Move OS Partition to Raid Drives

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sittingduckz

680 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#58129 9-Mar-2010 09:21

I currently have W7 on a single HDD but would like to move the OS partition to a new raid0 drive.

Is there software that will do this or does the OS need to be reinstalled, loading the Raid drivers during install?

Can the partition be moved and then install the raid drivers afterwards somehow

I have used Acronis Disk Director in the past but never from a single HDD to RAID

Cheers

Windows 7 Pro 64bit, Asus P6T motherboard, Intel i7 920, 6GB DDR3, ATi 5770 1GB

I'm not a complete idiot, I still have some parts missing.

xcubed

194 posts

Master Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#305635 9-Mar-2010 11:07

You really should just reinstall, as trying to get it going otherwise will be a world of hurt.

Most RAID controllers included on motherboards these days are software-based, rather than hardware, so the actual RAID implementation is in the driver. This means that if you create a RAID volume and image your existing boot drive onto it, you're likely to find that Windows will show each individual disk in My Computer, rather than a single RAID volume, because it hasn't loaded the driver.

And if you try to install the RAID driver in your existing copy of Windows before copying the boot drive to a RAID volume, you may well find that Windows will refuse to boot because it can't find the boot partition anymore, as the RAID volume is not in the same logical location as the old boot disk.

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BartManGeek

187 posts

Master Geek

#305637 9-Mar-2010 11:14

Win 7 makes this easy... so long as the RAID card is supported by the motherboard.

1. Perform Full windows system image backup on existing system drive to USB HDD
2. Removed system drive and add RAID drives
3. Boot from Win 7 DVD, if it finds your RAID volume then choose Restore system image and point it to USB HDD - otherwise you will need to provide drivers for your RAID adapter
4. In theory all should be back as it was when you ran the backup

sittingduckz

680 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#305641 9-Mar-2010 11:22

I have an image already using Acronis True Image. will this work or does it need to be W7 builtin Backup?

I'm not a complete idiot, I still have some parts missing.

BartManGeek

187 posts

Master Geek

#305649 9-Mar-2010 11:53

I would go with Win 7 built-in backup

sittingduckz

680 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#305656 9-Mar-2010 12:17

BartManGeek: Your plan 'A' Fingers crossed

xcubed: Your plan 'B' The most likely

Thanks for your help guys

I'm not a complete idiot, I still have some parts missing.

Ragnor

8195 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#305684 9-Mar-2010 13:35

Let us know how it goes

garvani

1873 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#305717 9-Mar-2010 16:49

Windows 7 is rather good at this type of thing. Last week i upgraded my work pc. Time was short so i thought i would be brutal on it and see how it went, if it didnt work then i would reinstall everything.
Went from a Amd 939 board + 3500+ processor, to a new AM3 board + phenomx4 955, twice the ram, new graphics card etc. Ripped old parts out, new parts in. fired it up. Windows 7 booted, installed all the drivers (without prompting me once) and i was up and running within 30 minutes of me shutting down my pc to take the bits out.
Was rather impressed to say the least. Although this is not quite the same, i see no problem for windows 7 at all, as long as it sees your raid controller.

sittingduckz

680 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#306485 12-Mar-2010 09:32

Plan A worked... mostly

I recovered my OS to the raid drive (loading the raid drivers) it worked well.

Apart from a problem with the activation. It says it need to be activated again. Internet activation doesn't work and when you click on activate by phone it has an error and will not bring up phone numbers or the 25digit prod code. Bugger!

Looks like i'll have to do a clean install :-|

I'm not a complete idiot, I still have some parts missing.

BartManGeek

187 posts

Master Geek

#306496 12-Mar-2010 09:47

Have you tried to 'change the product key" and then re-activate, I have had this occur on over 50 volume license machines.

sittingduckz

680 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#306504 12-Mar-2010 09:54

Yes, but to the same product key. Has same error. I think it was 0x8000048 it seemed to be unknown

I also tried a resetting the licence file by
Stopping the software protection platform service
renaming tokens.dat
and restarting the service
it recreated the file, but had the same error

I could try a different product code?

Update: All fixed and working... after a few error messages it gave me the install code and it activated via phone. Fingers crossed it stays like that

I'm not a complete idiot, I still have some parts missing.