RAID 0 Help + backups

[farmergoggin]

Im taking deliverly tommrow 2 samsung 400gb HDD. my plan is to use one as internal HDD and the other one for an backup external use. In few weeks time i hope my RMA of my old WDD HDD would of gone though there system and i hope to get a new WD HDD back. my question is would it be possilbe to then switch the external samsung HDD and put it into a raid0 with the other drive already in the system. could i just backup the whole of this disc and then put it in? Or would i have to reformat both the HDD'S? Then i plan to use my New WD HDD and act as backup for the raid 0.

Sorry if thats sounds confusing thanks for reading

Chris

 

[axan]

it will require format, initialize raid array erases all data, but you could back up everything to your wd drive then make the raid 0 array and restore from backup.

 

[farmergoggin]

yes thats what i plan to do. when you say backup will it backup the OS as well?

 

[axan]

that would depend on the software you use, if you use something like acronis or paragon backup software then yes it will backup everything including os, if you just simply copy the files from one drive to another using explorer then no the os won't work.

 

[farmergoggin]

idealy i would like to backup the os as well as music,documents etc. the software u said is it free or do i need to buy it?

 

[farmergoggin]

forgot to add if set up my hdd's up as raid 1 to start with while im waiting for my WD HDD to come back could i then transfer the raid 1 setup to raid 0 ? Would this require me to backup everything from os docs etc? or would it be simpley by changing settings in the bios? you see the problem ive got atm is that when i try to reactivate vista (on my crappy ide drive) it saying the code is already in use so is it just a case of explaing on t phone to MS that my HDD failed with vista on it and i need to be reissued a new code?

 

[axan]

the software packages i mentioned are commercial and cost around $50. Acronis has 15 day trial im not sure if it's fully functional (their server version trial is fully functional) but you can give it a try and if you can afford it, it is a great software to have. There might be some free utilities that will help you backup/clone but I'm not aware of any of the top of my head ( I use acronis at home and at work).

forgot to add if set up my hdd's up as raid 1 to start with while im waiting for my WD HDD to come back could i then transfer the raid 1 setup to raid 0 ? Would this require me to backup everything from os docs etc? or would it be simpley by changing settings in the bios? you see the problem ive got atm is that when i try to reactivate vista (on my crappy ide drive) it saying the code is already in use so is it just a case of explaing on t phone to MS that my HDD failed with vista on it and i need to be reissued a new code?

If you're using motherboard raid function then it is not possible, you will have to delete raid 1 array to setup raid 0 and that will wipe all the data. As far as reactivating vista just give MS a call and tell them your hard drive failed, but wait until you have your hard drives set up in raid0 and ready to go.

 

[farmergoggin]

Right for now ive got 1 samsung inside my case and the other samsung as an ext HDD thorugh e-sata. The bios picks up both HDD and so does device manger. but when i go into my computer it only showing up one HDD. How do i set up this ext HDD to run as backup?

 

[axan]

it is probably not formated, go to control panel, administrative tools and run computer management, then click on disk management, create and format new partitions on the external hard drive. If you want the external to automatically perform backup then you will need some kinda software for it.