Restoring to Windows 7 Software RAID0
I bought ATIH on the information that it supports RAID0. I am not finding a way to restore a bootable Windows 7 programs partition (drive C) to a Windows 7 software RAID0 array. Am I missing something? I have Plus Pack installed on the CD.
Thanks for your post. Are you telling me that there is no clear solution, and I should continue to spend hours playing around among these sorts of alternatives until I can find one? I hope not. I came to this forum precisely because that wasn't working for me.
Constructing a WinPE recovery CD looks like a time-consuming proposition. If I don't need it, I'd rather not waste that time. I have not seen any indications that this is an essential step. If I am missing something, please explain.
Let me restate my question. Is there a way to restore a bootable Windows 7 programs partition (drive C) to a Windows software RAID0 array? If so, what is it? That's where I'd like to focus my efforts.
Probably no one here tried to do it. It should work as you expect, but if it doesn't, it's nearly impossible to guess where exactly it didn't work for you. Also, per 4.11 of 2011's userguide it matters if target disk MBR or GPT and if the backup archive source was basic or dynamic disk.
However I'm not sure that the resulting volume will boot in case of BIOS system and MBR disk (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283421 ) (it's about XP but the idea about simple retained dynamic volume remains valid, and in your case it's striped, not simple, so apparently it's impossible, even if TI created this 'retained' information which I suspect it doesn't)
Ray,
You mentionned you didn't find a way to restore. I imagined you tried from the recovery CD (case a), since you mention the CD in your post, and you couldn't find your target dynamic disk to restore to.
So, I suggested you try from Windows and or from a WinPE CD to see if that would be a driver issue.
Maybe I went too fast and maybe you can see your target dynamic just fine... So then, what problem do you have and when during the restore?
Thank you both for your kind replies. I am frustrated at having spent so much to get ATI for just this purpose, only to reach the tentative conclusion that the capability either doesn't exist or is very complicated. But that really is about Acronis, not you.
Here's the writeup that describes the steps in detail:
http://raywoodcockslatest.blogspot.com/2011/01/acronis-true-image-home-…
Thank you, again, for your help.
Hey Ray,
a) adding drivers to the search path is useful when you have hardware controllers that might not be in the Linux version of Acronis. This is not your case,
b) can you use Windows to set up your Raid 0 to be the boot volume as described in
http://www.overclockers.com/setting-up-os-raid-with-windows-7-ultimate
If you make your Raid 0 bootable and they reflect your original setup (some windows 7 have the system reserved partition, some don't), you should have a better shot at overcoming the first error message (cannot activate dynamic volumes)
I'd not use UR at this moment - as it's a software raid, current drivers from existing installation on the same machine on a simple disk would be ok if restore it to the same machine with s/w raid.
I think I will evaluate hardware RAID on the mobo or a third-party controller. May also explore using Win 7's imaging software with its own software RAID.
Thanks for lending a hand ...