RAID Support

Hi Folks:

I've got an Intel 82801ER SATA RAID Controller and two Maxtor MaxLine Plus II 250Gb SATA drives. Will True Image support restoring an image with this configuration? I know I can create an Image 'cause I've done that with the current demo version. Thank, David

 

To be honest you'll never know until you actually try to restore that image. I was able to make perfect images but when I tried to restore the image I couldn't get the image to boot. I also have a RAID system setup in 0 array. I guess it depends if TI8 supports your particular RAID drivers. I'm still waiting for help on my issue.

 

I'm a bit scared to try it. Norton Ghost created an image just fine, but when I tried to boot from the CD it corrupted my Raid 1 array. Made me very nervous for several hours. Finally the Raid corrected itself, but now I don't want to try anything until I'm relatively sure it won't hurt anything. Davidk

 

I use TI in a system with an 82801ER SATA RAID Controller - it works great.
I did have problems with TI under Windows until I upgraded IAA (Intel Application Accelerator) which provides support for the controller.

Minimal specs:
Asus P4C800-E mobo with an 82801ER SATA RAID Controller.
Mobo Promise controller is NOT activated in BIOS, and the drivers for it are NOT installed.
(2) 80G Seagate SATA drives in a RAID-0 array. (Win XP/Home system is installed on the array).
True Image 8, Build 774.

I write images to a large IDE drive, and (obviously) restore images from the same drive using the boot CD. TI has saved my system on several occasions; one drive in the SATA RAID-0 array failed after 14 months and the other drive failed 2 months later.

I did have all kinds of problems with TI crashing my system when I first used it. Bug checks (BSOD) would pop up in any random screen when using TI under Windows. With enough perseverance, I could create a (hopefully) viable image as well as access the other TI features. The boot CD seemed to work fine, though I never actually tried to restore my system.

When the first drive in my SATA RAID-0 array died, I removed it and reconfigured my system to run in non-RAID mode using the single remaining drive attached to the 82801ER controller. As I wanted to install SP2 and rebuild my system, I loaded a Ghost image of the system as it was shipped (image made by mfg). I then installed True Image 8 - build 764 I believe - the same build as before the drive failure. TI worked fine - no crashes at all! SP2 installed without a hitch, and from there I reinstalled my major applications and with the aid of TI, I was able to recover my application data.

When the replacement SATA hard drive arrived, I created an image of my single SATA drive system, physically installed the second SATA drive, and rebuilt the RAID-0 array. Using the TI boot CD, I restored the image I had just created. Windows booted fine! TI successfully restored the image and I once again had a working RAID-0 system. After poking around a bit, I launched TI.

The system crashed.

Apparently, running TI under Windows would work fine with a single SATA drive attached to the 82801ER controller but not with two SATA drives attached to it in a RAID-0 array. Since the boot CD worked fine with the SATA RAID-0 array (I had just restored my system with it), I suspected the problem was Windows support for the 82801ER controller. Since Intel's IAA provides support for the controller (iastor.sys), I decided to upgrade IAA, and along with it the RAID bootrom BIOS and the system BIOS (which was one of the reasons I purchased TI in the first place! )

As shipped, the system had bootroom BIOS V3.5.0.2568 and IAA V3.0.0.2246. According to Asus and Intel they both should should have been V3.5. (Asus uses a slightly different numbering scheme for the bootrom BIOS than Intel uses.) I upgraded the bootrom BIOS to V3.5.0.3003 and IAA to V3.5.0.2568. I also upgraded the system BIOS and the Intel Chipset files.

This fixed the problem with TI crashing my system. I am now a happy TI user.

 

Hello Davidk,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

Current version of Acronis True Image supports 82801ER SATA RAID Controller. If you are not sure please download free trial version from http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/ and see whether you get any problems using Acronis Bootable CD created by it. If you do (which is unlikely) please send a letter to support@acronis.com and describe the error in details. We will do our best in order to fix it.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

test fdgdfgdfg

 

Nineball... thanks for that excellent walkthough. Good to know about your configuration. I've got Raid-1 running and I'll remember what you posted if I ever have any problems. The only process I've got through is going through the motions to restore - just to make sure everything is seen and selectable - but not actually restoring. Thanks again, Davidk

 

Hello Davidk,

Please note that if you can select all the desired disks after booting from Acronis Bootable CD and get to the "Proceed" button (no actions is really taken before you press it) then you may be sure Acronis True Image works fine with your system.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman