Replace motherboard in a RAID 0 Configuration

[mikebc]

Hi Everyone,

With the help of this forum, I have confirmed that I need to replace the motherboard in my friend's computer to get him back up and running.

However he just told me that his hard drives are configured in RAID 0.

Is there a way to replace the motherboard without having to lose everything on his hard drives?

That's what happened the last time I replaced a motherboard in a system with RAID 0, however that was a couple years ago - just wondering if things have changed since then.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

[sgrinavi]

I did it twice, the first time it was a straight swap for the same board with a new rev (DFI Lan-party 939 board) and it worked fine the second time I went to a P35 and it did not work.

 

[heymrdj]

From wiki:

RAID is not readily moved to a new system. When using a single disk, it is relatively straightforward to move the disk to a new system. Simply connect it to the new system, provided it has the same interface available. However, this is not so easy with a RAID array. A RAID BIOS must be able to read metadata from the array members in order to successfully construct the array and make it accessible to an operating system. Since RAID controller makers use different formats for their metadata (even controllers of different families from the same manufacturer may use incompatible metadata formats) it is virtually impossible to move a RAID array to a different controller. When moving a RAID array to a new system, plans should be made to move the controller as well. With the popularity of motherboard integrated RAID controllers, this is extremely difficult to accomplish. Generally, it is possible to move the RAID array members and controllers as a unit, and software RAID in Linux and Windows Server Products can also work around this limitation, but software RAID has other limitations (mostly performance related).

When you pick RAID you pick it for life...this is a sad truth and the truth that has put a tangible if not permanent pause to me building a 30TB Raid array.

 

[RebateMonger]

n.m.

 

[Nothinman]

When you pick RAID you pick it for life...this is a sad truth and the truth that has put a tangible if not permanent pause to me building a 30TB Raid array.

Depends on what RAID you pick. Using an onboard softRAID card is probably the worst case scenario, if you have the exact same model chipset as a replacement it might work but otherwise you're probably screwed.

True hardware RAID cards are cards so unless it dies you can move it to a new board but you're array is still tied to that controller card.

Software RAID is the most versatile and can be moved to any machine without any real problems. In fact with the way Linux software RAID is done I can move the drives around however I want and as long as the system sees them all on bootup it'll bring up the array just fine. Whether it's plugged into USB, SCSI, PATA, SATA, Firewire, etc doesn't matter at all and I can even mix and match if I want.