RAID 0 IMAGE

My laptop has two 100 gb 2.5" Seagate 7200.1 drives configured in RAID 0 in an Alienware laptop. I have about 140gb of data on both drives. I am planning to take an image of the drives with ACRONIS 10 and backup to a 750 gb external drive. I would then like to replace the 100gb 7002.1 seagate drives with two 160gb 7200.2 seagate drives. Is it possible to restore everything back to the two 160gb drives (op system, programs, etc)? Or do I need to purchase identical 100gb drives?

 

I would think you shouldn't have a problem as long as TI recognizes your RAID hardware okay. If you've already done any restores, then you'll know if it works. Since you're using a RAID 0 Array, make sure to note which drive is connected where so if you need to put the orginals back in you can reconnect them to the same ports/slots.

Create an image of the entire drive (check the Disk # checkbox). Then when you restore, you can restore the entire drive and then create a new partition in the left over unallocated space, or you can restore the partitions (if you have more than one) one at a time and resize them as you want.

It sounds like you are upgrading for more space so I don't understand the question about possibly needing to purchase identical 100GB drives (unless they are faster (7,200RPM vs. 5,400RPM, for example)).

 

I want to make sure that I don't need identical hardware in RAID 0 to restore to new drives. Do I need to do any raid configuration or just insert the two new drives and restore?

 

ATI should treat the drive image indifferently whether it's being treated as RAID or not by the hardware. That should be transparent to things accessing the drive through an operating system.

 

If by "identical hardware" you mean the hard drives, then no, the the drives can be different. If fact you could probably restore a RAID image to a single drive and have it work (I've done it before).

In your case, you are only changing the drives not the computer (motherboard). The drive controller (chipset, etc.) is exactly the same and the RAID drivers are exactly the same.

You should be able to just insert the new drives and do the restore. The only thing to check is to make sure the computer's BIOS automatically sets up the new drives into a RAID 0 configuration. You may have to do that first manually if it doesn't. Then continue with the restore.

 

Thanks for your direction

 

Hello markvideo1,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please notice that MudCrab and shieber are correct. You can find detailed instructions on backing up and restoring in the respective User's Guide.

Should you encounter any problems, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post your questions on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov