Imaging, and reliably restoring, a Raid 0 [zero] striped system image?

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I’ve googled this question & read hours of discussions on this topic til’ I’m thoroughly confused as to whether you can or can’t reliably restore the image to the raid array.

I gather there’s no issue creating the image but rather in restoring it….I tried to do a restore with the free version of both True Image & Easeus but both failed.

Is imaging even possible on on a raid 0 array and how is it accomplished?
Tks

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The answer is: it depends.
If the RAID is hardware based then the restore is to a single disk and the restore program is none the wiser.
If the RAID is software you need to restore to a non-RAID disk, then convert and let Windows sort out the RAID.

Note: running software RAID is asking for trouble IMO. Windows has to do more work and any power problems are likely to result in trashed disks / corrupt data. Hardware RAID is OK if you have a battery backed RAID controller, then data is preserved across power outages.
Just buy an SSD for speed and backup it up daily and image monthly.

cheers, Paul

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RAID is when data is placed 1 bit on drive A, next bit on drive B, backNforth, correct? How does one backup and/or restore such things? I guess Acronis True Image is one of many programs that can do RAID?

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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How does one backup and/or restore such things?

Backup software asks Windows to take a snapshot of the data on disk and that snapshot is copied to the backup file. The backup software does not know, or want to know, about disk configuration. Restoring to RAID should be the same as restoring to non-RAID assuming the correct HD controller drivers have been loaded by the restore boot disk.
Good hardware RAID controllers make the RAID array appear as a single standard disk, recovery of the RAID array itself is performed by a utility program that talks to the controller.

cheers, Paul

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Tks for all the suggestions and I assume that it’s up to the mobo hardware as to wether the data is restored to both drives in the raid 0 array, that is every other bit to the 1st drive of the array and every other bit to the 2nd drive in the raid 0 array.

So on the image restore the hardware writes every other bit to 1 drive and vice versa. I’m using two [2] 256 GB SSD’s in the raid zero [0] array.

So if this is the way it is supposed to work why does it fail?
Tks all ;>}:rolleyes:

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It’s extremely difficult as I have found out a few years back on my purchase of
an OCZ REVO PCIe SSD hardware RAID array.
Difficult to the point where is wasn’t worth the effort to use the REVO
as a primary OS drive anymore.

Perhaps you should look into imaging applications that closely match your
needs to determine whether your objectives can be met: ie. read a fac or how to sheet.

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See: http://www.todo-backup.com/backup-resource/free-RAID-backup-software.htm

Jerry

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It is possible that you are restoring the data without the correct RAID controller drivers loaded. You need to ensure you have the drivers for your controller loaded on the boot CD/DVD you are using.

BTW, what sort of setup do you have that requires a RAID 0 SSD?

cheers, Paul

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