Please verify this is the proper procedure

Please verify this RAID restore procedure

I have Windows XP SP2 installed on a machine with a Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 motherboard. Right now, I have the OS on a single SATA drive, with no RAID at all. I plan to add 3 more SATA drives (so all four would be on the motherboard's Si3114 RAID controller) and create a RAID-5 or maybe a RAID-0 set, with the OS on it.

I just created a full image of my OS drive (using True Image 8.0 build 903), and I have saved it to an external USB hard drive. Here is what I plan to do, if someone could please validate that these are the correct steps (in the correct order), I would be much obliged:

1) Install all drives on Si3114 RAID controller
2) Create RAID-5 set in Si3114 BIOS utility
3) Boot from True Image recovery CD-ROM
4) Restore image to new, larger "drive" (actually the RAID-5 set) <-- I imagine at this point, TI will be able to "see" the proper size?
5) Try booting Windows, if it works, let out big sigh and have a beer
6) If not, use Windows Recovery Console to load proper drivers

I have a floppy disk with the RAID drivers that Windows would want at install-time ("press F6..."), will I definitely need those at some point, or will the recovery CD recognize everything? In other words, does TI 8.0 build 903 natively support this RAID controller?

I'm skeptical that this process could really be "this easy," but if it is, I'll be singing TI's praises to everyone I know!

Thank you for any help you all can provide!

Jeff P.

 

And is there any way to make the cluster size larger? I see in my image it's set to 4k, since I will be working with larger files, I may want to increase that to match my stripe width. Thanks!

 

The RAID SATA driver is different from the non-RAID driver, so the only way it'll boot to the RAID is if the driver is installed before the image is made. I do this by using an IDE drive. I put the OS volume on the IDE drive, then boot to it with the new RAID set installed but blank. Windows will see it and install the driver. Then image or copy from the IDE to the RAID.
I would recommend using IDE instead of USB anyway, it's safer.

Partition Magic will change your cluster size after the install is up and running. But you will gain almost nothing by changing it, mostly just on benchmarks.

 

That's not good, I tried to install the driver first, and it failed, since the RAID controller is disabled.

Perhaps I need to install the new drives, enable the controller in BIOS, create the array, then boot up, install the RAID SATA driver, take a new image, then restore?

Now I'm confused...

Not an option in my case, but thanks for the heads-up. My drive is very reliable, so I'm willing to use it. I already tested booting from the recovery CD, and it recognized my USB drive, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I figured as much, but it never hurts to ask...

 

OK, I've tried enabling the RAID controller and moving the SATA drive to that to try booting from, but no dice. So at this point, I am unable to take a TI image with the SATA RAID controller driver installed.

I can't just install Windows to the new array then restore the image to it, since the image does not have the SATA RAID drivers. Am I stuck?

Any suggestions, please?

 

You have no way of moving the OS to an IDE drive just to boot up and install the RAID driver? That's the only way it'll work. Gotta have the controller turned on and a drive connected so Windoz knows what's going on. Unless you have another way to boot to the OS on your board, like a PCI card or something.

 

Supposing I could "borrow" an IDE drive from a buddy, I could dump the image there, connect the SATA drive to the RAID controller, and just install the RAID driver after booting from the IDE drive? Then take a 2nd image, and dump THAT one onto the finished SATA-only array?

 

That's the way I've done it in the past. You can leave the IDE drive installed and just do a direct copy to the new array, being sure to remove the IDE drive before booting to the array, and also being sure to re-set your BIOS for proper boot sequence each time.

 

OK, I've stol-- er, BORROWED... an IDE drive from work, will give this method a shot. Will update with success/failure.

Thanks!