Reinstalling XP with Dynamic disks present

I have a question that i can't seem to find an answer for after much searching

I have a 3 raid array setup 2 hardware mirror arrays (C&D) and 1 windows XP "spanned" or striped array (E).

I have to reinstall my copy of windows XP pro on my machine. I am asking that after reformatting and installing on C will the spanned array (E) still be there. I could try to repair the install but i would much rather just start with a fresh install and not have prior ghosts lying around.

If the spanned array will not be there after reinstalling the OS, is there anything i can do other than coping all that information off of those drives.

Thanks

 

bump for quick reply and repairing the large paperweight from my desk

 

Hate to answer a question with a question but lets make sure I have this right. C is a mirrored array consisting of two drives. D is another mirrored array consisting of two drives. E is a spanned volume across two drives or is E a striped volume consisting of two drives? The whole point being files written to both drives intermittently or files being written to one drive and then - when and if necessary for space, carried over to the second drive while still being labeled as the same volume. Actually, a moot point in relation to your question because E should be left alone if your installation is taking place on C. However, Your cleanest install with come with only one drive (or in this case, array) [Namely, C] hooked up at installation time

To err on the side of caution, you could image E just in case. Then do your installation with nothing but C hooked up and a "who cares" attitude. Ditto on the imaging re: D, depending on how you are using that array.

 

Another thought here ...... it would also be helpful to know a little about your controllers and possibly the motherboard. Reason being - some arrays are set differently - as an example, I have one board with both a Promise controller and a Via controller. The Via controller has to be set in the BIOS re: RAID yet the Promise is set independently of the system BIOS. Then another board (also ASUS) has two different controllers, both of which are set in the system BIOS. Then again, most Highpoint controllers are set Ctrl-H, independently.

 

thanks for the responses guys.

E uses spanning under dyanmic disks under windows XP pro. So it uses software under windows disk management the other 2 mirrored arrays are using hardware raid on a uli controller on a DFI lanparty cfx board. i'm not worried about C and D because there information is stored in the bios chips on the board. C will get scrapped anyway with a new windows install and i'm sure D will be fine.

My questions are related to when you make a spanned disk in windows xp disk manager. Is that information stored in windows or somewhere on the drive so that a different install of windows will still recognize it?

In response to just imaging it and then not caring: I would really rather not image the spanned drive because it is almost 700g worth of information. I would have to do some real jumbling around and compressing to find space for that on something else.

I'm afraid if a i reformat and install windows that the dynamic windows disks would disappear. I might try and install windows on a another computer and plug in the existing drives to see if it would work. Just didn't want to go through the trouble of installing windows 2x.

 

Aah ........ much clearer picture now. I can't answer your question without some speculation so I think you are right on re: trying the spanned discs in another machine. You should be able to import them into another machine or into your new installation using Windows disc management, but since its 700 gigs of stuff you can't take any kind of a chance on, I'd pefer to hear some other comments. I wouldn't have them hooked up when you do your installation.