Recovering a Server 2008 R2 software RAID partition

[SST]

I have asked this on another forum but no one seems to be able to help so i thought i'd try here.

 

I am currently looking at using Server 2008R2 to implement a software Raid 5 partition. My reason for this is I’m limited on PCI card space and have a few other cards I wish to put in my server + this option will save me a fair chunk of money. I understand software raid is not recommended over hardware raid but this is hardly mission critical and only being implemented in a home environment.

 

I plan to have 5 Disks in total

I plan to install the OS on a separate SSD drive (DISK1) from my raid partition.

I plan to create a raid 5 partition using the remaining 4 disks (DISK2/3/4/5)

The four disks that will be used for the raid partition are all 2TB drives.

 

My main question however is as I am installing windows on a separate SSD drive. If this OS disk fails and I have to buy a new disk and reinstall Windows on it. How would I go about 'attaching or recovering' the still intact RAID 5 partition complete with data. Do i need to perform a system state backup or can i simply reinstall a fresh intance of Server 2008 R2 and attach the old raid partition back?

 

Hopefully I’ve made that clear enough and if you want some more information please ask.

 

 

Thanking in advance

[AngryTechnician]

By software RAID, I assume you mean using Dynamic Disks? If so, I'm pretty sure that you just need to reattach all the disks and you can then mount the RAID array using Disk Management (I recall having done it myself once before).

 

This page has a description of the procedure: Move Disks to Another Computer

 

Of course, having a bare-metal backup of the OS drive is always a good idea too in my book.

Edited July 25, 2012 by AngryTechnician

[SST]

Thanks, that was exactly the answer I was after. Have a happy holiday!

[Get2theChoppa]

There are some RAID data recovery software avaialble to help you recover the partition and your data.

 

James...could you recommend any?...plz?