[SOLVED] Connecting Windows XP to an existing Healthy NVIDIA RAID

[GraffyTenn]

Have been running a NVIDIA Striped 2 channel raid for many years (Circa 2005). This raid contains a partition running windows XP pro and two additional partitions for other data. Windows has become corrupted and won't load. But my raid is still "HEALTHY". "Repair" steps from XP install disc failed. Cannot reinstall new copy of XP because I lack a floppy drive for the NVIDIA raid drivers.

So, I've added a new stand alone hard drive and loaded Windows XP. Now I need to add the raid drivers so I can see my existing raid from XP running on the new drive. I have the NVIDIA drivers on a USB and am at the "Add New Hardware" Step.

Windows is asking me to select the driver, (3 options appear)

-- NVIDIA nForce RAID Controller
-- NVIDIA nForce RAID Device
-- NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller

Two questions:

1. Which driver do I choose?
2. Will this simply add the driver so Windows can now see my RAID? (I am nervous that my existing HEALTHY raid congifuration, and the data it contains, does not get lost!)

Thanks, Dan

 

[USAFRet]

Striped 2 channel raid
....
(I am nervous that my existing HEALTHY raid congifuration, and the data it contains, does not get lost!)

Is there a known good backup of this data?
If not, why not?

 

[GraffyTenn]

Is there a known good backup of this data?
If not, why not?

We have a NAS drive that was running xxcopy from another machine, but that drive has failed. We have partial backups on USB sticks but want to get access to the entire data and continue use of the existing healhy raid.

 

[USAFRet]

We have a NAS drive that was running xxcopy from another machine, but that drive has failed. We have partial backups on USB sticks but want to get access to the entire data and continue use of the existing healhy raid.

A striped array should never be turned on without a FULL and ongoing backup. From Day 1.
Actually, that goes for any system with data and configurations you can't bear to lose.

What happens if you choose the wrong selection, and it kills the RAID 0 and data?
What happens if you choose the right selection, but something else goes wrong in the process?


But no, I do not know which specific choice you should make from the above 3, to guarantee 100% success.

 

[GraffyTenn]

A striped array should never be turned on without a FULL and ongoing backup. From Day 1.
Actually, that goes for any system with data and configurations you can't bear to lose.

What happens if you choose the wrong selection, and it kills the RAID 0 and data?
What happens if you choose the right selection, but something else goes wrong in the process?


But no, I do not know which specific choice you should make from the above 3, to guarantee 100% success.

Okay, thanks.

 

[popatim]

Windows is asking me to select the driver, (3 options appear)

-- NVIDIA nForce RAID Controller
-- NVIDIA nForce RAID Device
-- NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller

Two questions:

1. Which driver do I choose?
2. Will this simply add the driver so Windows can now see my RAID? (I am nervous that my existing HEALTHY raid congifuration, and the data it contains, does not get lost!)

Thanks, Dan

The driver is the same for all 3. The Nforce driver which you can download from: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
and select Legacy for product type and then you'll see the nforce options,

 

[GraffyTenn]

Thanks. I just needed to know which one of the 3 to choose. Turns out it was the first in the list. "Controller". Everything is restored. Thanks all for the feedback.

 

[popatim]

Don't forget to backup all important data