I have just purchased Ghost v2003 and a WD 320G sata hdd.
  I currently have two WD 200G sata hdd's in a raid 0 array (two partitions, C 127g and F 244 g). I have only 30G free in particion C, and 15G free 1n F. Way past time for an upgrade.
  I want to do away with the raid 0 array and end up with three seperate drives 200g boot/system drive, 200g PVR video drive, and 320g data drive.

  I think the procedure would be:

a. format the 320g (G ?)
b. do a straight copy of all my data files from partition F to drive G
c. create a Ghost image of partition C (boot/system) on G
d. reformat C and F as seperate drives
e. recreate boot/system on C

  Does anyone see any problem with this procedure?
  Anything I should be aware of or watch out for?

TIA

Ken

Ken Nestle


Quote:

Way past time for an upgrade.

Or....house cleaning, or off loading infrequently used files to optical media or external HDD  ;) !

You have a new HDD that is not yet a system critical HDD--so you should take a little time to *play* with Ghost and this new HDD to get *comfortable* with Ghost and what it can do--and can not do!

Officially, Symantec states that Ghost 2003 is not compatible with RAID and does not support this use--being as Ghost 2003 is no longer supported except through Symantec's FAQ's--you will not get any help from there *live chat* support.

But I know for a fact that RAID 1 (mirror) is supported on the two systems I have--and RAID 0 may be supported for creating an image that can be restored only to a non-RAID 0 HDD setup--which is what you are doing!

1.  You need to confirm that your SATA controllers are compatible with DOS Ghost--even if you plan to use the Windows Ghost interface--it will still re-boot to DOS to perform it's procedures!  If it's a problem (note:  for many, there appears to be no problem)--here's a resource that may help:

SATA HDD's and Ghost!

If I were experimenting, I would clone the C:\ OS to the new HDD (disk to disk), remove the two RAID 0 HDD's and replace the new HDD on the primary controller, as master (either by cable select or jumper), and confirm that the system boots properly.

There appears to be two major solutions in the referenced thread:  1.  a setting in the BIOS for SATA compatibility with DOS, and 2.  a Ghost *switch* that forces Ghost to access the SATA controller in a different manner than it's default setting.

This experiment would also confirm that the RAID 0 data can be successfully transferred to a non-RAID 0 HDD--this would help support the possibility that a Ghost image would be properly created with the RAID 0 data and could be restored to a non-RAID 0 HDD.  If you want to be assured of this--you need a second test HDD to actually image the OS partition to a large enough HDD (Disk > to Image), and then restore it to another HDD, and test that it boots successfully.

2.  You might have a *size* problem--your RAID 0 gives you an approx 400 GB capacity using the two 200 GB drives, and of that 400 GB capacity you say your using 355 GB's--but you are adding a 320 GB HDD--that's smaller than the data amount you say you need to transfer to the new HDD!


Quote:

b. do a straight copy of all my data files from partition F to drive G

320 GB (new HDD) - 229 GB (data on F) = 91 GB (available after data transferred to G)


Quote:

c. create a Ghost image of partition C (boot/system) on G

127 GB (OS C:\ partition) 30 GB (free) = 97 GB

With compression, the Ghost image will probably fit--but remember--the manufacturer's size statement for advertising is inflation relative to the on-system actual size--different definitions are used!


Quote:

d. reformat C and F as separate drives e. recreate boot/system on C

3.  You don't say, but I'm assuming you plan to perform these procedures in DOS and not from the Windows interface--if WinXP (?) *sees* that new HDD, it will assign drive letters (G-?) and will remember that letter assignment for that HDD.  But from your description, you plan on the new HDD being G in the end.  But, drive letter assignment in WinXP and boot issues can occur if you inadvertently get things reassigned *wrong*!

Fixing Windows 2000/XP Drive Letters

You are performing some high risk procedures here--personally I would want a backup of everything that I could count on before doing any changes--but that will require more HDD's.

Also, before I would do anything that would compromise my RAID 0 pair of HDD's--I'd want to be sure the steps actually work--keeping the RAID 0 pair safe until I prove the process--so a second new HDD of say 120 GB to transfer the OS image to with the RAID 0 pair removed to test everything--then start formatting and partitioning the RAID 0 HDD's!

Let us know how things work out!