New Hardrives for RAID 1

[Mike9685]

BLUF - I want to replace both of the 2 x 80 gig SATA hard drives in my system with 160 gig hard drives without reinstalling the OS and applications.

Here's the current system -

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
AMD XP 3200
XP SP2

2 x WD SATA 80 gig in a RAID 1 (1 is about to fail)
C: Windows and Apps (50 gig)
D: Backup C (with True Image) (30- gig)
2 x Maxtor 400 gig IDE (G:, H:, I:, J

Additional stuff for the swap-

2 x WD 160 gig SATA drives (new, unformatted)
1 x 500 gig external USB drive
1 SATA to USB cable (with power)
Acronis True Image
Acronis Disk Director

Options?

1- Replace 1 x 80 gig with 1 x 160 gig and allow the RAID to rebuild the 160 gig; then replace the remaining 80 gig with the extra 160 gig and again allow the RAID to rebuild the new drive.

- Should I setup/format the 160 gig drives with the external cable (SATA to USB) first (before installation in the RAID)?
- How do I get the drives to full capacity (160 gig) after the rebuild?
- What do I need to do in the bios when I swap the drives?

2- Setup (format) the drives with the external cable and use True Image to clone one of the drives. Install both and let it mirror to the other empty drive (formatted)?

- What do I need to do in the bios after I install the new drives?

3- Put both new drives in and use one of the 80 gig hard drives (on the external cable) to clone to the new array?

4- Any better ideas?

Thanks in advance for the help! I'm looking for the most reliable way to do this.

 

[evongugg]

Put the new drive in the computer on a SATA channel. You may have to remove one drive. Go in the Bios and make sure it is recognized. Run Acronis True Image and transfer the operating system to the new drive.
Shutdown the computer. Remove the old drive and hook up the new drive.
Turn on the computer, make sure it is recognized in the Bios and boot.
Reboot. Now use Acronis to make a backup of the extra drive. Save it to the operating system drive. Shutdown and remove the old drive and hookup the new drive. Restore the image to the new drive.
You should not have a problem with the new drives being bigger than the old ones. You can tell Acronis to expand to the new size.

 

[Mike9685]

Thanks!

I'll give it a shot.