Raid 0 Drive 1 at Risk. How to Back up and restore

[John02]

My Laptop came with Raid 0 over 2 one terrabyte harddisks. Last week i started getting Drive 1 at risk message. I looked it up and it turns out that this message occurs some time before your drive fails.

I did a Full computer backup using windows Back up utility using an external Hard drive. Now I'm going to buy a new internal Hard drive to replace the faulty one.

What are the steps i have to do to back up properly ?
After some search, I learned that :
1_ Backup everything.
2_ Replace Faulty drive.
3_ Rebuild Raid 0 array.
4_ Restore the system image.

I just need some clarification before starting (Basically steps 2 and 3). Does the new internal Hard drive have to be the same brand/type/size as the old Faulty hard drive ?
Also I've never used Raid, so how do i recreate a new raid 0 array ? From Bios ? Should i create a repair disk too ? or would Windows dvd work ?
Thats it, Thank you for your help.

 

[Sub Styler]

The drive should match in spec (RPM, Capacity, Cache size, interface type) being the exact model is not essential but recommended, as the array will be limited to the speed of the lowest performing drive. It's actually recommended to replace both drives so they have the same wear, but again this is not essential.

When replacing the faulty drive, ensure you select the correct one, might be tricky if the ports are not labled, finding the array configuration screen in advance may provide info which will help you identify which is which (serial number or such).

Make sure the imaging software you use will support your RAID in a non windows environment (from the boot disk)

Setting up a new array will usually be from the BIOS or a post BIOS ROM depending on your system, e.g.for intel, you press CTRL+I when prompted, if you don't see such a message try turning off any boot logo's.