Cloning single drive (Windows) to a RAID array
Recently I decided to finally add some more disks to my PC and arrange everything using RAID arrays. I looked for instructions over the Internet and only found some bits and pieces here and there. One tutorial that seemed to make sense was to create an image of the system running on the single drive I had and restoring it to the RAID array. First up will be a summary of my efforts trying to figure it out and after that how it's done in a few simple steps.
Square one situation: Win10 running on a single 3TB drive
Aim: To have Win10 cloned on a 2TB RAID1 array and freshly installed Debian + WinXP on a 3TB RAID1 array. Eventually it turned out that software RAID is the path to take with the latter.
First problem to solve was how to clone a 3TB drive on a 2TB drive. The obvious first step was to reduce the size of my partitions using the Windows disk management tool. Then I created the backup image of the system with the built in tools.
Next step was supposed to be restoring the image with a Windows 10 installation/repair/restore media (which can be downloaded here).
The installation USB stick boots nicely and finds the system image by itself. Should be a walk in the park. Wrong! Surprise surprise, the restoring process throws an error at me seconds after I hit start and suggests I clean the target disk with diskpart and/or do some other stuff as well while at it. I disconnected SATA cables, excluded and included disks but nothing worked. Back to the drawing board!
How about some other imaging tools? Google is your friend! I shortlisted two candidates for the job: Macrium Reflect and Clonezilla. The latter is a Linux based tool that is quite simple to use if one has average basic knowledge of how computers work. Or knows how to read (the tool's website has step by step instructions for every operation). To create a bootable USB stick containing Clonezilla, I highly recommend Rufus.
Eventually I chose to go with Macrium Reflect. To clone a larger disk onto a smaller one, the trick is not to select the whole disk. Adding the partitions one by one will not try to force the larger unused space into the smaller unused space and everything fits nicely. Tjis can be done by either creating an image of the disk to be cloned (have your backup storage available) or by directly cloning to the target disk. I had some troubles with images being corrupt right off the bat aost every time.
To restore Macrium image to the RAID array, you'll need to first of course create the array and then boot with the media rescue tool that can be created with the main Macrium tool. It looks and works pretty much the same as when launching from Windows.
After I had finally cloned my system to the RAID array, it started firing up the normal way. That was until the infamous BSOD chopped off the wings. Inaccessible boot device? Obviously I hadn't considered something that should be pretty much basic knowledge regarding RAID. It's been ages since I've really tinkered with these things and never have I ever touched a RAID array. I tried fresh install of Windows 10 and it worked. However, I was unable to restore my settings and all in any simple way. Wipe the disk and start over.
So, I was planning on cloning my 3TB to a single 2TB and do a backup from Windows using the 2TB disk as the source. One evening I did the backup and was set to restore it to the 2TB array the following day. As I hit the sack, I did some more last minute googling. The correct boot drivers weren't loading! Hence the inaccessible boot device! So the next day I successfully restored the backup to the array and then used the command prompt on the Windows 10 install media to set the system boot in safe mode and load ALL boot drivers. Problem solved! All this because whatever I put in the search field, Google didn't yield any step by step instructions to do this simple task! So, ladies and gentlemen, below you'll find the shortest and simplest way that I can think of to clone a single disk system into a RAID array.
And here's how it should be done!
1. Acquire the disks according to your needs
2. Get Macrium Reflect
3. Create rescue media with Reflect
(4. Optional but highly recommended: Create Windows backup just in case!)
5. This step is an afterthought to my case: Set your system to boot in safe mode
6. Have a Windows installation disk nearby (for Windows 10, installation media creator can be downloaded here)
7. Create the RAID array
8. Boot with Macrium Reflect rescue media
9. You should see all your single disks and set arrays (cloning and image restore is pretty straightforward but if your target disk is smaller than the source, drag the partitions one by one to the target disk/array)
10. After the cloning is finished, reboot and set to boot from the array
11a. If step 5 worked as I think it should have, your system is now booting in safe mode and all you need to do is reset boot options back to normal
11b. If step 5 didn't work and you get "Inaccessible boot device", boot with your windows installation media, launch command prompt and repeat step 5 from there and continue from step 10
The cloning process can be done with Windows's own backup and restored with the installation/recovery tool but apparently only with target disk of equal or greater size but the process is ridiculously slow. Hopefully this post will spare someone from going through everything I had to in order to get this done.
Square one situation: Win10 running on a single 3TB drive
Aim: To have Win10 cloned on a 2TB RAID1 array and freshly installed Debian + WinXP on a 3TB RAID1 array. Eventually it turned out that software RAID is the path to take with the latter.
First problem to solve was how to clone a 3TB drive on a 2TB drive. The obvious first step was to reduce the size of my partitions using the Windows disk management tool. Then I created the backup image of the system with the built in tools.
Next step was supposed to be restoring the image with a Windows 10 installation/repair/restore media (which can be downloaded here).
The installation USB stick boots nicely and finds the system image by itself. Should be a walk in the park. Wrong! Surprise surprise, the restoring process throws an error at me seconds after I hit start and suggests I clean the target disk with diskpart and/or do some other stuff as well while at it. I disconnected SATA cables, excluded and included disks but nothing worked. Back to the drawing board!
How about some other imaging tools? Google is your friend! I shortlisted two candidates for the job: Macrium Reflect and Clonezilla. The latter is a Linux based tool that is quite simple to use if one has average basic knowledge of how computers work. Or knows how to read (the tool's website has step by step instructions for every operation). To create a bootable USB stick containing Clonezilla, I highly recommend Rufus.
Eventually I chose to go with Macrium Reflect. To clone a larger disk onto a smaller one, the trick is not to select the whole disk. Adding the partitions one by one will not try to force the larger unused space into the smaller unused space and everything fits nicely. Tjis can be done by either creating an image of the disk to be cloned (have your backup storage available) or by directly cloning to the target disk. I had some troubles with images being corrupt right off the bat aost every time.
To restore Macrium image to the RAID array, you'll need to first of course create the array and then boot with the media rescue tool that can be created with the main Macrium tool. It looks and works pretty much the same as when launching from Windows.
After I had finally cloned my system to the RAID array, it started firing up the normal way. That was until the infamous BSOD chopped off the wings. Inaccessible boot device? Obviously I hadn't considered something that should be pretty much basic knowledge regarding RAID. It's been ages since I've really tinkered with these things and never have I ever touched a RAID array. I tried fresh install of Windows 10 and it worked. However, I was unable to restore my settings and all in any simple way. Wipe the disk and start over.
So, I was planning on cloning my 3TB to a single 2TB and do a backup from Windows using the 2TB disk as the source. One evening I did the backup and was set to restore it to the 2TB array the following day. As I hit the sack, I did some more last minute googling. The correct boot drivers weren't loading! Hence the inaccessible boot device! So the next day I successfully restored the backup to the array and then used the command prompt on the Windows 10 install media to set the system boot in safe mode and load ALL boot drivers. Problem solved! All this because whatever I put in the search field, Google didn't yield any step by step instructions to do this simple task! So, ladies and gentlemen, below you'll find the shortest and simplest way that I can think of to clone a single disk system into a RAID array.
And here's how it should be done!
1. Acquire the disks according to your needs
2. Get Macrium Reflect
3. Create rescue media with Reflect
(4. Optional but highly recommended: Create Windows backup just in case!)
5. This step is an afterthought to my case: Set your system to boot in safe mode
6. Have a Windows installation disk nearby (for Windows 10, installation media creator can be downloaded here)
7. Create the RAID array
8. Boot with Macrium Reflect rescue media
9. You should see all your single disks and set arrays (cloning and image restore is pretty straightforward but if your target disk is smaller than the source, drag the partitions one by one to the target disk/array)
10. After the cloning is finished, reboot and set to boot from the array
11a. If step 5 worked as I think it should have, your system is now booting in safe mode and all you need to do is reset boot options back to normal
11b. If step 5 didn't work and you get "Inaccessible boot device", boot with your windows installation media, launch command prompt and repeat step 5 from there and continue from step 10
The cloning process can be done with Windows's own backup and restored with the installation/recovery tool but apparently only with target disk of equal or greater size but the process is ridiculously slow. Hopefully this post will spare someone from going through everything I had to in order to get this done.
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