If I install a second HDD for RAID 0, do I have to reinstall OS?

shinester184

shinester184

shinester184

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I already have Vista installed on a SpinPoint drive, but I have a question..

If I install a second HDD for RAID 0, (primarily to to speed up transfer times of HD footage, but also to make Vista more snappy!) will I have to reformat the original drive and re-install Vista after RAIDing? Or will it be a simple process of adding the drive, setup in the bios and boot right in?

And second, will the speed difference be worth the £40 of another drive?
 
My understanding is that a format and re-install is required.
I had 2 150veliciraptors in raid 0.... not worth cost or the risk of corruption in my opinion.

Matt
 
shinester184 said:
I already have Vista installed on a SpinPoint drive, but I have a question..

If I install a second HDD for RAID 0, (primarily to to speed up transfer times of HD footage, but also to make Vista more snappy!) will I have to reformat the original drive and re-install Vista after RAIDing? Or will it be a simple process of adding the drive, setup in the bios and boot right in?

And second, will the speed difference be worth the £40 of another drive?
Click to expand...

You could probably image the original drive and try restoring the image to the raided drives.

With newer HD controllers you will see a slight performance boost from striping drives. But do bear in mind that the head seek latency of the drive is not affected only sequential disk accesses will get the full acceleration.

If you use short-stroking then you can see some further improvements in speed:
Tom's Hardware Guide : Short Stroking Article
You have to give up a lot of disk capacity to see the full benefits though... Perhaps you could stripe over 4 drives??!! :eek: (I currently do this)

Bob
 
brakeinup said:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17977780

ImageX did not work for me.
Click to expand...

I've built up a Custom Boot Live Bart PE (+XPE plugin) and imaged drives using Macrium Reflect. There is a steep learning curve for the whole Bart PE thing but this only necessary if you want to restore an image without booting off a secondary HD - e.g. this is slightly more hassle (as Windows easily get confused about changes in hardware/install location, etc. -well anything really!!) :eek:

Macrium Reflect free version will image NTFS, FAT plus EXT3FS. It also stores a copy of the MBR with each image. It is easily the best partition imaging tool out there... :cool:

Bob
 
Bob Wya Jnr said:
I've built up a Custom Boot Live Bart PE (+XPE plugin) and imaged drives using Macrium Reflect. There is a steep learning curve for the whole Bart PE thing but this only necessary if you want to restore an image without booting off a secondary HD - e.g. this is slightly more hassle (as Windows easily get confused about changes in hardware/install location, etc. -well anything really!!) :eek:

Macrium Reflect free version will image NTFS, FAT plus EXT3FS. It also stores a copy of the MBR with each image. It is easily the best partition imaging tool out there... :cool:

Bob
Click to expand...

Thanks for this! I will have a look.
 
Thanks for this. Is it possible to use either this Macrium Effect or Acronis to do the reverse?

In my case like many peeps I assume after Vista came out, I have 2 hard drives in RAID 0, with dual boot XP and Vista Home Premium 64bit. I'm running a bit low on space and after having had a photo or two that got corrupted by bad sectors I've decided to ditch the RAID0 and go for 1 larger hard drive, say a 1TB.

I need to copy my system as it is now onto the new 1TB hard disk so that I can remove the current 2x250GB RAID array from the PC altogether.

I wasn't sure the best way to go about this, but these imaging programs may help as I could create an image of my RAID array over my LAN to a second PC, and then restore it afterwards onto the new 1TB drive?

Thanks for any advice!
 
The Old Man said:
Thanks for this. Is it possible to use either this Macrium Effect or Acronis to do the reverse?

In my case like many peeps I assume after Vista came out, I have 2 hard drives in RAID 0, with dual boot XP and Vista Home Premium 64bit. I'm running a bit low on space and after having had a photo or two that got corrupted by bad sectors I've decided to ditch the RAID0 and go for 1 larger hard drive, say a 1TB.

I need to copy my system as it is now onto the new 1TB hard disk so that I can remove the current 2x250GB RAID array from the PC altogether.

I wasn't sure the best way to go about this, but these imaging programs may help as I could create an image of my RAID array over my LAN to a second PC, and then restore it afterwards onto the new 1TB drive?

Thanks for any advice!
Click to expand...

I believe the imaging programs do not see the actual drives, just the partition, so should be quite possible to transfer from RAID 0 to regular HDD in the ways mentioned above.
 
The Old Man said:
Thanks for this. Is it possible to use either this Macrium Effect or Acronis to do the reverse?

In my case like many peeps I assume after Vista came out, I have 2 hard drives in RAID 0, with dual boot XP and Vista Home Premium 64bit. I'm running a bit low on space and after having had a photo or two that got corrupted by bad sectors I've decided to ditch the RAID0 and go for 1 larger hard drive, say a 1TB.
Click to expand...

Hi The Old Man

What you have got to be aware of is that your stripped drives (aka RAID-0) may be "soft raided" (where a driver is used to implement the drive RAIDing). This so called "Host RAID" is not OS independent so the restored image may be buggered. Typically you will see the individual drives in the BIOS (not a single large drive). With "real RAID" you would only see the individual drives in the Host Controller BIOS (to allow you to build RAID sets).

Another thing to be aware of is that MS Windows is very fussy about changes in install location. This can cause problems if it is moved to a different drive layout (e.g. RAID <> non-RAID). I wouldn't be surprised if that stupid Vista bootloader (aka "anti-open source protection attempt") comes unstuck. EasyBCD should allow you to reinstall it from Windows XP I would think...

I would recommend trying it as you have nothing to lose if you copy the image data to a third drive (set). If it doesn't work then you haven't lost anything...

Copying over the network would be OK.

Mass Effect = Macrium Effect = Macrium Reflect (my mum suffers from that problem as well... :D)

I can't speak for Acronis ('cause I haven't used it) - however its not a partition imaging software issue. Macrium Reflect will image both partitions exactly including the MBR (each time) - with the Vista bootloader and partition table. Your problem will be with the MS Windows OS(s) ability to withstand a move of install location without breaking!!


Bob
 
Thanks guys, I'll re-read this and make a decision. Thanks again. I recall at the time the DS3 came out, people were advised to use the Gigabyte RAID sockets instead of the extra Intel ones as the Gigabyte sockets were hardware raid but the Intel were effected by things like over clocking. Or I may have it the other way around.

I would recommend trying it as you have nothing to lose if you copy the image data to a third drive (set). If it doesn't work then you haven't lost anything...
Click to expand...
Yes I would still have the original set up to go back to wouldn't I?
 
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