Solved Can I restore Windows from RAID 0 backup ?

If I created RAID 0 backup from storage spaces on two HDDs can the bootable usb for backup software like macrium restore this backup ?

William654 said:

If I created RAID 0 backup from storage spaces on two HDDs can the bootable usb for backup software like macrium restore this backup ?

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If the backup has all the parts of the RAID 0 required to boot... it should be able to.

Macrium will restore whatever you backed up, to when ever you backed it up.
Please remember, that although you remember every day, how you have things set up, and what you actually backed up, we don't.

If you want a more specific answer, you will have to give more specific information.

The only way to know with 100% certainty is to boot from the rescue drive and try it.

I’m not altogether sure that Macrium will be able to read from the RAID 0 array created by Windows Storage Spaces from outside of the Windows environment. As NavyLCDR says, just give it a try.

I'm not altogether sure why anyone could possibly "need" a RAID array these days.

Ghot said:

I'm not altogether sure why anyone could possibly "need" a RAID array these days.

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I have a 7 TB storage pool created with TrueNAS. It consists of 2x 3TB drives mirrored with each other striped with 2x 4TB mirrored with each other. The only way I would lose data due to drive failure is if both drives in one of the mirrored pairs failed at the same time.

RAID is largely irrelevant to the ability to restore your data. It is important if you want to restore your data to a RAID array configured in the same manner as it was when you backed up the data but bear in mind that data that was stored in RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, etc. can always be restored to a non-RAID configuration as well. It is simply data, and it can be restored to the same RAID level as it was originally stored on, a different RAID level, or no RAID at all.

If you want to restore to the same RAID array that the original was stored on, then your recovery media needs to have a driver that supports that RAID configuration.

As an example, if you are using a RAID array created using IRST (Intel Rapid Storage Technology), then your recovery media needs to have an IRST driver installed in order to be able to access that RAID array and restore data to it. Please note that Macrium will add this driver to your recovery media automatically.

My suggestion: After you create your Macrium Reflect recovery media, boot from it. Proceed as if you were planning to create a new backup from the recovery media. If you can see your RAID array(s) from the recovery media, then you are good to go. If not, you should recreate your recovery media ON THE SAME SYSTEM to ensure that the proper drivers are included.

If this is not an option, for example, if your system with the RAID array crashes and you don't have recover media created yet, you can create the media on another system and add the appropriate driver(s).

Ghot said:

I'm not altogether sure why anyone could possibly "need" a RAID array these days.

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Hi there

2 reasons -- 1) for data striping / data recovery -- if a device fails you don't lose the data (not RAID 0) - If you are running web sites, have a load of music / other multi-media on disc etc then you don't want to lose data -- I'm not sure I'd like to re-rip and re-tag 1000's of CD's and DVD's again even if I could find them all again and get the external DVD device to even read some of these really old devices without errors.

2) RAID 0 -- hugely increases the speed of the disk I/O and you can used devices of mixed capacities to "aggregate" the total amount of storage available.

I have a load of spare older HDD's e.g at least 4 or 5 spare 4 and 3 TB drives. Using an array of 1 X 4 and 1X 3TB in a RAID 0 configeration gives me using an external 2 port disk bay 7 TB of auxiliary storage which is fast and useful for all sorts of things -- why chuck away perfectly good HDD's.

Note though if using RAID 0 once you get an HDD defect you lose the entire array - so have backup. My experience is that since I invariably use Enterprise quality HDD's often designed for 24/7 operation I haven't lost any data yet --- but if you have backup then that's fine. I use this on a Linux NAS server via software RAID built into the kernel --- it's module mdadm. I wouldn't trust the nearest Windiows equivalent Storage spaces. I've had a lot of bad experiences and aggro with that in the past. !!!

As for Windows booting directly from "a Windows storage space" I'm not sure if it can be done - since presumably most of the kernel would have to be loaded by the boot manager to read from the storage space. If I'm in error here then hopefully @hsehestedt or other can correct.

The main problem would be in restoring your Windows image back to a Windows bootable disk.
The stand alone version of GPARTED can read a RAID 0 image but Windows Storage space use a proprietary file system so that probably won't work.

If Macrium (stand alone) can read Windows storage spaces then there shouldn't be a problem - but I just don't know. If it can then restore the image to a Windows capable bootable disk.


@NavyLCDR

Your config though requires double the storage capacity to achieve 7TB of storage. It depends of course on your needs. Using RAID 0 with just 2 HDD's gives me the same capacity and as the data is essentially ripped CD music and DVD's there's not a huge amoutnt of change and I've got it all backed up in any case.

Again Risk to reward ratio and whether if the worst happens you have the time or patience to re-build the data again. I've tested re-building the array -- just ran it at night -- around 5 hours on modest gear.


Cheers
jimbo

Will test with macrium and try.

Backup my C drive take about 90 minutes I am trying to reduce this time.

William654 said:

Will test with macrium and try.

Backup my C drive take about 90 minutes I am trying to reduce this time.

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Size of C drive, type of drive, type of medium for the restore drive e/g ssd / HDD, backup program being used, USB23/USB3 connection etc.

HDD's vary considerably - consumer grade are usually slowish 5400 RPM clunkers with a tiny cache and not a very good disk I/O controller. Decent enterprise / top end consumer grade are 7200 RPM or even 10,000 RPM with a decent size fast cache and a sensible I/O controller. The Mobo should have adequate bus capacity for fast disk I/O. Even an SSD on a SATA-> USB3 connector should be theoretically able to have maximum transfer rate of around 6 Gbps (will be less of course in practice).

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

2 reasons --

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rhetorical question​

[ ri-tawr-i-kuhl kwes-chuhn, -tor- ]

---

noun Rhetoric.
a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion of affirmation or denial and not to elicit a reply, as “Has there ever been a more perfect day for a picnic?” or “Are you out of your mind?”

Will test and try

jimbo45 said:

HDD's vary considerably - consumer grade are usually slowish

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I have enterprise HDD 7200 model

Ghot said:

I'm not altogether sure why anyone could possibly "need" a RAID array these days.

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This is actually a good question. The industry is moving away from RAID at this point. Almost a decade ago, at the major NAS / SAN company I worked for, they were already planning the departure from traditional RAID. The problem lies in the sheer amount of time needed to rebuild the array in the event of a disk failure. The longer that it takes to rebuild, the greater the chance that a second disk in the array would fail. If that happens while a rebuild is happening, the entire array is then lost.

The temporary solution for that was having dual parity disks. In other words, the array would still be safe if 2 disks in the array failed. However, as disk capacity increased, this would further increase rebuild time to the point where even dual parity was iffy at best.

hsehestedt said:

This is actually a good question. The industry is moving away from RAID at this point. Almost a decade ago, at the major NAS / SAN company I worked for, they were already planning the departure from traditional RAID. The problem lies in the sheer amount of time needed to rebuild the array in the event of a disk failure. The longer that it takes to rebuild, the greater the chance that a second disk in the array would fail. If that happens while a rebuild is happening, the entire array is then lost.

The temporary solution for that was having dual parity disks. In other words, the array would still be safe if 2 disks in the array failed. However, as disk capacity increased, this would further increase rebuild time to the point where even dual parity was iffy at best.

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Maybe for big businesses but it's still worth it for domestic consumers who want larger storage / databases that are larger than the capacity of their existing disks - many domestic library type systems don't make it easy to span disks -- combining a couple of 4 / 3 or even 5TB HDD's makes sense in a lot of cases. Why throw out perfectly useable equipment. My music library is nearly 7TB these days - so long as data is backed up raid of any sort is perfectly OK on domestic gear. Decent HDD's rarely fail and aren't given the same sort of workload as commercial servers. And also remember that it's still an issue if say you have a single 20TB drive and it fails -- recovery is still required even if the device is mirrored (which is RAID anyway). A commercial server has to have proper data backup in place and has to have essentially 24/7 operation. Hot swapping is essential here also since the other "mirror" could also fail before the original faulty HDD was either replaced or restored.

Cheers
jimbo

I got a message from macrium , it can restore from storage spaces normally

Hey There,

If a device fails when data striping or data recovery is used (not RAID 0), the data is not lost. I'm not sure I'd like to re-rip and re-tag thousands of CDs and DVDs again, even if I could find them all again and get the external DVD device to even read some of these really old devices without errors. If you run websites, have a lot of music or other multi-media on disc, etc., then you don't want to lose data.

RAID 0 — greatly speeds up disc I/O, and you can "aggregate" the total amount of storage by using devices with different capacities.

But keep in mind that if you use RAID 0, if one of your HDDs fails, the entire array is lost. My experience is that I've never lost any data because I always use Enterprise level HDDs, which are frequently created for 24/7 operation. However, if you have a backup, that's fine. I utilise this on a Linux NAS server using the module MADAM, which is a software RAID feature built into the kernel. The closest Windows similar storage facilities are not ones I would trust. I've been angry and frustrated with that a lot in the past.

I'm not sure if Windows can be started directly from "a Windows storage space" because the boot manager would likely need to load the majority of the kernel in order to read from the storage space.
My advice is to boot from your Macrium Reflect recovery disc after creating it. Act as if you were going to use the recovery media to make a new backup. You are good to go if you can see your RAID array(s) from the recovery disc. If not, you should re-create your recovery media ON THE SAME SYSTEM in order to include the correct drivers.

If this is not an option, for instance, if your RAID array-equipped system crashes and you haven't yet made recovery media, you can build the media on another system and instal the necessary drivers (s).

Ghot said:

I'm not altogether sure why anyone could possibly "need" a RAID array these days.

Click to expand...

There are mobile workstations that came with preinstalled RAID 0 configurations.

(flash cache)

This was state of the art when large size SSD were expensive.

Large size HD were designed to boot faster using a very small SSD in RAID 0.

It was not possible to manually store data on the SSD.

Kencarter77 said:

RAID 0 — greatly speeds up disc I/O, and you can "aggregate" the total amount of storage by using devices with different capacities.

But keep in mind that if you use RAID 0, if one of your HDDs fails, the entire array is lost.

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The computer that I'm using to type this post has a RAID 0 configuration.

HD with SSD

The HD is 750 GB.

The SSD is 32 GB.


I'm looking for a link or reference that has information on what happens if the 32 GB SSD or flash cache fails.

Should the HD fail to boot unless the 32 GB flash cache is replaced?
(The SSD has no data on it, it is only flash cache)

The 32 GB flash cache has never appeared in disk management, file explorer, or device manager.
It also has never appeared using administrative command prompt diskpart.


So I'm wondering too if the HD Windows can be restored (without replacing a 32 GB flash drive (flash cache))