Can I use True Image to put Vista onto a RAID 1 array?

Hello,

My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere in the forums - I have spent a while looking and have found threads with similar issues, but none identical.

I have a desktop system with a single 750GB hard drive running Vista 64bit. I did not receive a Vista CD/DVD with the system, and there is a 14 GB partition which I believe contains the restoration data. The remaining space on the hard drive is a single partition housing the OS and all data files.

What I want to achieve, is to add a second drive to create a RAID 1 array (i.e. mirroring) with Vista booting from that array, with all programs and data also being stored there.

My hardware supports RAID, and the process for seting it up appears to be straightforward except that in doing so my original hard disk will be wiped and will require everything putting back on it when it is part of the array.

My idea is:
1. To use True Image to create an image of the original data to an external USB hard drive.
2. Then to install the second hard drive and create the RAID 1 array. I can do this during the computer bootup, before Windows starts loading.
3. Then to restore the image I created to this array.

I realise a clean install would be preferable, but in creating the array I will effectively be wiping the recovery partition on the hard drive, and have no access to a Vista installation disk. I also want to avoid having to install software, updates and configure preferences etc.

Does anyone have any experience of this, or can anyone offer guidance as to whether this is achievable and the steps I would need to follow?

 

Creating RAID1 will wipe everything on the harddisk? It should be able to create a mirroring array without wiping off anything.

ATI can restore the image to a RAID1 generally but only if the ATI bootCD supports your hardware -- unfortunately, you will not know if it will support your RAID until you boot up from the bootCD and go through the steps to do a restore. Note also that when you make the backup from the nonRAID setup, the drivers might not be set up to support RAID and when you restore it to a RAID, then those same nonRAID drivers will be in place in the OS.

You should search the forum for threads like this one

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=247237&highlight=RAID array


and this one, which talks about the drivers issue

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=244055&highlight=RAID array

and others that can be helpful on this topic.

Rather than a RAID set you might consider getting a second Harddisk to hold backupfiles. A RAID1 will only protect you against harddisk hardware failures. If the software gets mucked up, the muck will be in the mirror too. However, with backup files, you can restore by using a backup made before things went wonky (always a good idea to keep a series of backups and having a harddrive to store them all is the sensible way to do this. Note that with a backup file you can restore an existing hadisk on which the software has gone wonky or restore to a new drive if the original harddrive had a hardware failure.

 

Thanks for your reply and signposting to the other threads.

I had hoped I would be able to create a RAID 1 array without wiping the current disk, but my RAID software seems to imply otherwise, and I don't want to test it out in case it doesn't work!

I have an external hard drive for weekly offsite backups, but the idea of the RAID was that I would lose zero data if one drive fails, and I could then replace that drive etc. I'm not so concerned about the software mucking up, more about hardware failure / fire/flood/theft type scenarios.