Hard drive questions - DPChallenge Forums

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

07/03/2007 01:28:41 PM · #1

Question one - I have a backup drive in an external enclosure but it's your standard internal hard drive. I want to take it and store it at work. Do I just put it in a ziplock baggie or what? This is assuming I wish to use the enclosure for another backup drive.

Question two - I currently have two drives in RAID format on my machine. I'm out of hard drive space, more or less. If I want to unRAID them, can I do so and keep one drive as it currently is, then reformat the other? If so, how do I do that? (And yes, I suppose I could go look all this up on the web, but figure it may be of use to others. And I've got a lot to do this evening and am hoping someone has the answer at the tip of their fingers and is willing to share.)

jaysonmc

Nikon D200

Nikon MF 105mm f/2.5 AIS

07/03/2007 01:34:27 PM · #2

Not sure about question 1. Are you just asking about transportation? A baggie will work.

Question 2, is this Raid0 or Raid1? You can't break up Raid0. Raid1 (mirror) you can break up. Some of this depends how you built the Raid Volume. Using windows disk manager?

kyebosh

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 80-200mm f/2.8L

07/03/2007 01:36:12 PM · #3

you can store a hard drive pretty much anywhere... I just throw them wherever, say in a box or on the floor by my computer, and they work years later. Just don't let them get wet. I can't really answer the second question but I'd bet there's a way to do what you want.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

07/03/2007 01:37:26 PM · #4

For #1: A sealed plastic bag, in a box with some sort of shock-absorbing product (foam peanuts, crumpled paper, etc.). Try to find some of those packets of silica gel to put inside the plastic bag to absorb excess moisture.

07/03/2007 01:55:32 PM · #5

I think I set it up as Raid1 - set it up via the bios when I installed the drives.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

07/04/2007 08:56:28 AM · #6

Bump - I know I set up the RAID to begin with in bios, then think I did something else via a Windows device manager thingie or something. I want to undo the raid but keep one drive as is (ie with the system installed and as the boot drive) then clear the other one. Haven't been able to find anything particularly useful on the 'net yet.

griz210

Nikon D300s

07/04/2007 09:21:40 AM · #7

deb
I am not 100% sure but i dont think you can do what you are wanting to do with your raid setup. I think you data is distribured across booth drives.

I believe what you will need to do is backup all your data to another external drive then you can break you raid up.

good luck

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

07/04/2007 09:23:40 AM · #8

Since it's RAID 1, it's got the same data on both drives. I *should* be able to break the RAID and still have essentially the same thing I do now, but I don't know a) how to break it, and b) how to reset the computer/bios so it knows that the RAID is broken and to just use the single drive as the system drive. I'm hoping one of our resident geniuses will have an answer.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

07/04/2007 10:12:44 AM · #9

I don't have an answer on the RAID question, but I do have some input for you on the storage question.
First, when you get a drive, it will be in either a pink plastic bag, or a bag that looks like it has a dark gray tint. These are special bags that prevent damage from static electricity. You should store your drive in a bag of this type. If you don't have one on hand, you can usually get them anyplace that sells computer hardware. Place the drive in the bag, fold the bag over and tape it shut.
Also, don't use packing materials that are static generators; styrofoam is particularly bad. Packing "peanuts" are usually styrofoam.

Hope this helps.

smurfguy

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

07/04/2007 10:45:35 AM · #10

Hi Deb,

I don't have much experience with RAID, but I would try these steps:

1. Remove one of the drives. If it's raid 1, it should still boot just fine.

2. Turn off the RAID controller in the BIOS. Again, if it still boots, you're still golden. (I'm not really sure if this step will work - the drive may be formatted in such a way that requires the RAID controller, but I'm sure that, if it doesn't boot, you can always just turn the controller back on)

3. Put the other drive back in. Assuming the RAID controller is off, you should see the new drive. Format it and go from there.

However, if any of these steps fails, it's likely that RAID formatted drives can't be used without the RAID controller, and you'll probably need to try another route.

-Jeff