[MSC2]

Thanks, that will be a big help. I'll do that tonight.

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buying another 1TB drive and taking out one of the drives in the RAID and replacing it with the new drive. Let the RAID rebuild itself

this will not work with RAID 0...it would if you used one of the other flavors of RAID
RAID 0 is for speed only with no safety built in at all...if you ever plan on using it you must be diligent on backing up your data because you have twice the risk of a catastrophic failure with no chance of data recovery except your backups
try getting your data using puppy linux like ron suggested...

I am really curios to see if it will work on a raid setup

[happyrock]

buying another 1TB drive and taking out one of the drives in the RAID and replacing it with the new drive. Let the RAID rebuild itself

this will not work with RAID 0...it would if you used one of the other flavors of RAID
RAID 0 is for speed only with no safety built in at all...if you ever plan on using it you must be diligent on backing up your data because you have twice the risk of a catastrophic failure with no chance of data recovery except your backups
try getting your data using puppy linux like ron suggested...

I am really curios to see if it will work on a raid setup

[MSC2]

I'm running RAID 1 not RAID 0. If I previously said RAID 0 I apologize. I have two 1TB drives acting as a single 1TB drive.

[happyrock]

if you mean 2 500 GB drives as one TB drive you have a RAID 0 setup
a RAID 1 will only show as 1 500GB drive

[MSC2]

Hi Happyrock, sorry again about the confusion, but I really do have two 1TB drives in RAID 1 showing as single 1TB drive.

It looks like I got my copy of Windows 7 authenticated by Microsoft (through the link on their website). I had to repeat the effort a few times as they reported my connection to them was interrupted. Also the download of the authenticating software failed a few times. Seemed to me that things were just timing out. Anyhow, my last attempt seemed to be successful. I'm going to proceed with backing up my C Drive, but what next??? I'll wait a few minutes to see if either of you have anything for me to do while I have windows up and running. Once I reboot into the Puppy Linux CD, it'll likely take 5 hours to get back to a functional Windows 7 desktop.

[MSC2]

Happyrock,

You were right, I was not able to get to my RAID drives using Puppy Linux. Can you think of anything else that would allow me to boot from CD and backup my RAID drive?

[happyrock]

try going into the BIOS and turn the raid off and put it on AHCI mode

[rshaffer61]

Thanks Happyrock for stepping in as everyone knows I'm not good with Raid setups. As always your assistance is very much appreciated.
MSC2 Happyrock is very well qualified to help with the Raid part and I am watching everything also.

[happyrock]

I'm not to sure how much help I can give judging by my personal experience with my own RAID setups in the past..
I stopped using ANY flavor of RAID about 6 years back...

[MSC2]

Hi Happyrock, Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm a little worried about turning off the RAID or changing to AHCI mode in the BIOS for fear it will wipe out the disk or the partion (etc.). I'd rather proceed without backing anything up. If it gets to the point where all hope is lost and I have to reinstall the OS, then I'd give it a try, but I don't think we're there yet.

So here's where we are: I managed to get Windows 7 legitimized by MS. I'll work on getting to a DOS prompt and running CHKDSK /r tonight (or in safemode if necessary).

After that any suggestions?

BTW, I have noticed something a bit odd the last couple of times I shut the machine down. Just before the desktop closes, I see the BACKGROUND APPLICATIONS RUNNING Popup Window for about 2 seconds (then it quickly close). As if something was still running in the background, but I don't have a chance to see what it is, or to force it to close. I don't think its anything I've launched as I've limited my activity to just what is necessary. Maybe this is something, maybe not, but do you think its worth posting something over on the malware forum before proceeding further here?

[happyrock]

since it is a RAID 1...that means the drives are mirrored...both drives exactly the same
if push comes to shove you should be able to disconnect one of the 2 and then try booting up
no change then swap connections...by reconnecting the drive you had disconnected and disconnecting the one you had left plugged in before...
can you go to the device manager and expand the ide ata/atapi controllers and get a screenshot and post it for us

[MSC2]

Device Manager Screen snapshot attached:

Attached Thumbnails

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[happyrock]

I'm done for the day...
let me think about this and I will post in the morning

[MSC2]

OK, thanks, and have a good night. Since, I've got some time tonight - do you guys have any problems with me posting an OTL log to the Malware forum.

[happyrock]

do you guys have any problems with me posting an OTL log to the Malware forum.

NOPE

what jumper settings do you have the drives set at...