Brwaking RAIDs

[BarkingGhostar]

I know most folks are typically asking about how to make a RAID, but I am curious as to how to break a RAID, specifically a mirror. On no, I wanna break a mirror. :awe:

I've got pairs of 160GB, 500GB, and 1TB drives all setup in their paired RAID 1 marriages. I wish to break the 500GB and 1TB pairs without losing any of the data.

I am using the Intel Matrix Storage Manager for these RAID volumes. On one hand Intel says this:

Deleting a RAID 1 volume or resetting the hard drive members of a RAID 1 volume to non-RAID should not result in data loss on either of the hard drives - unless the RAID 1 volume is the second volume in a matrix RAID configuration.

On the other hand, the Help that came with the Matrix Manager console software says this:

Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager HelpDelete a Volume

Caution: When a RAID volume is deleted, all data on all hard drives that are part of the RAID volume is permanently deleted. Back up all important data before you delete a volume.

So, I am naturally confused.

 

[Rubycon]

Just remove the drives (physically) from the controller and try to read data off them. Both drives SHOULD have copies of your data. At least that's how it worked when I used these onboard hosts.

 

[Seero]

Just remove the drives (physically) from the controller and try to read data off them. Both drives SHOULD have copies of your data. At least that's how it worked when I used these onboard hosts.

That, or de-select the drive from the raid.

 

[Thor86]

That, or de-select the drive from the raid.

From experience first hand with Intel Matrix Storage manager, there is no option for this. You have to manually unplug one disk's power when running to mark the disk you want off as failed to keep your RAID redundancy intact. Then you can remove the 1TB drive, and replace it with the same 500GB size and re-build the RAID set.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

From experience first hand with Intel Matrix Storage manager, there is no option for this. You have to manually unplug one disk's power when running to mark the disk you want off as failed to keep your RAID redundancy intact. Then you can remove the 1TB drive, and replace it with the same 500GB size and re-build the RAID set.

I'm not trying to maintain the RAID, but wondered if I could kill the RIAD and keep the data on the disks.

 

[Thor86]

I'm not trying to maintain the RAID, but wondered if I could kill the RIAD and keep the data on the disks.

If it's RAID1, and you kill the RAID, then the data will still be on both disks, just access wise only recovery software will be able to get to them.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Well then this is a third aspect. The two opposing views of Intel and now what you are saying.

 

[Lead Butthead]

If memory serves, Intel's ''Matrix RAID'' (never cease to amaze me what weird name marketing people comes up) permits defining multiple logical drives of different RAID level in an array. As long as your array has only 2 physical drives and contains only one RAID 1 logical drive, it should be safe to break the array.

 

[Thor86]

Well then this is a third aspect. The two opposing views of Intel and now what you are saying.

Hmm, maybe you are not clear enough. If you want to keep the raid setup, but only with 1 physical drive, then that is fine. The system will just keep complaining of a broken RAID set, but you should be able to run the system with one disk until something fails.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

I think what you are saying is this:

I have 2 raid sets (2 x 160GB and 1 x 500GB) in a RAID 1 configuration. With Intel Matrix RAID...ICH9R or ICH10R chipset...probably.

I want to break the sets and use each of drives as independent JBOD or single disk volumes.

How can this be done?

Good question. First, you should know that Intel puts a small fingerprint on each drive, so that when you insert it into the system it knows what set it belongs to. This RAID ID is set in the MBR I think or in the first few blocks.

What this means is that you can physically remove one drive from each set, but until you format them, Intel will still think they are part of a RAID 1 set.

You could do the following: (I've never tried this, so backup your data)

Take out one of the 160GB drives. Delete the RAID1 set completely in the BIOS. If the BIOS says you will lose all data, then that's what you need to do. You will likely need to set it up as JBOD or something like single drive (Not sure what the option is).

Put the other one back in. Intel will see it and start it degraded Meaning with only one drive. You can not copy all the data from Drive 1 to drive 2 with some kind of imaging software, like Acronis.

Then take the mirror out and see if everything is there and fine. If so, just put the other drive in and format that one...boom...you have 2 drives setup as JBOD with no BIOS complaints about broken raid. It will take a while, but it's worth it IMO.

regards,

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Just as a contingency I decided to install a 1.5TB disk as an independent disk and copy the contents of the RAID 1 2x500GB and 2x1TB volumes. I do not plan on altering the 2x160GB volumes as that is a boot RAID volume.

With the contents safely backed up to this 1.5TB disk, I can break the 500GB/1TB RAID volumes even if the data is non-recoverable.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

So, the holidays and being back at work kept me rather busy. I used the EX-DOCK2 connected via USB to connect one of the previously RAIDed disks. This was meant as an experiment. As predicted, the Intel Matrix Storage Manager alerted me to the missing disk, which I removed.

What was surprising and unexpected, though, was that the filesystem and stored contents on the disk were immediately accessible when the disk was plugged into the EZ-DOCK2.

With this, I am left to believe the Intel Matrix Storage transparently operated between the operating system and the individual disks. This is good news as it means I can remove all of the disks for the defined RAID volumes I wish to do away with without losing any data.

 

[Emulex]

one feature alot of people forget is intel matrix raid has a "sync" function where you take two drives and sync them as if they were raid-1. live. it's pretty slick. must use some sort of change block tracking to pull this off on a live system.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Since I have a pair of disks in a RAID 1 mirror for boot, I am tempted to power down and disconnect the first disk in this pair, reboot and ignore the Intel Matrix Storage Manager alarm, go into XP Device Manager, delete all of the drivers for all of the hardware (including the motherboard), power down, remove the second disk in this pair and install it as the boot disk in another computer and see what happens.

If I can move other disks in and out of a RAID 1 mirror under this raid manager, I am just curious if I can use it as a boot disk cloning mechanism.