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What with RAID ?

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I have scheduled to change my HDD from two RAID 1 volumes (2 HDD "System" and 2 HDD "Data") to 1 RAID 10 volume (4 HDD with system and data).
Does ATH2011 or ATH2012 recognise this HDD configuration ?
Before doing this change, I have back-up my system disk, but shall I be able to restore on the new RAID 10 volume or shall have I to reinstall my system instead of restore ?
Many thanks in advance

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If you have hardware based RAID then 2012 will support RAID 1+ 0
If your RAID is software based you will need to purchase the Plus Pack in addition to 2012.

I don't know the answer to your last question.

Raid support table: http://kb.acronis.com/content/11681

Jacques,

Typically moving from one RAID level to another one doesn't change the driver, so you should be able to restore your RAID1 image to a RAID 10 setup.

It depends, if you have motherboard enabled RAID then it is in the BIOS and hardware, if you have a RAID card then it is hardware, if not then you will have a software driver to create the RAID.

Basically if your BIOS has an entry to enable RAID it will be hardware. Check the motherboard user guide for full details .

Can you point me an example of "software raid" ?
I have not heard of any raid software.

Sometimes to get a clearer understanding of "what something is", is to also know what it is not. :)

My motherboard user's guide make no definition as to whether RAID is "hardware" or "software"....but it is a modern board, with raid arrays setup inside the BIOS.

Then it is hardware RAID: you set it up as the computer boots.

Software RAID can be set up with Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate disk management console, for example.

Win7 (I have the x64 version) provides software RAID support. I have two 3TB RAID 1 configurations in my system, e.g. two pairs of 3TB drives. All four drives are connected to the SATA ports on my MB and through Computer Management > Disk Management I created the two RAID 1 arrays. When creating the arrays windows will automatically make them Dynamic drives, format (this of course destroys any data on the drives) the drives and then mirror the drives. Thus for the two arrays I went through the setup twice, e.g. once for each pair of drives. Thus windows (software) is managing the drives. If one fails I shut down my system, remove the defective drive, install a new drive, boot the system, go into computer management > disk management assign the new drive to the RAID with one disk, windows will do whatever necessary to assign the drive to the array and then sync the two drives.

With the RAID 1 I have 50% storage capacity loss.

I also have a 4-2TB drive hardware array using a 3ware RAID controller card. The four drives are attached directly to the 3ware card and via 3ware software installed it manages the hardware.

With the RAID 5 I have one drive of storage loss, with my controller I can add more drives without data loss (this is not true for all RAID controllers).

Hardware RAID should be faster than software RAID but in my performance test on my system I found the reverse to be true, see the following. Possibly the 3 TB drives in the RAID 1 were able to transfer data faster (Hitachi HDS7230ALA640, 7200RPM, 64MB Buffer, 6Gbps transfer rate but I get nowhere near this, in fact the actual measured transfer rate is about the same). The RAID 5 array is a mixture of different drives but all are 3Gps transfer rate, buffer size is not being reported.

Speed test Software RAID vs. Hardware RAID (HH:MM:SS)
Copy 75GB from G drive to RAID 1 = 00:26:29
Copy 75GB from G drive to RAID 5 = 00:33:41

Good morning,
Many thanks for the different posts.
The RAID function is selected through BIOS setup (SATA configured as RAID). So I guess that it is "hardware RAID".
RAID volumes types are created and configured before the POST (Ctrl-I to enter RAID configuration). My motherboard is an Intel DX58SO2 which supports this configuration process of RAID and right now my HDD configuration is as follows :
- 2 HDD 1 Tb each, RAID 1 (System disk)
- 2 HDD 1 Tb each, RAID 1 (Data disk),
All HDD are the same model and size (WD 1002FAEX),
The total available capacity is 1862 Tb.
The future configuration will be 4 HDD RAID 10, the total available capacity will be 1862 Tb but the access time will be better without loss of redondance.
The RAID 10 volume will be created :
- Ctrl-I to enter RAID configuration,
- delete existing RAID volumes,
- create the RAID 10 volume (all data on HDD will be lost),
- boot on the Acronis restore CD,
- validate the back-up,
- restore on the new RAID 10,
- when finished go to Intel RST and "Initialize" the new RAID 10 volume which allows the mirror check.