Universal Restore to RAID on new controller
Can I use ABR 10 and Universal Restore to 'move' a bootable RAID-1 array from the motherboard-based Intel software RAID controller to a new hardware RAID controller in the same PC?
I'm running Windows 7 X64 and ABR-10. I have twin internal hard drives configured as a (bootable) RAID-1 array on the built-in Intel software RAID controller. I want to install a new hardware RAID controller card (probably Adaptec 2405), move the existing hard drives onto this and make it bootable. Adaptec says it can't be done without losing all existing data on the drives. I don't want to have to re-install Windows and all my software.
I routinely use ABR10 to make a single image back-up of my existing disk (all partitions) to an external hard drive. What's the best way of setting up the RAID-1 array on the new controller, recovering the image backup, and ending up with a system that is bootable from the array on the new controller?
Any advice would be hugely appreciated.
Mike Gatehouse

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Thanks, Jim. I'm almost persuaded to go out and buy the new controller. My main motivation is to obtain greater reliability, rather than speed. The built-in software RAID provided by Intel is allegedly not very reliable, made worse by problems with recent versions of Intel's Matrix Manager/Rapid Storage software, which tend to flag disk errors where none exist but certain timings exceed over-strict margins.
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Hi Mike. Interesting you should say those things about Matrix. I have never messed with it but push nothing but Intel server boards. I, for the first time yesterday, played with it and flat out DO NOT LIKE IT :)
I abandoned Adaptec many, many years ago and am not really sure why. I think it was cost. I started putting in Promise low end raid controllers years ago. No real problems with them except the support and a few bugs here and there.
I decided to try Adaptec again maybe a year ago and started slapping myself in the face. Adaptec just rocks! Quality, reliability and speed. I did one of those "Penny wise and pound foolish" affairs years ago by ditching adaptec and will never leave them again for something as silly as maybe a hundred bucks savings. What was I thinking?
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Actually, he doesn't need universal restore. He is just adding a RAID adapter to the present machine.
He needs to load the drivers for the Adaptec and he needs to be sure that Acronis B&R has linux drivers to
support the Adaptec 5405
1) inset the adaptec card in the Windows 7 machine and load the windows drivers
2) after this, perform an Acronis B&R image backup (with verify) to an external drive
3) attach the drives to the adaptec and create the RAID
4) Boot from an Acronis B&R CD
5) Restore the image backup to the new Raid
4) set the BIOS in the machine to boot from the RAID controller
That should do it.
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Thanks, UDaMan.
I'm not so sure about steps 3 and 5, though. When you create the RAID, you have to specify, I think, whether it is to be bootable. Since creating the RAID (with a hardware RAID controller, as distinct from a HostRAID, ie. software one) necessarily involves wiping the disk(s), repartitioning and reformatting, I don't know that it can make the disk bootable without an OS re-install. Similarly, reinstalling the image wihout Universal Restore would risk overwriting the RAID tables you just created?
Mike
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The RAID is hardware dependent. When you restore the image the hardware RAID is defined (you initialize it in RAID controller setup) it will not be overwritten except by the RAID controller software.
The bootable component is on the software side the active partition. Your C drive is bootable.
Just be sure that your bios will recognize the RAID as a bootable device.
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By way of postscript. I followed UDAMan's advice, more or less:
1. Installed new Adaptec 2405 controller
2. Downloaded latest drivers for it
3. Made new Acronis image back-up of the existing Intel-RAID drives
3. Fitted two new hard drives to the new controller
4. Created the RAID-1 array from the Adaptec BIOS utility
5. Used Paragon Partition Manager boot CD to partition and format the new drives
6. Removed the old drives from the Intel controller
7. Used Acronis Backup & Recovery boot CD to restore entire 4-partition image to the new RAID
(I didn't need to use Universal Restore, as I already had the new drivers)
8. The machine booted straight away into Windows with everything present and correct
9. I didn't have to change anything in the system BIOS --it found the new RAID and booted off it without being told to
10. Miraculously the Acronis restore also seems to have allocated the drive letters correctly (I had 4 partitions, C, J, K and L)
It really worked very well and was remarkably painless! (fingers crossed)
Thanks to UDAMand and to Jim Belcher.
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