RAID 0 Cloning

[zowguitar]

I have a desktop with 3 drives, 2 drives (500GB) set up in RAID 0. C drive contains XP OS and all programs. RAID drives contain all .wav files. I'm an audio engineer and use the computer for recording, editing, etc.

Problem: C drive (OS) crashed. I bought a new drive and reinstalled XP.

I bought (2) external hard drives (1 TB each). I cloned both RAID drives to keep data safe.

The initial RAID was set up in Windows XP using Disc Management. When I boot up with the new C drive it does not recognize the old (500GB) RAID drives. I imagine I will have to reformat them both in order to set them up in RAID 0 again.

Question: Is that a correct assumption? If so, after they are reformatted, can I just transfer the data off the (2) cloned external drives onto the newly formatted RAID drives? Will that work?

If I do not have to reformat the RAID drives, how do I get Windows to recognize them? I'd like it very much if I didn't have to reformat them and Windows would recognize them. Is there a way to do that?

Thanks for your help.

 

[hang-the-9]

Last time I did software raid, once I turned it on, the old drives worked with no issues and no formatting.

I don't know if a clone of each individual drive in RAID0 will work, or did you clone the whole RAID0 array together?

 

[thently]

That is really risky It might work but I would not depend on this. I would reccoment a clone on the whole raid 0 drive to some location or slowest but doable just copy all files to the two external drives if you do not have space to clone raid 0 drives to one drive.

Thent

 

[alvgee]

You have to enable all the drives as dynamic disks and select the two new drives as your raid 0. If you are using a raid through the OS.

Are you selecting raid 0 for speed? Why not use Raid 1 or 5 to avoid complete data loss like this?

 

[zowguitar]

@ hang-the-9: I did not clone the whole RAID array together. The software I'm using did not give me that option. I had to choose one drive to clone then the other. I'm using SPOTMAU Boot suite 2012.

 

[zowguitar]

@Thently: The RAID is (2) 500GB drives. I bought (2) 1TB external hard drives so theoretically I do have enough space to transfer the entire RAID to 1 external HD. I read in some forums that that is the way to do it but my software "Spotmau" does not give me that option.

 

[zowguitar]

@hang-the-9: how do you "turn on" the software RAID?
@alvgee: The option XP gives me to enable the disks as "dynamic drives" states that the drives will be reformatted. I'm trying to avoid that due to losing the data on the drives even though I backed up the drives (separately), I'm not sure the way I backed them up was correct. I selected RAID 0 for speed. I do need to get 2 more drives so I can set up RAID 5. My bad

 

[alvgee]

Try using the import foreign disks feature in an attempt to have the OS drive recognize your raid 0.

I worry about the OS drive seeing the other 2 drives as a raid since the oringal drive had the raid information.

Good luck.

 

[hang-the-9]

You can't back up a RAID0 array separately. It's like taking a paper, shredding it, dividing it into two bags and saying you have made a copy of the paper.

Raid0 stripes information across two drives, which basically means half of data for any file is on the other drive. Do you have a backup of the files normally or just in the clone image you made?

 

[zowguitar]

@hang-the-9: I have the original data on the RAID drives still. I also have a clone of both drives. I could get software that would back the RAID drives into one external drive. It sounds like that's what I need to do. Can you recommend software that would do that? The obvious problem is that the C drive (OS) drive is shot but replaced with a new drive and OS reinstalled. I do have a backup of that drive but not a clone so I don't have the programs. I can always reinstall them because I have them and all my drivers. I am not proceeding any further without assistance because I want to make sure I don't lose the data on the RAID drive. That is the drive i need data off of.

 

[hang-the-9]

Take a look here, http://icrontic.com/discussion/14727/xp-pro-software-raid

Looks like if you used software raid, and that fails (as in your case with your drive failure), the data is gone. The thing is that you don't have a true backup of the data on the drives, two images of a software RAID0 set is just what I said before, shredded paper in two bags. There may be someone here more of an expert in RAID that can help, from what I see happened, I don't think you can get the data back. But don't go wiping out your disks just because of that, set them aside for a bit.

 

[zowguitar]

Just an update: I installed the new "C" drive. The Raid drives were recognized as "foreign". I learned that if you "right-click" on the RAID drive and click "reinstate the drive", it will be recognized. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. The software RAID recognized the RAID array and all my data was intact. Just wanted to pass this along in case this helps someone in the future....

 

[FireWire2]

... The initial RAID was set up in Windows XP using Disc Management...

Using the same Disk Manager and Import Foreign Disk option _ right clight_ then your OLD RAID0 should be ready to go.

Do not format or initialize it. Your data will be gone if you do so

Good luck