Want to Create CD Images from SATA RAID Arrays

[thefultonhow]

I have built two computers for friends who wanted the fastest thing out there but have no idea what they're doing. One is an Intel box with Raptors on the ICH5R SATA RAID controller, and the other is an AMD64 box with Maxtor 160 GB drives on the VT8237 SATA RAID controller. Instead of typing up instructions on how to install the OS with getting the RAID drivers running and installing the chipset, video, etc. drivers, or reinstalling the OS myself every time the friends have problems (hard to do as I will be going off to college in September), I would like to create CD images of the OS installs. However, I don't know of a program that supports the Intel and/or VIA chipset RAID functions. Can anybody recommend one that does?

[wedor]

v2i Protector from PowerQuest, now Symantec.

It will write images to CD, if the image won't fit an a single CD it will break them into chunks first.

[thefultonhow]

Originally posted by wedor v2i Protector from PowerQuest, now Symantec. It will write images to CD, if the image won't fit an a single CD it will break them into chunks first.

But will it read from the RAID arrays? Apparently not even Ghost 2003 can do that.

[wedor]

I am not sure, you can try it free for thirty days so test it yourself.

Nothing will fix a RAID 0 gone bad so if you are building the fastest that's what you would be using, imaging a RAID 0 to a partition on itself is suicidal at best.

It would be wiser to add in a single IDE drive and image to that.

[thefultonhow]

Originally posted by wedor I am not sure, you can try it free for thirty days so test it yourself. Nothing will fix a RAID 0 gone bad so if you are building the fastest that's what you would be using, imaging a RAID 0 to a partition on itself is suicidal at best. It would be wiser to add in a single IDE drive and image to that.

I'm actually trying to image to CD, but I will try that.

[wedor]

Well I use v2i to image from a RAID 10 to a drive all the time, it works fine. It will easily image from any array to a CD, I have tested that, the thing I was trying to get it to do without great success so far was image directly to a DVD.

[wedor]

And my apologies, it has been a while since I read your original post, I should have re-read it before answering again.

[Spartan]

I would steer away from Norton Ghost, at least with Sata drives. I read that it doesn't like Sata and the images may or may not work.

-Spartan

[casey]

Originally posted by Spartan I would steer away from Norton Ghost, at least with Sata drives. I read that it doesn't like Sata and the images may or may not work. -Spartan

I have made ± 300 Norton Ghost images the past year, of which ± 100 has been with SATA and SATA RAID 0 on the Intel ICH5R controller. None have failed me yet. Use Ghost 2003 with THE LATEST UPDATE (Ghost.exe dated May 2003) I don't work from within Windows but create a bootable CD with the Ghost.exe file on it, and do the imaging in "DOS" mode. This .exe can also write to CDRW & DVD in Dos mode, although most of my imaged I do on a another hard drive and later write it to DVD or CDRW (Windows) I have also made a couple of images on external drives (Firewire & USB2 connection) in DOS mode, works fine.
The working from within Windows mode has caused me some grief in the past. (PC getting stuck in DOS mode and then cannot return back to Windows after imaging done)

[Spartan]

Good info Casey...thx.

-Spartan