Motherboard died, recovering RAID setup

[pradulo]

This morning when I tried to turn my computer on, i got about a quarter turn out of my fans and that's about it. I'm pretty positive that my motherboard is dead (tried other power supplies, etc). Buying a new motherboard isn't a problem, but recovering my HDDs is. I was using the onboard HPT372 RAID controller to do RAID 0 across 2 drives. I want to recover all the info, or continue using the RAID. I was using an Epox EP-8K3A+ motherboard, and looked at the other EPOX boards that had that controller, but can't find any for sale any more.

I was thinking as a solution buying one of the newer EPOX boards and a Highpoint RocketRaid RAID PCI IDE controller card that has the HPT370 controller on it (also ATA-133).

Is there any other way to do this, any mobo out there for sale that has the chipset onboard? Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[ElTorrente]

Unfortunately- this is one of the big reasons for not using onboard RAID controllers.. you get tied to a mobo. I think you will be very lucky if you can retrieve anything from them- you'll need the exact chipset to hook them into again- no way around it.

 

[pradulo]

I have seen where the HPT370 and HPT372 are described as HPT370/372, which leads me to believe that the chipsets are close enough that I might be able to recover data. Anyone else seen it described like that?

 

[grooge]

Originally posted by: ElTorrente
Unfortunately- this is one of the big reasons for not using onboard RAID controllers.. you get tied to a mobo. I think you will be very lucky if you can retrieve anything from them- you'll need the exact chipset to hook them into again- no way around it.

No matter which controller, drives you are using , relying only on those for safe data storage is suicidal. I'm using onboard RAID and if something fail, then I will use some backup I have or simply download them again.

Always have some backup for your data is something that won't be cleared from safe computing for a while..

 

[evilharp]

Yikes! With onboard Raid 0 your chances of recovery are really, really tough. Here's why:

1) Raid 0 is striped (duh) so if one drive fails, it is all gone.
2) If the controller is pooched, the array is also lost, as each brand and model of controller uses different stripe variables.
3) If you are using WinXP your install is tied to the motherboard. Even of you find another board with the same controller, WinXP won't post correctly (learned from experience). You need to find the exact same board with the exact same controller. Safe-mode can work sometimes, but it tends to be hit or miss.
4) If you find the same board with the same controller the cabling must establish the channels in the correct order or else the array won't initialize correctly. Label the master/slave or channel 1/2 on the drive and cable.

I hope you can find the board you are looking for -or- your problem is something other than the motherboard.

In future, you may want to consider a 0+1 array or backing up your critical files to a non-raid drive. Personally, I run a sata raid-0 arrary with a 3rd pata drive for full daily backups. A PCI/PCI-E raid card is another option, as you can get more features and redundancy (i.e. a spare controller) but you need to consider the drive failure issue still.

Good luck.

 

[Zap]

Consider it a lesson learned regarding RAID 0. In the meantime, let's get your data back!!!

Get a "close enough" PCI RAID controller such as the HP370. I've seen a few times where the RAID controller picks up the RAID array with no problems, indicating that somehow the data for the stripe settings is stored on the HDDs. Make sure you keep the drives in order for the IDE ports. Once you've verified that the new RAID card seems to be seeing the RAID array without you having to set it up, get a "live CD" such as BartPE. You'll need to use another computer to create the CD. Make sure you add the RAID controller drivers to BartPE. Now, you can boot up on BartPE and access the RAID array as drive C: again, without altering the data. Alternately you can just boot up on your Windows XP CD, hit F6 to install the RAID drivers, then do a "repair install" over itself.

 

[SemperFi]

I consider myself lucky. Last satruday morning there was a bolt of lightning and a tremendous clap of thunder directly overhead. When I got up my computer was off. Pressed power button nothing. I looked at the motherboard right next to the lan adapter was several small resistors I think. They blew because the metal that encased the LAN connector had a black mark on it. Must have come in the cable because of the UPS and it took my modem, router and every lan adapter connected to it.

Well my computer the one that won't fire was using a raid 0 and of course my wife has saved many pictures since the last back up. Grreeaat! Well I have a spare board with the same chipset Nforce 2 and the same raid controller Sil3112. The one that burnt was an Asus and the replacement was Abit. I had no choice but to try it. I plugged it up and the bios recognized the array so I knew I was in. I had to re acitivate xp because of changes but it is running strong at the moment. I had to reboot once and all has been well since.

I have heard horror stories but I definately haven't had any. I am just glad to get back in and backup.