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Raid migration

AustinInDallas

AustinInDallas

Golden Member
Someone made me an offer i couldnt refuse on my i7 750/mobo/ram, so i pulled out my hard drives and said yes before he changed his mind.

Now i have an i5 3570k with the asrock z77 extreme4
My question is what is the best method to put the hard drives in and make sure my raid works exactly as it used to?
 
what was the raid controller on the old board? software? intel? or some other onboard raid? or even some addon card raid?
 
There isnt any best way to make sure.. there is ONLY ONE WAY to make sure and if you used hardware based raid. You have to match the exact same setup as used before if you want to save any data.
 
Not sure about software based RAID, but hardware is easy. Simply clone the RAID array to a single drive. I believe that could be done with software RAID if done before breaking up the system. Same process as backing up a RAID array. I do it once a month to an external via USB then disconnect it.

A lot depends on what kind of RAID. If you had RAID 0, you are probably screwed. With RAID 1, any mirrored drive can be used to rebuild a new array.
 
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If you used the onboard fakeRAID you need to make sure they're of the same brand and possibly version as there's no standard format. Ideally, you should have backed up all of the data before getting rid of the other board.

It's also possible that a Linux Live CD or USB stick could assemble the array with the dmraid driver, but that would also depend on the chipset used because of the format differences.
 
If it were my data, the only migration I would consider is dumping all the data to an external and then copying it to the array in the new system.
 
If you built your arrays on the Intel controller (which is preferable to any other onboard RAID controller), all you should need to do in order to recover the data is to set the Intel controller on the new board to RAID mode. The controller should pick up on the RAID arrays as they were and you should be able to continue as you were.

I had my 2x640GB drives in RAID0 on my previous ASUS Maximus Formula board (X38 chipset). When I upgraded to my Z77 based system a few months ago, I simply pulled the drives from the old system and installed them on the new. Windows might need you to assign a drive letter to the volume.
 
FrysAssociate said:
Exactly. I have the two hard drives, and a new computer. Different mobo company and chipset.
Seems wierd that two hard drives I had can't just be put in a new computer and configured.
Click to expand...

Oh they can be put in and reconfigured, but you'll lose all of the data on them unless you find a way to assemble the current array and get the data off of it first.
 
Nothinman said:
Oh they can be put in and reconfigured, but you'll lose all of the data on them unless you find a way to assemble the current array and get the data off of it first.
Click to expand...

This is incorrect if the controller used on the old and the new systems was an Intel ICHxR controller. In most scenarios, you can simply put the old drives into the new system and the RAID controller will pick up on the array automatically.

If he used the Gigabyte SATA controller for some reason on the old build, then he's going to need to find a compatible controller first in order to recover the data.
 
Zxian said:
If he used the Gigabyte SATA controller for some reason on the old build, then he's going to need to find a compatible controller first in order to recover the data.
Click to expand...
And he would need additional disk-space for the "clean" backup copy.

Linux software RAIDs do know several fakeRAID formats, so a Live/Rescue distro (USB/CD) may double up as "Gigabyte RAID chip". Well, even barge-pole is not long enough to touch that stuff, so chances are limited.

But the most crucial question has already been asked: was it rAID-0 or RAID-1? Reading data from a disk from RAID-1 array of almost every controller is quite trivial.


Generations ago, Intel ICH's had less backward compatibility. That line of chips has improved a lot (on ability to migrate without issues).
 
mv2devnull said:
And he would need additional disk-space for the "clean" backup copy.

Linux software RAIDs do know several fakeRAID formats, so a Live/Rescue distro (USB/CD) may double up as "Gigabyte RAID chip". Well, even barge-pole is not long enough to touch that stuff, so chances are limited.

But the most crucial question has already been asked: was it rAID-0 or RAID-1? Reading data from a disk from RAID-1 array of almost every controller is quite trivial.


Generations ago, Intel ICH's had less backward compatibility. That line of chips has improved a lot (on ability to migrate without issues).
Click to expand...
Raid 0
 
My x38 board just recently died and my raid 0 array on the Intel controller worked perfectly fine on my new Z77 board.

I didn't even have to use my backup at all as every bit of data was fine.

Though windows 7 would not install in RAID mode on an advanced format drive as my install disk was pre SP1. I had to switch to raid mode after the system was up and running which is likely the only complication you will find.
 
Zxian said:
Have you tried simply plugging them in and configuring your new motherboard controller to RAID mode?
Click to expand...

so i decided to just go for it...I mean the worst that could happen is I lose every song and picture i own.

I plugged them in, actually missed the bio boot screen.....but when windows came up....THERE IT WAS! there wasnt even a little message at the bottom right saying drive is ready to use.
Only thing special I did was made sure i plugged them both into the intel sata control instead of the asrock one. So much stress gone!
 
FrysAssociate said:
so i decided to just go for it...I mean the worst that could happen is I lose every song and picture i own.

I plugged them in, actually missed the bio boot screen.....but when windows came up....THERE IT WAS! there wasnt even a little message at the bottom right saying drive is ready to use.
Only thing special I did was made sure i plugged them both into the intel sata control instead of the asrock one. So much stress gone!
Click to expand...

It seem rather lucky that it actually worked. Because just slight difference in storage format, or desiding to connect the disk to a different raid controller can break everything. But hopefully you learned a lesson about proprietary hardware raid.
 
Yeah - a lucky stroke, indeed. The real lesson learned is that a backup to RAID is necessary - especially RAID0. Put that high on your to do list.
 
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CharlesKozierok said:
Yep. Glad it worked out well, but next time.. no impulsive hardware sales without backups. 🙂
Click to expand...

325 for a i5 750, gigabyte p55 and a old 500 gig hdd and gts 250 I had sitting around.
That paid for my brand new i5 3570k, z77 mobo And 8 gigs of ram at microcenter. I had to move fast before he got smart. Best part is he made the offer. I wasn't actively trying to sell

edit: AND he bought my exact case, so I didnt even have to pull out my old mobo cpu. I just put the new stuff in the antec three hundred two that he gave me NIB
 
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