Transferring RAID Array to new Motherboard

[Hesseroni]

I'm currently looking into upgrading to an MSI K8N Neo Platinum motherboard, but am wondering if my RAID0 array from my old Epox 8K3A+ board will be recognized by the K8N Neo. I'm guessing that it should, but if someone could give me a little info on HOW that works or what steps I need to take to get it done I would appreciate it a lot.

 

[Concillian]

I would only try it if the built-in RAID chip is the same model/manufacturer. Foir example, If one is highpoint and the other is Promise, you're not going to be doing straight move over to the new board..

On-board RAID solutions are notoriously picky about EVERYTHING... If it were me, I'd backup and start over even if they were the same brand and model RAID chips. Actually if it were me I'd never use onboard RAID.

Make a backup anyway. If you don't you are definitely risking your data. But if the boards use the same RAID chips, then it should just be a straight swap, then setup the RAID BIOS the same as the old one.

Good luck.

 

[Hesseroni]

Thanks for your advice and I guess it looks like I'm going to be copying a lot of stuff soon. However, may I ask what's wrong with onboard RAID?

 

[OLtimrNewbie]

Are you currently using Raid 0 or Raid 1 ? If using Raid 0, I can't begin to think you will be successful. If using Raid 1 (mirrored) you might try only connecting 1drive,( keeping the other unconnected and the OS and data undisturbed) and see if you can boot and run okay. If it works okay, then connect the second drive after you have added the Raid drivers and complete the setup for Raid 1. None of your data will be lost. If the new single hookup doesn't look like it will work or the data gets corrupted, you still have the unconnected drive with a good OS and data on it to crosswrite from later. Now I read the ? more carefully; I see you're using Raid 0. I don't like your chances of making a clean switch.

 

[Concillian]

However, may I ask what's wrong with onboard RAID?

Onboard RAID is either RAID 0 or 1 (or in the rare case 0+1)

- RAID 0 significantly reduces your data reliability, as if either one of your drives fail, all your data is gone.
- Reviews of RAID 0 performance from all the in-depth reviews I've read have noted little to no actual performance benefit for the average usage of a normal person or gamer. The benefits are primarily only in LARGE contiguous transfers, and those are not typical.
AT Review: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101
Storagereview review: http://faq.storagereview.com/SingleDriveVsRaid0
Storagereview discussion in their forums: http://forums.storagereview.ne...ex.php?showtopic=15912

In the forums discussion there is some indication that the PCI bus is a signifiacnt limitation, and that PCI-e based systems may make RAID more of a performance benefit.

- Motherboard manufacturers want, more than anything, just to have another feature on their list, and support for on-board products is generally spotty at best.

Here is a guy who had a RAID 1 array, had one drive fail, but couldn't get it to rebuild, and tech support was no help at all:
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=52229

Given that going RAID 0 should bring performance, but doesn't really seem to bring much performance at all, I feel the risk to my data is greater than the benefit of a small amount of speed.
Given that RAID 1 should bring reliability, but when you have spotty support, you can't really count on it being there, I'd never want to run RAID 1 on an on-board solution either... Plus RAID 1 capacity is 1/2 of your total drive space.

No, I've heard too many horror stories of onboard RAID, and there is too little supporting evidence that there are tangible benefits.

I do use RAID, but RAID 5, primarily for reliability, not primarily for speed... on a 64-bit / 66MHz slot... with a 3Ware controller (hardware RAID, not firmware/software RAID like all the on-board solutions) ... and only on my fileserver... my two regular PCs just use single drives (single cheetah 15k drives )

 

[Hesseroni]

Thanks again Concillian. I read the AT article and you're totally right:thumbsup:.

The system I'm using currently was the first one I built about 2 years ago when I originally got into computers and such. I had just assumed that running 2 drives on RAID 0 would be a lot faster, but after reading that article I see that it's not really that much of a performance boost. This is the only comp I've ever owned, so I never had anything to compare it to.

I haven't had any problems with my current setup, but I think since I'm building a new one I might as well forget the the whole RAID thing.

 

[OLtimrNewbie]

Hesseroni; Here's another site with info re: changing MB and saving system. Works for Win2000 & XP

http://www.windowsreinstall.co.../motherboard/winxp.htm

It might be worth a read

 

[Hesseroni]

Thanks OLtimrNewbie, but I think that Concillian was right when he was saying that if the RAID chips are different then the new motherboard won't even be able to recognize the array from the old one, in which case Windows won't even load, in which case it won't be able to "automatically redetect the hardware changes"

 

[Concillian]

If it ends up being noticeably slower let us know.

 

[AMD Die Hard]

Hey Hess, you might want to consider picking up a highpoint RocketRaid133 pci add in card. I had one and and the 8k3A+ and I was able to just plug them in running RAID 0,1. And they are pretty cheap.

 

[Hesseroni]

That's a pretty good idea AMD, but I think since I'm going to be buying a bigger, better harddrive I'm probably just gonna copy the array onto that one disk and just leave it off of RAID. I should be doing this sometime next week, depending on how long shipping takes for all my new parts. I'll post on how that goes and whether or not, not using RAID is THAT much slower, hopefully next week.

That is assuming I don't somehow screw up my new system

 

[Hesseroni]

Well, I got it all put together and am just running one hard drive. I really don't notice much difference in the speed(when compared to a RAID array). If anything it seems a little faster, then again that might just be from the fact that I upgraded my whole computer and the new hard drive uses SATA. I ended up just copying most of the files of the array onto my new hard drive. Just out of curiousity, how would I have made an exact copy of the array? That is, one that I would be able to boot from. I tried using Powerquest Drive Image 4.0, but I kept getting errors when trying to make a copy of the array.

 

[OLtimrNewbie]

Congrats! I'm glad it is going well. I agree; 1 highspeed SATA drive will be as fast as Raid 0 For a drive image; you might try Norton Ghost. I haven't used it myself; yet! I still use Raid1 and trust I won't lose both Harddrives at the same time; therefore no need for an image.