Other Norton Products

[jodecom]

Hi,

I have a Sony laptop with Vista (VGN-AR31S).

This laptop has 2 hard drives in RAID 0 (it was shipped like that, there is an Intel software wich manage the volume) .

It's not clear to me if it's RAID software or if the RAID controller is on the motherboard. 

I checked the Norton documentation but there was no mention of RAID support.

1) Is it possible to perfom a disk full backup with RAID ?  

The "disk" has 2 partitions C: and D: (built on the 2 hard disks in RAID 0)

2) In case of disk failure

2.a) Is it possible to recover the image of C & D in question 1 on a single hard disk (non-RAID) ?

2.b) Is it opssible to recover the image of C& D in question 1 on identical 2-disks in RAID 0 ? 

2.c) Is it possible to recover the image of C& D in question 1 on a new 2-hard disk in RAID 0  ?

(not the same kind of disk, not the same size as well) >>> This case is the most likely to happen...(with 2.a)

I was able to test Ghost 14 on a desktop PC with Win XP and with a single hard disk (non-RAID), and the disk recover on another smaller disk just worked fine (I replaced the disk to simulate a disk failure). Basically, this is what I want: survive to a disk failure !

However, it's more difficult to do the same test with my laptop, because of the 2 disks in RAID 0.

 (and I don't have other disk to do the test...)

I need to know before buying.

Thanks you for your answer.... 

[erik_carlstrom · Accepted solution]

One thing to keep in mind with Ghost and NSR is that images must be restored to like hardware.  It also only supports Hardware RAID, so you will definitely need to ensure that you find out if your RAID is hardware or software based.  With that in mind I'll answer your questions:

1) Is it possible to perfom a disk full backup with RAID ?  

The "disk" has 2 partitions C: and D: (built on the 2 hard disks in RAID 0)

If this is a Hardware RAID, then yes.  Ghost 14 and NSR 2 support RAID 0, 1, and 5. 

2) In case of disk failure

2.a) Is it possible to recover the image of C & D in question 1 on a single hard disk (non-RAID) ?

No, you would not have the necessary drivers to boot back up more than likely.  This is not supported. 

2.b) Is it opssible to recover the image of C& D in question 1 on identical 2-disks in RAID 0 ? Yes.

2.c) Is it possible to recover the image of C& D in question 1 on a new 2-hard disk in RAID 0  ?  Yes, as long as you build your array first. 

As for intent, this is exactly what Ghost and NSR were created for.  Recovery from a disaster.  Does that answer your questions?

[jodecom]

Hi,

Thanks for the answers.

So, I have to find out the kind of RAID I have.

I'll check with Sony's support. 

If it turns out that it is software RAID, then Norton Ghost 14 won't work, is that correct ?

JD 

[erik_carlstrom]

It may not work.  If there's a problem, there would be nothing we could do.