Quote:
Originally Posted by GH85Carrera
Ah HA! Maybe that is the magic answer. I will download it and give R-image a try.
We really don't use that old RAID for much except to keep some not real critical old files that are handy to have. We want to keep it running as long as possible because of inertia more than anything. We have another 38 TB of RAID storage and will be buying another one soon. We just need a Petabyte RAID, well we WANT a Petabyte RAID. 
Well crap. I downloaded the trial version of R-Drive image and my antivirus program scanned the download and said it was unsafe and deleted it. Back to square one.  |
Basically any "partition copy" software will work. Some are better than others. Good ones work directly under Windows (otherwise it might be a hassle for boot CD to find correct drivers for your 15 year olds SCSI adapter). Good ones copy only used sectors and ignore empty ones.
And make sure you chose correct source drive when copying. It's worth mentioning again. Ask me how I know
I am beliver in portable NAS boxes compared to real servers for up to 10TB storage. Server will eat a lot of power when on 24/7 and all those fans (CPU, power, HD cooling) tend to clog. A simple ReadyNAS box will take 4 SATA discs, has only one fan, chews 50W when active and less than 7W when discs are asleep. Quite handy size as well (~shoebox)
P.S.
What kind of RAID for 38TB array? You probably know this, but using RAID-5 or such on more than 10TB is asking for trouble. Bit rot is guaranteed and rebuild times are looong, which might as well take one more drive down.