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How to Clone RAID Disk (Hardware & Software)

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) has become very popular in recent times, thanks to its unique data storage and protection features. There are, of course, many types of RAID setups for data storage, and each setup offers distinctive benefits – and requires a specific setup procedure.

Most RAID levels can be set up with at least two (2) hard drives, but some RAID levels require a minimum of three (3) or four (4) disks to set up. This article explains all you should know about RAID setups and how you can clone RAID drives. Cloning RAID drives could be a way of backing up the data content on the drive(s) for data loss scenarios.

What is a RAID Array?

What is a RAID? In simple understanding, a RAID array is the systematic arrangement of two or more hard drives to achieve a RAID level. What distinguishes between RAID levels and arrays is how the member drives are set up using a RAID controller (could be software or hardware controller); it is the RAID controller that determines the actual RAID level or array you’re building.

Common RAID levels are RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, RAID 01, RAID 50, and other configurations. A RAID array could offer striping, mirroring, parity distribution, or any two of these data storage techniques. While some RAID levels may offer high data redundancy and resilience in critical hard drive conditions, they are still not a full substitute for data backups.

Setting up RAID can significantly improve read and write performance, as well as foster business continuity in case of drive failure. Most RAID levels will continue to function even when there’s a failed drive in the array and will automatically rebuild when you replace the failed drive with a new one.

There are complexities among RAID levels, but the fact remains that RAID is better than single-storage, especially in data centers or business environments where drive failure could affect a whole lot if there are redundancy solutions set up for such scenarios.

How to clone RAID?

Some RAID arrays like RAID 1 do not offer “more space,” regardless of how many drives you use in the array – you will only get the space of the “smallest” drive as your total space. Cloning a RAID array is possible; you can either clone the individual drives or clone RAID. Well, to clone the entire RAID to a new single drive, the new drive must have enough space relative to the total storage offered by the RAID array.

For example, if the total storage offered by a RAID is 2TB, you need a single 2TB drive to clone RAID. There are several reasons why one may want to clone RAID storage, and this can be linked to data backup considerations. Also, RAID levels can be complicated in how they read and process data, so at some point, you may just want to switch to a single-drive storage. But regardless of what your reasons are, cloning a RAID storage is possible.

Why Should You Clone RAID to a Single Drive?

  • RAID rebuilding
  • RAID array decommissioning
  • System migration
  • Data backup

Different data environments call for specific data storage needs. Moreover, RAID is not foolproof for data loss – and is more difficult to manage compared to single-drive storage. NAS systems and DAS setups all use RAID technologies for data storage – allowing you to access your data from different systems simultaneously without sacrificing data transfer speed and upholding redundancy.

But then, most RAID levels can’t reconstruct data when one or two drives fail in the array, which makes regular backups the only reliable foolproof solution to data loss cases. Backing up and restoring RAID data can be a bit challenging, but much easier with a single drive. You can clone RAID to a single drive, so when a drive fails in the array and the RAID won’t rebuild automatically, you can retrieve the lost files/data from the single drive.

Also, if you’re about to run system migration, cloning your RAID to a single drive to run the migration from the single drive would be a lot easier. But, cloning RAID to a single drive to subsequently use the single drive as your preferred storage is quite risky, if the single drive fails, all your data will be instantly inaccessible and lost, probably.

How to Clone RAID Array to Single Drive/SSD in Windows?

First things first, you need a professional software tool to clone RAID. Most RAID cloning software programs are premium apps, you have to pay to use them.

  • Step One: Download and install RAID cloning software like Wondershare UBackit, and launch the program.
  • Step Two: From the program’s main screen, click on the “Clone” tab and select the RAID drives/volumes as the “Source” drive(s). Click “Next.”
  • Step Three: Select the single drive storage device as your “Destination Disk,” and click next. In the pop-up prompt, confirm the cloning process and wait for the cloning process to run completely. Your RAID data will now be available on the selected single-drive storage.

Note: Before you can clone RAID drive with this program, the clone destination disk must offer sufficient space equivalent to the total data size from your select source “RAID drives.” The cloning process may take a long time depending on the data size and disk speed.

Clone Hardware RAID

Hardware RAID is when you use an external RAID controller hardware for your RAID setup. This type of RAID setup is proven to offer faster performance and flexibility than software RAID, but at a cost – hardware RAID is more expensive to set up because of the additional hardware (the controller). Cloning hardware RAID is no different from cloning any other type of RAID setup and hereunder are the steps.

  • Step One: Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard and launch the program on your Windows PC
  • Step Two: On the program’s main page, right-click on the RAID drive and select “Copy.”
  • Step Three: Choose the single drive to where you want to save the RAID data. (Note: any previously saved data on the single drive will be overwritten).
  • Step Four: Confirm the operation following the on-screen prompts and wait for the cloning to be complete.

Clone Software RAID

Most home users prefer the software RAID because it is more affordable and also flexible to a great extent. While software RAID might not offer the best performance compared to hardware RAID, it does offer reasonable performance speeds – based off the host PC’s specs and capabilities. Cloning software RAID is the same as cloning hardware RAID, the only difference, in software RAID, you’re choosing “volumes” and not drives per se.

  • Step One: Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard and launch the program on your Windows PC
  • Step Two: On the program’s main page, right-click on the stripped or mirrored RAID volume and select “Copy Volume.”
  • Step Three: Choose the single drive to where you want to save the RAID data to. (Note: you can’t copy the RAID volume to another partition on the same disk).
  • Step Four: Set partition size and other configurations and confirm the cloning; you should leave everything at the default values and settings if you’re unsure what they imply.

How To Recover RAID Data

Need to recover data from RAID drive? If you discover that some files or important data are missing from your RAID volume after trying to clone RAID, you can retrieve the files and data using DiskInternals RAID Recovery for data recovery on RAID. This software supports all RAID levels and types (hardware or software RAID); it also supports all known Windows and Linux OS filesystems.

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DiskInternals RAID Recovery is the professional go-to solution tool for system admins and IT experts when they face a RAID recovery situation. The software comes with a built-in Wizard to help users navigate the RAID recovery process swiftly. DiskInternals RAID Recovery runs on all Windows OS versions and editions; it can recover multiple RAID data formats with high efficiency.

Conclusion

When cloning a RAID disk, it is important to note that any existing data on the drive you’re cloning to will be erased. RAID technology offers data resilience and redundancy to a great extent, but still doesn’t come in as a complete alternative to native backups. Cloning a RAID disk can be for different reasons and there are many intuitive PC programs to help you achieve that. If you’re ever faced with a RAID recovery scenario, DiskInternals RAID Recovery is a reliable tool to use.

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