Converting RAID 0 to non-raid

The process you are using to restore requires a volume of at least the same size as that from which the backup was made.  The size of a RAID 0 is the sum of the capacities of the disks used to support the array.  When you break the array you have two hard drives, the capacity of each being one half of the array size.  The question therefore is this:  Was your array 931 GB, or was each drive 931 GB?  If the first part is correct you have two 500 GB hard drives.  If it is the second part that is correct, your RAID 0 should have been 2 TB.

Thank you for your reply JackShack.

You said "the process I am using...". Is there a better way to do this?

Because unless the single hard drive I'm trying to restore to is at least twice the size of the Raid array (which it isn't), then it sounds as though the process I am using wont work.

The commercial imaging programs such as Acronis True Image and Symantec Ghost generally have options to make an image of a volume and re-size the image to fit into the available space upon restoration; the only condition being that the actual amount of file storage is less than the physical capacity of the volume that you are restoring to.  The application you are using apparently does not have that option, or at least you haven't found it yet.  When you make a back-up image of a volume, all the parameters of the volume are included in the image, so the restore feature generally requires a volume that looks exactly like the one from which the back-up image was made.

Thanks for your reply.

Computer:  Alienware M17xR3 32GB, RAID 0 (2x750GB) Win 7x64 Ultimate  (with multiple games and other personal software loaded)

Issue:  How does one convert from RAID 0 Configuration to Single drive(s)? in my case separate 960GB SSDs.  

The problem I have run into is there appears to be no protocol/way to CLONE the RAID 0 disks configuration to a separate drive (4TB desktop HDD).

Alien Respawn is unable to CLONE directly the RAID 0 onto an external USB drive (4TB).  Neither will Acronis 2014 Premium, nor CASPER 8.0 and several respected others.  After selecting the RAID 0 disk as the "Source", ALL "Cloning" software tested to date shows no available destination disk ("grey out").  I have tried several desktop HDD's, even bought a new, virgin 4TB and tried it "clean".  Still none of the software would allow the destination disk to be selected.  (Why?)

ALL the software will image the drives for a restore, but you have to do a clean install of the Windows OS.

For weeks I have been looking over the internet for any solution to CLONE my M17xR3 RAID 0 drives (750GB each) and have to the date of this posting not found a way posted or written to do it.  I have several TB's of backup space available, so that's not a problem.

If I cannot find a way within the next several days I will have to do the transition from RAID 0 to Twin, Independent SSDs, in a Phased-process.

Here's my draft plan for converting from RAID 0 Configuration to independent drive(s) (in my case SSD's):

1.  Backup AND image my RAID 0 to a single 4TB Desktop HD  (everybody is right...BACKUP EVERYTHING!  IMAGE EVERYTHING you want to keep!)

2.  Create bootable mediums on a thumb-drive AND on a USB Backup Desktop HD.  (Multiples will increase your chances of a suitable boot-up.)

3.  Since I am going to SSD's, I will pull the RAID 0 Drives and keep them, just in case.

4.  Boot-up into setup (F2)and change the BIOS settings to AHCI from RAID 0.

5.  Restore Image.

6.  Reboot and cross my fingers.



Will let you know how this works.

Any constructive comments or help is much appreciated.

MHz67

Perhaps the cloning tool is looking at the actual hard drives instead of the RAID volume.  You state that you can image the partition, however, and that should be enough, though it will be necessary to install Windows from scratch onto your SSD before you can restore the image.  The installation is necessary to set up the boot sectors of the drive.  On your RAID, the boot sectors are part of the RAID volume rather than written to the initial sectors of the physical drives.  If you can find a way to make a clone of your RAID volume to a single drive, you may have solved your problem.

If you are using a single SSD system drive, the OS will install easier if it is the only mass storage drive in the system at the time of the install.  That reduces the confusion when setup wants to know where you want to place the installation and ensures that your system drive will be given the "C:" label.

EDIT:  One thing you should keep in mind:  Your 4 TB drive may be fine for data storage, but unless your computer is based on UEFI instead of the older PC BIOS, your system disk will need to be an MBR partitioned drive.  The PC BIOS cannot be used to boot from a drive larger than 2.2 TB simply because MBR partitioning does not work on a drive larger than that.  This may also have something to do with the reason you can't select the 4 TB drive as the destination.  Have you tried something smaller than 2.2 TB?

Cloning is a special condition of imaging.  The clone of a drive duplicates everything written to the drive, including all the boot information at the beginning of the drive.  Attempting to clone a RAID is problematic because the RAID is not a physical drive; it is a container that has been created on the drive.  The cloning tool will be looking for the standard boot information at the beginning of the physical drive, which it will not find because the information is in the RAID container.  I'm not surprised that the application choked on that.

My computer is an XPS 410 with a RAID 0 on a pair of Seagate 500 GB hard drives.  I use Acronis Home version 11, produced somewhere around 2008, to image, not clone, the two partitions I have created in my RAID 0 container.  The first partition has Windows XP Home, and the second partition has Windows 7 Ultimate.  Acronis did not complain about imaging either of these partitions, and I have used the back-up once to fix the Windows 7 partition.  It was necessary to use the installation DVD to fix the boot file after I finished, but it has worked fine ever since.  It does not seem likely that the hardware difference between an SSD and a rotating hard drive would affect that operation.  In a couple of weeks I plan on replacing the hard drives and expect to use my back-up to restore both partitions.  I will get back to you on the results.

EDIT (2014-6-25):  Well, it took a bit longer for me to get to it than I thought it would, but finally finished the task this morning.  I began by using Acronis to image the two partitions on my RAID 0.  I replaced the drives, used the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (CTRL i) to set up a RAID 0, used a Windows XP disk to make two equal size partitions, and then restored Windows XP to the first partition and Windows 7 to the second partition.  Windows XP booted up just as restored, but as I expected, I had to use the Windows 7 DVD to repair the start-up files on the Windows 7 partition to get it to boot.  Once that was done, the computer looked just like it did before I began, but with two new hard drives.  I wish you luck with your own situation.

As I said, this is a 2011 AlienWare M17xR3.  So, it does not UEFI but the older PC Bios  Have tried everything including a 2TB drive.  Acronis finally acknowledged they cannot Clone/Image a RAID 0 configuration.  No one in the "Cloning"/Backup community appears to be able handle the RAID 0 issue.  Studying and refining my procedures to just replace one drive and install my Win7x64 Ultimate OS.  Then go from there.  One would think that somebody at Dell/Alienware would have thought this through and had something ready for those who want to transition OUT of RAID 0.   Life is a grumpy bear of a teacher.  With SSD's running faster than normal HDD's, I would never recommend anyone use the RAID 0 configuration.  Too many downsides for little speed gain.