Backing up a RAID Config

[spie34]

I am trying to back up my data on my 2 20GB ibm drives ata100 7200rpm in a raid-0 config. One of the drives is going bad. Its writing ok and all just I think a bearing is going out. Anyways ibm said they would warranty it.

Now the question is though I don't know how I can save everything so I don't have to reload windows. I have 2 13GB seagate hd's ata66 5400rpm. I could mirror them but they aren't the same size nor would the paritions be the same size either.

I am wondering if I could still go ahead and partition the 2 seagates into somewhat similiar sizes then set them up in a mirror of the ibm hd's? That way when I get my hd back from ibm (since they won't cross ship stupid stupid stupid I think) I can rebuild those drives again with the data.

Anyone following what I am saying or asking?

I use the ami raid on an iwill kk266plus-r board if that helps at all. I have things partitioned for win98 winxp and a pagefile partition as well.

[bigjackusa]

I don't know if you can add raid1 to an existing raid0 array without losing data. I don't know if all of your existing data will fit on your other drives, but I back up data from a raid0 setup by hooking up a spare drive as slave to one of my optical drives and using Norton Ghost. I only connect it for the backup, then put it in a drawer. It saves wear and tear and won't be exposed to anything bad that might happen to my computer that way. You could hook yours to a standard ide channel (even if you have to temorarily disconnect an optical drive) and mirror them with Ghost. You could then mirror it back when you get your new drive.

[RazMan]

bigjackusa is perfectly correct - that is the system I use, except that nowadays I use an external Firewire drive as it saves a lot of dismantling etc. You can use Norton Ghost 2003 or Drive Image 2002. The main advantage of using external storage to save your drive images is that it is TOTALLY secure.