RAID1 hdd upgrade trouble

[idata]

I'm upgrading from an 80 gig RAID1 setup, using Intel Storage Manager 7, to a 500 gig RAID1 setup, and I'm in trouble I think. I removed the second drive, installed the 500gig drive, used Norton Ghost 14 and imaged the first 80 gig drive, and then restored the image to the 500gig drive utilizing all the new space. My problem is that it will not boot unless the original drive is still connected. It doesn't seem to matter the order, just as long as the drive is in place. I was able to boot at one point with the second 500 gig drive in place, with the first one in place as well, but when I tried to build the Volume using existing harddrive, it said Volume Creation failed. I read on the intel site to reduce the partition size by a few gigs, so I tried using Partition Magic 8.0 to reduce the 500g C drive by 5 mgs, but it would not boot again without the original 80 gig drive in place. Can anyone help? Did I do something wrong with the original image? Should I have included the hdd area marked as \*, currently showing as 39.5 mg? I'm using a Dell Dimension E310, running WinXPSP3. Thanks, my original 80gig hdds are huffing and puffing, so the time is near for a crash.

[idata]

So your RAID 1 with two 80GB is the OS and you want to move to two 500GB RAID 1?

Have one 80GB connected and one 500GB connected and rebuild array then take out the 80GB and rebuild the array with the other 500GB. Now use Partition Magic to extend the partition from 80GB to 500GB.

[idata]

ok, that helped a bit! I now have my 500gb drive as the only drive in the system, and it boots. For some reason though, PM8 does not see any additional unallocated space. So, I'm still stuck with the 80gb limit. I'm using WinXP SP3, and even Computer Management doesn't see any available space. This is driving me crazy. I just want to use the rest of the space on my 500gb, and put it back in a RAID1 environment. Any other ideas? Should I use another product besides PM8?

[idata]

Ok your making it out like you have one 500GB so please confirm the following:

You started with two 80GB drives?

You got two new 500GB drives?

You have rebuild the array by swapping out one 80GB drive at a time after each rebuild?

You now have two 500GB drives in RAID 1 but are limited to 80GB?

[idata]

Thanks for the fast reply. Yes to all of your assumptions, except I have not built the second 500gb into RAID1 yet. I only have the one 500gb, as a member of the RAID1, and no other drive in the computer. It boots fine, reports that a harddrive is missing from the array, but I cannot resize it to fill the 500gb, it is limited to 80. Using EaseUS partition master, it shows the following partitions:

*. FAT16, 39.19MB, primary

C: NTFS 69.82, System, Primary

*. FAT32 4.64 GB Primary

* Unallocated 8.28MB, Logical

Thanks for any help.

[idata]

I'm going to search around just to be sure it can be done but it might be be a limitation after all.

You might have to put the second drive in for PM to work and if you still can't re-size it you can make another volume in Storage Manager or Ctrl + I at boot so you have two partitions.

I really hate Dell and the way they did your partition layout messes up the MBR and boot.ini with this going on.

I trust you marked one 80GB that was part of the RAID 1 some where safe and out the way as a backup if all goes wrong?You can try this but might not work...

I'm sure Norton Ghost 14 can make a file system backup in or out of the OS to an image put that on the other 80GB drive and then have the two 500GB setup in RAID 1 with an OS and Norton Ghost on it then take out one of the 500GB and have the other 80GB (not the safe one) in and restored the file system backup. NOW if that works your old windows and files will be their on a 500GB partition.

Man that's hard work.

[idata]

Thanks for any help you can provide. Do you think something like Acronis True Image would work? Seems like I could take an image of the entire drive, and restore it to the other 500gb drive, and expand the C partition. Or, should I use the Ctrl-I feature at boot, and using the software, remove the current 500gb drive from the RAID1, then try to consolidate all partitions into one? This is so frustrating..

Thanks again,

bman

[idata]

At this point you can keep trying to find a way like how I said you might be able to do it or go with a clean install of Windows.

As I say again I trust you marked one 80GB that was part of the RAID 1 some where safe and out the way as a backup if all goes wrong?

I think I was wrong about expanding the partition because you can't expand the volume which is the limitation with this type of RAID controller.The only way you could possibly do it is as I said above.Backup the file system for your OS on to the other 80GB not the MBR or boot.ini if possible

Create a 500GB volume with the two drives and install a OS (no need to Activate it).

Because you only have two SATA ports take out one 500GB to add the 80GB file system backup drive in.

now boot in to windows or Dos how ever the backup software can work and restored the file system backup to the 500GB drive.

I think Paragon Drive Backup can do this but so should many others.Just check the boot.ini has this line in it:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

as your Dell setup might have:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

you can add it in so:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP new 500GB" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP old 80GB" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

change timeout so you can select it at boot

timeout=30

But please if this is now over your head...go with a clean install of Windows.