data off asap.

Then get new drives and re-create the RAID and restore your data.

Danny75 · 9 Aug 2017 at 19:45

Flake87 said:
fortunately 500GB Sata 2.5" HDDs are relatively cheap and eady to replace

You'd want a single 500GB SSD instead, surely. Maybe a 500GB HDD for back-up since the laptop fits two drives.

Flake87 · 9 Aug 2017 at 20:42

Reading one site they claimed the necessary data is in sector 0 on an MBR disc and that some (free) copying software was required to do it.

TBH 2X 1TB SSDs would be a great idea, but it's long in the tooth now and I'm not sure it's worth the cost of even 1 SSD when two 500GB Western Digitals can be had for less than £80. There's nothing much worth saving on it anyway, but it was an interesting 'can it be done' question. I think a new install is probably the best route anyway.