Hard Drive Juggling.... How best?

[whyrichard]

Hey,

Thinking of re-configuring my harddrives....

CURRENTLY:
1SSD --osx
2SSD --win7 bootcamp
3HHD --working files
4HHD --time machine

POSSIBLY:
1SSD/2SSD --OSX Raid0
3HHD --working files/win7 bootcamp (80gigs)
4HHD --time machine

Questions:
-good idea? been mostly in mac so want to put both ssd's to use...

Mainly... How do i do it most easily??? move entire hhd's here and there to set up the raid 0.... move my bootcamp from one ssd to a partition on the hhd.... How do i do it without reinstalling everything?



thanks,
r.

 

[flatfoot]

I think it is a good idea.

My spontaneous approach would be:
1. Use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone your OSX drive to an external, to HDD3 or HDD4.
2. Use WinClone or something similar to make an image of your Win7 SSD and save it to HDD3, HDD4 or an external drive.
3. RAID0 your SSDs.
4. Use BootCamp to partition HDD3.
5. Restore your OSX image to the RAID.
6. Restore the Win7 image to the newly created partition.

TimeMachine might not recognize your OSX RAID0 as the OSX drive it was before so it will probably make a complete backup of it.

 

[whyrichard]

I think it is a good idea.

My spontaneous approach would be:
1. Use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone your OSX drive to an external, to HDD3 or HDD4.
2. Use WinClone or something similar to make an image of your Win7 SSD and save it to HDD3, HDD4 or an external drive.
3. RAID0 your SSDs.
4. Use BootCamp to partition HDD3.
5. Restore your OSX image to the RAID.
6. Restore the Win7 image to the newly created partition.

TimeMachine might not recognize your OSX RAID0 as the OSX drive it was before so it will probably make a complete backup of it.

when i started superduper, i set to copy osx ssd to hdd 1 "backup all files", and then it asked me i wanted to delete the entire contents of hdd 1... No i don't want to do that.... do i need an extra external hd to pull this off?

r.

 

[flatfoot]

RTFM: "Storing a backup alongside other files on a destination drive" (-> User's Guide.pdf)

 

[whyrichard]

making progress... but when i try to use winclone i get an error... checking the log tells me:

==============mounting disk image==============
/usr/bin/hdiutil attach -nomount "/Volumes/Mac01 HDD/win7.winclone/Windows.dmg"

disk device is /dev/disk6
=====restoring image from disk image=============

"/Library/NTFSProgs/ntfsclone" --rescue -f -f -f -O "/dev/disk2s3" /dev/disk6 1>&2
ntfsclone v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
ERROR(22): Opening '/dev/disk6' as NTFS failed: Invalid argument
Apparently device '/dev/disk6' doesn't have a valid NTFS. Maybe you selected
the whole disk instead of a partition (e.g. /dev/hda, not /dev/hda1)?
return value of "/Library/NTFSProgs/ntfsclone" --rescue -f -f -f -O "/dev/disk2s3" /dev/disk6 1>&2 is 256

"/Library/NTFSProgs/ntfsclone" --rescue -f -f -f -O "/dev/disk2s3" /dev/disk6 1>&2 did not complete successfully
cleaning up: Mounting Disk
Volume WIN7 on /dev/disk2s3 mounted
Sun Jun 6 22:14:29 PDT 2010



Do i need to format the disk as NTFS? How do i do that from osx?


thanks,
r.

 

[flatfoot]

You have to create the Windows partition using BootCamp; then it is NTFS, which it has to be.

 

[funkahdafi]

Be careful with that. If you use Apple's Software RAID on your boot volume (which is what you want to do with your SSDs), then Bootcamp won't work. When you start the bootcamp utility, it'll tell you it can't access your boot volume.

 

[flatfoot]

Be careful with that. If you use Apple's Software RAID on your boot volume (which is what you want to do with your SSDs), then Bootcamp won't work. When you start the bootcamp utility, it'll tell you it can't access your boot volume.

Please read what the OP wants to do. He doesn't want to create the Windows partition on his SSD RAID0 but on one of his HDDs. At least that's what he stated in his first post.

 

[funkahdafi]

Please read what the OP wants to do. He doesn't want to create the Windows partition on his SSD RAID0 but on one of his HDDs. At least that's what he stated in his first post.

I perfectly understood what he wants.

The thing is, once you have a Software RAID up and running and start the Bootcamp utility, it will error on you. Done that, been there.

That utility is stupid, to say the least. It doesn't expect users to put their bootcamp partition anywhere else but on the startup volume. If bootcamp utility sees that your startup volume is a RAID volume, it will give you an error and you won't be able to continue.

My solution to that was to create a small (20 GB) partition on one of my non-RAID volumes, and installed a second copy of Mac OS X on that. Then you boot from that second copy, giving you a non RAID startup volume. Now you will be able to use the Bootcamp utility.

That was the only possible workaround I found.

 

[flatfoot]

I perfectly understood what he wants.

The thing is, once you have a Software RAID up and running and start the Bootcamp utility, it will error on you. Done that, been there.

That utility is stupid, to say the least. It doesn't expect users to put their bootcamp partition anywhere else but on the startup volume. If bootcamp utility sees that your startup volume is a RAID volume, it will give you an error and you won't be able to continue.

My solution to that was to create a small (20 GB) partition on one of my non-RAID volumes, and installed a second copy of Mac OS X on that. Then you boot from that second copy, giving you a non RAID startup volume. Now you will be able to use the Bootcamp utility.

That was the only possible workaround I found.

Sorry, I misunderstood you.

 

[nanofrog]

Be careful with that. If you use Apple's Software RAID on your boot volume (which is what you want to do with your SSDs), then Bootcamp won't work. When you start the bootcamp utility, it'll tell you it can't access your boot volume.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what will happen.

The Windows disk would need to be moved to a PCIe SATA card, such as an SIL3132 based unit (completely separate SATA controller chip, as Disk Utility will change the firmware settings for those on the ICH in the chipset = unworkable in Windows or Linux).

The card can boot BIOS, so will be able to boot Windows or Linux (example card).

 

[whyrichard]

Hey,

I had no problem with this setup... i used winclone to install windows on the hdd while i used superduper to transfer osx to my raid 0 ssd's.

but time machine won't work with raid 0's ssd's as my bootvolume? really? does time machine not backup things as well for my raid 0 boot volume?

thanks,
r.

 

[nanofrog]

Hey,

I had no problem with this setup... i used winclone to install windows on the hdd while i used superduper to transfer osx to my raid 0 ssd's.

but time machine won't work with raid 0's ssd's as my bootvolume? really? does time machine not backup things as well for my raid 0 boot volume?

thanks,
r.

So you've actually gotten a Cold Boot to work for both Windows and OS X then (after the stripe set was created under OS X via Disk Utility and OS's installed/transferred properly)?

I ask, as this wasn't possible in '09 systems previously (nor other models). There have been firmware differences/quirks between systems, particularly the '08 systems, as they were the first models to use EFI64.

 

[flatfoot]

So you've actually gotten a Cold Boot to work for both Windows and OS X then (after the stripe set was created under OS X via Disk Utility and OS's installed/transferred properly)?

I ask, as this wasn't possible in '09 systems previously (nor other models). There have been firmware differences/quirks between systems, particularly the '08 systems, as they were the first models to use EFI64.

His Windows install is not on the SSD RAID.

 

[nanofrog]

His Windows install is not on the SSD RAID.

2x OS's on a RAID set created under Disk Utility has never worked. Its OS X ONLY, as partitioning won't help.

I'm talking about Windows on it's own disk (not tied to the RAID set via Disk Utility, but on the same SATA controller = ICH in the chipset). Up to this point, the only way it would work when there was a RAID set made under Disk Utility, was if the Windows disk was on a separate controller. Information made available in MR indicated this was for all Intel based MP's, not just certain models.

If they've at least fixed this for the 2009 systems, I'd like to be sure, as it could be rather helpful for other users. Easier and cheaper too.