RAID0

[Bushmaster78FS]

Ok guys, I have a Sony VGC-RC210G HTPC, it shipped with 2x160GB drives in RAID0 config. Yesterday I got 2 more 160GB drives and I want to add them to my config but can I do this without losing all my current data in the original configuration? I have the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, and checked out the options right after booting, but seems like I'd lose all my data creating a new config. Just need some info.

Thanks all.

[pointertovoid]

If creating a Raid-01 or Raid-10 with 4 disks from a Raid-0 with 2 disks, I expect that Intel is able to duplicate the data to the new two disks as RocketRaid, FastTrak, Promise and Silicon Image are.

If making a Raid-0 with your four disks, chances to keep your data are clearly worse - though I can only tell that old RocketRaid, FastTrak, Promise and Silicon Image controllers couldn't.

One difficulty is that such Raid Bios' usually can't speak Fat32 not Ntfs nor any file system, they just know sector numbers and partitions. Though they'd have to move data within the disks from 2 to 4 disks in Raid-0, and at some point, this may interfere with the file system - even if you keep the size of all existing volumes, thus totalling only 320GB in your case.

A few interferences are less than obvious with Raid-0. For instance, W2k sp0 can't start from a Raid-0 with some specific stripe sizes because of a bug; one has to integrate the Sp4 on the installation Cd to overcome it - even with Raid controllers which allegedly show the group only as a single disk.

Also, this operation would be risky, as it needs to write sectors in a zone that still contains the data at original place. You have room enough to store the data temporarily, but if the operation is interrupted, bad luck. Would Intel take this risk?

If a software exists for that purpose (I'd already have enjoyed one) I expect it to look less like a Bios and more like GParted: a bootable CD that launches a complete OS with a single application on it.

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Now, if you can save the old Raid's contents somewhere else, you may try simple methods to paste it back on the new Raid. One could look like:

Use a spare disk (even 8GB 5400rpm, never throw them away) to put a minimum OS on it that speaks your file system. Use this disk to save the apparent contents of the old Raid. You need all hidden and system files but not the Mbr, boot sector etc, and NOT Ntfs' System Volume Information. You should purge IE's cache before, to save copy time.

Break the old Raid group, create the new one, install your OS on it, make volumes compatible with the ones you had.

With the spare disk, suppress the contents of the new OS. You now have left the volumes, Mbr, boot sector. Though I'd keep Win.ini and a few more as well in a separate location just in case. Yes, an OS for a few sectors is a bit of a waste , but you save your time as compared to clever methods.

And booting on the spare disk, paste on the new Raid, volume by volume, the contents you had saved from the old Raid, including OS files.

I did it to replace one disk with another on an XP machine, I could keep the whole OS, user profiles and tunings, files and their protections, activation aso. Stupid, rather quick, nice. I didn't try with raid - your data, your risk.

Ubuntu's bootable CD now speak Ntfs and many more and might replace the spare disk, but I didn't try.

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Other methods would involve pasting the old contents on the new Raid group and asking the installation Cd to "repair" the OS. You lose some tunings like the renaming of Program Files if any.