Can I save my data when main board dies?

[NHHokie]

I have a RAID main board that apparently died. Tried checking and reseating all chips and peripherals but machine occasionally boots as if nothing is wrong, then it just completely hangs on boot...no video, no nothing and LED indicator on board reads "FF" which means bad motherboard, RAM or BIOS chip. I don't have a spare bios chip and I tested RAM elsewhere. So it's either bios or mainboard.

Either way, my data are on 4 hard drives in RAID striping array.

Can I replace main board with similar board (not identical, but next generation with same Highpoint RAID) and read those drives so I can backup data to CDROM?

 

[jbritt1234]

Yes, if you connect the controller to another Mobo, you will be able to use the drives. If you can get a similar mobo, it will make things easier. Windows sometimes can get screwed up when it starts finding all the new hardware and it can be a pain in the back side.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

as long as you create the raid array in the same order as the original it should come back up. I don't know about the highpoint controller, but enterprise adaptech controllers will automatically detect containers and autoconfigure the raid array to restore access to the array.

 

[NHHokie]

THANKS to all respondents!

Success was mine, but a couple of notes:

It had been working so well so long that I had forgotten how I had set up the RAID. I had actually used two different RAID 0 arrays (the first on RAID IDE channel 1 with two disks and the second on RAID IDE channel 2 with two disks).

When I installed the mainboard and hooked up the two sets of cables, I put them in the wrong way or something. Anyway, when I booted up, Win2K tried to start but gave me a Blue Screen with an error that the disks were not configured properly. I then made the mistake of putting them in the REGULAR IDE sockets and then nothing was recognized.

Finally I decide to just put one cable in the RAID IDE socket and leave the other out. I THOUGHT I had left in the set with the boot drive and kept safe the one with the backup data. I actually had them reversed somehow! Anyway, I then couldn't get those two to boot (no kidding they didn't have a boot sector) and since I WAS SO SURE I had the boot disks, I figured I was going to have to sacrifice them to get something going. So I put my Win2K CD in the CDROM drive and booted from that. Reformatted the first two disks and installed the OS. Once that was booting ok, I plugged the other two drives in and the Highpoint immediate recognized another RAID 0 Array and I found out I had the two disks with the boot drive and a few data drives (my backup files were long gone in the reformat). Fortunately, I could delete the now unnecessary WINNT and PROGRAM FILES directories (I keep all my application settings in a special folder so I could delete the entire Programs Files without losing customization).

So I have my latest data and I have a new install of Windows 2K and I'm real happy with the new Epox 8KRA2+ so far. I like the built in NIC (saves me a PCI slot).

Thanks for telling me it was possible! If I had kept better track (LABEL the cables with Sharpie next time!) I would probably have all my system and data OK (by booting into safe mode).

At least it wasn't too painful.

Now to go experiment and see whether it was my main board or the CPU that really died. And then I can go play with the settings on my new board and see if I can take advantage of all those BIOS configurable voltage settings!

 

[xSauronx]

and then to get a cd/dvd burnere and some disks to keep things backed up for when yer greasy hands rub off the sharpie marks