4 SSD in RAID 0 - Unsure of what method to use for image backup - clone, backup?
Hello,
I am a little confused as to which method would be best suited for my particular setup. I have 4 Kingston 120GB SSD setup in RAID 0. This RAID array houses my OS and primary partition. I would like to create an image of this entire array in the event one of my SSD fails or drops unexpectedly from the array (which recently happened when messing with bios). And in the event such a disaster happens, I can simply take my copied image of the array, and reload it like nothing ever happened. Now I understand it would be more ideal that I use a RAID 5 configuration, however because I would prefer the performance gain, I am sticking with RAID 0.
So... I am confused if I should be using clone, or backup for my needs?
I am currently using Acronis True Image 2010 WD Edition (Western Digital). For my backup drives, I can choose from 2 Kingston 64GB SSD in RAID 0, and I also have a 2TB Western Digital Elements external USB hard drive. Obviously, I would not be able to make an entire image of my primary partition if it exceeded the 128GB if I used the 2 Kingston 64GB SSD in RAID 0, but at this point my primary partition does not exceed 128GB.
Again, I would like to make a copy the entire image of my primary drive with OS (4 Kingston SSD in RAID 0), to either my external USB drive or 2 Kingston 64GB SSD in RAID 0, so that I may reload the image without having to go through the headache of reloading the OS, it's updates, and all my programs one at a time. I would like to be able to reload everything in one fell swoop if possible.
Any help and ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Thank you, Pat. Will give that a try and see how it turns out.
Pat,
So I booted using the recovery CD, and was able to verify that the RAID does appear as a single volume.
I do have a question though. The backup file is significantly smaller in terms of size. My backup is showing as 10GB, whereas my actual primary partition OS drive is nearly 60GB. Can this be correct?
It seems a bit light if you have used normal compression, but it is not outrageously small. If you selected the entire disk (and not a list of partitions) as Grover's recommending in his post, you can feel confident everything is included.
To double check, right click on the computer icon on your desktop, choose manage, storage, disk management, Look at the partitions on your RAID. Verify you have these partitions in the backup (although the partitions letters can be different from Windows explorer when you open the TIB file): in Windows, double click on the TIB file and inspect it.
You can also right click / archives / mount the image as a separate disk. Mount it as read only (this will avoid creating other TIB files if any change happens). Do not mount the SYstem reserved or recovery partition (unecessary). If you have Windows Enterprise or Ultimate, you can also boot into the image directly and thus verify it is functional (see the Tools section of ATI).