Raid arry can i move it

[bigteduk]

I am pretty convinced my Motherboard(giga-byte g7-dxr) is dead the thing is i have a striped raid array onboard that i have stupidly not backed up is it going to be possible to move the array to the new board and keep the data

 

[ZachBenj]

Having seen it done on other machines (Compaqs)I would say yes. Just make sure the drives are hooked up in the same order that they are currently in. Configure the RAID Identical as it is now and it should work. From having configuring Mylex controllers and Smartdrive controllers mapping the drives should be nondestructive. Once drive mapping is configured save and see if it boots. This will probably only work on another giga-byte g7-dxr motherboard.
No way to guarantee success, especially when moving drive but recovery should be possible. My suggestions are what I would try myself. If incorrect, I welcome corrections to my knowledge.
Scott
stomlin@baptistfirst.org

 

[knporter]

My quess would be that this would only work with identical raid controllers. If your motherboard uses the common High-Point or Promise raid controller you can probably find another motherboard that uses the same controller.

"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people."

--Admiral Hyman G. Rickover

 

[AHolcomb]

I too have a similar problem. I have a RAID 0 array that came from a dead ABIT NV7-133R (HPT370) that I want to move to my new Gigabyte mainboard which uses the Promise PDC20276 chipset. When I install the 2 40GB drives on the new board, the RAID manager detects the drives as being striped, but Windows 2000 sees it as an unformatted drive with unknown capacity.

Do different controllers follow different standards for creating the array so that an array created with one controller isn't compatible with another?

 

[glister]

Adaptec controllers have a feature called NOBUILD. The NOBUILD feature creates the array without actually building or initializing the array. It updates the RAID information area of the drives with bit patterns indicating the array is OPTIMAL, and leaves the data/parity areas unchanged.

Look for a similar feature with your controller. A+,N+,S+,L+,I+,CFOT,CCNT,ACSP,ISA CCST3

 

[AHolcomb]

Is "NOBUILD" a menu option on those Adaptec controllers, or is there some sort of command line interface that you use?

The Promise controller menu is really basic and won't let you mess with array settings unless the drives contain unpartitioned space.

Thanks for the help! )

 

[glister]

On Adaptec controllers, NOBUILD is what ia known as a hidden feature. These features are accessed by simultaneously pressing Alt+F10, then simultaneouly pressing the character associated with the feature you want to use.

The NOBUILD feature creates an RAID array without actually building or intializing the array. During normal array setup the controller creates a RAID reserve block and builds the array. This process results in a loss of data on the array. The NOBUILD option lets you create an array without building the array. When NOBUILD is active, the controller setup interface assumes that the initial data and parity generation are complete. Subsequently, the interface updates the RAID information area of the drives with bit patterns indicating the array is OPTIMAL, and leaves the data/parity areas unchanged. A+,N+,S+,L+,I+,CFOT,CCNT,ACSP,ISA CCST3