Hard disk cloning - raid

[no_numb]

I have installed 2 40gb kingston SSDnow drive and have them running in raid 0. My current drive is a 320gb samsung spinpoint f1 and has everything installed on it. The SSDs came with cloning software but it will not work with the raid array.

Its acronis true image and when ever it tries to run the programme it just says linux kernal failed or similar and reboots (its a bootable programme on a cd). Is there any way round this or any free software which can copy onto a raid array?

Also in the bios of my computer you have to set the sata 0-3 ports to raid in order to get the array working. When I define the array and leave the main hard disk out of any array windows will not load. It gets to the main part and then fails to boot. Its not a massive issue but it works when plugged into 4 or 5 port (these are still set to IDE) however I have a sata dvd drive as well and an external hard disk which is normally plugged in by esata (which is then plugged into a sata port). Is there a way to get non raid devices working in one of the spare ports (2/3). Can I add the hard disk in its own array as JBOD? First time working with raid and it appears to be a bit of a pain in the ass.

Cheers for any advice you can give.

[DevAnubis]

Just to clarify what you're trying to do...

You want to copy what's on your current 320GB HDD onto the SSD-RAID array right?

Is your current OS (I presume windows?) recognising the RAID array as a drive? If it is, you can format it to the file system you want (for win. I presume it'll be NTFS)

Well the Linux Kernel message implies that the cloning program is a basic linux live boot system, probably with a simple user interface for copying your files into the drives. My guess is it's set up to mount a single SSD automatically and then copy over what you want to it.

Any Linux live-CD should be able to mount the SSD-RAID array as a drive, the Ubuntu live CDs come with Gparted, which is a program to edit partitions, format file systems and so forth. But it can't handle NTFS (it'll read/write them fine, it just can't create NTFS file systems).

Once you have a file system on the drive you should be able to copy all the files you want across form the system HDD to the SSD array.

[no_numb]

I'm a little confused. Windows does recognise the array as a drive and I have formatted it as ntfs. I have taken most of the files off that are not system/programme files and have 63gb to copy to an 80gb array.

Is there a free programme I can download that will let me do this?

Thanks

[no_numb]

Right so now I've got my external hard disk set up and I've created a copy of the main hard disk on it. (using the windows 7 backup thingy)

I am thinking that I could install windows 7 on the SSD RAID array (got a new copy to do that with) then when windows has installed use the copy of the hard disk to put all my programmes etc back onto the windows then wipe the other internal hard disks.

Is there a way of doing this without first installing windows on the SSD array?

[peterb]

If you have a booting version of windows on your external hard drive, then you could boot from a linux live CD and use the dd command to to a bit by bit copy of the external drive to the SSD array. That would copy all the boot, partition, system and applications files across and should result in a clone of your operating environment on the ssd rarray.

[no_numb]

I dont have a bootable version of windows on my external hard disk just the windows 7 system image file. What is the linux live cd thing? I've got my version of windows on my internal hard disk can I use a linux live cd to copy from this to the SSD array?

[DevAnubis]

I dont have a bootable version of windows on my external hard disk just the windows 7 system image file. What is the linux live cd thing? I've got my version of windows on my internal hard disk can I use a linux live cd to copy from this to the SSD array?

A linux liveCD is basically an OS on a bootable CD. They're useful tools to have around for recovering files etc. Knoppix or Ubuntu are good bets for features and easy use.

It may save a lot of faff with re-installing programs etc. to just copy the files from the internal drives to your SSD RAID array, but then there's also the boot sector to consider. That's not something you can just copy across.

Personally I'd start afresh with an installation of Windowz onto the SSD array, and copy your data files from the interal drives over to that, install your programs on it.

I don't know if there's way to transfer registries between windows 7 installations or not, or alternatively once you've installed 7 onto the SSD array you could then just copy all the files from the old system to the new, this _should_ copy the old registry with all its entries, progrmms, etc. (but someone more familiar with more recent Windowz should double-check me on this, I'm not certain windows won't throw a hissyfit)

[no_numb]

Thanks I think I'll install windows on the new SSD array and see if I can use the windows 7 backup thingy so see if I can use the hard disk image file to copy it all across. If not then I'll just reinstall everything.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I'm a little confused. Windows does recognise the array as a drive and I have formatted it as ntfs. I have taken most of the files off that are not system/programme files and have 63gb to copy to an 80gb array.

Is there a free programme I can download that will let me do this?

Thanks

There is a HD backup/clone utility included with your mobo. I think it runs from the bios.

I'm keen to know if it works okay so i can use it in the future!

[peterb]

File copying works at the file system level, so you can copy user data across quite easily. The windows registry consists of several system files, which while residing in the file system, cannot (easily) be copied over. The boot sectors and so on are outside the file system and cannot be copied using file system tools.

There are programs (acronis is one) that allow bit by bit copying of a hard drive. These work at a level below the file system (and are file system agnostic) so they creat a logical copy of the hard drive. A Linux live CD (as a prvious poster said) is a Linux operating system on a bootable CD. They also contain tools that allow bit copying of disks, but they are command line driven. The advantage is that they are not operating on a live system - the operating system is linix, running in memory/CD, and the hard drive file systems are unmounted.

[no_numb]

Well I tried quite a few cloning programmes but never tried a linux live cd in the end I got impatient and just installed windows again (pro instead of ultimate RC) and have installed pretty much everything again now.

Cheers for the info.