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Boot C-Drive on RAID5 array to a single disk possible?

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I have a 3ware 9500S-8MI with five drives using RAID5. The system partition, C-drive, is only 40GB in size. I want to "clone" that C-drive to a single small HD unit (that is bootable just like the RAID's C-drive) so I can repurpose the RAID drives but, just in case, have a method to go "back" if I choose to do so. I keep getting "dumped" to a linux # prompt after the system restart which is required to start the clone process.

Is this not possible or do I need to enter in some linux commands?

Any workarounds?

Thanks!

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It is likely that the Linux environment that you need to clone or restore does not support your RAID5 setup. The lack of support would show when you use the Acronis recovery CD. If you can boot ont he recovery CD but the CD doesn't see your disks as a single RAID volume, then you will not be able to restore your RAID setup.

At any rate, do not start the clone process from within Windows. Do your operations from the recovery CD. If the CD doesn't see the raid as a single volume you can clone, then you will have to do a disk and partition backup (not a clone) from within Windows, then use the recovery CD to restore that image to a single disk.
After the restore, do not change your disk controller in the BIOS. Remove all other disks and try to reboot on the single disk. You might need to "repair the startup of your computer" using the Windows installation DVD.
If you have to change the settings in the BIOS (you shouldn't have to), there is a risk that your system will not boot at all. In that case, you will need the Universal Restore feature that is enabled on the recovery CD of the premium edition.