[SOLVED] Moving Raid 0 disks to a new PC

[MOAMH]

Hi everyone, I have an old XPS 8100 which I changed approximately upgraded most of it over years and now it is the time to upgrade the motherboard and the CPU. The current processor is i7-860 with the default motherboard of this model. I have done the following changes through the years:

• Changed the default PSU of 350 W into GAMEMAX ATX PSU GM-500G (500W)
• Changed the default GPU of GTS 240 into GTX 1070.
• I added one 960G SSD. (my board only supports SATA II connections).

Now I am thinking to upgrade to AMD Ryzen 9 3900x after reading the reviews, checking the price value etc. With this upgrade, I will need to change the motherboards and rams.

The question part: I have 1 T coming with the original dell XPS 8100 model. I am using them for storing my data and moved my operating systems into the new SSD. However, I would like to keep using these two disks without loosing their data. How can I transfer these two disks and connect them with the new motherboard? should I select a specific motherboard model? I am not sure if this is a software raid or a hardware raid. You help and guidance is really appreciated. Thanks.

 

[SkyNetRising]

How can I transfer these two disks and connect them with the new motherboard?

You're moving from Intel core 1st gen to Ryzen. With motherboard change OS must be reinstalled.
If this is hardware RAID, then RAID setup is specific to your old motherboard. It can not be directly transferred to a new system.

Create image of the system on backup storage (backup drive necessary),
install OS on new system (new OS drive necessary),
move old drives to new system,
set up raid on new system for old drives,
restore backup to drives (restored OS can not be used).

If you did raid setup yourself, then you must know, how you created it and, if it is hardware or software raid.
Anyway - show screenshot from Disk Management.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

 

[USAFRet]

Motherboard RAID 0, moving between old Intel and new Ryzen?
As above, no.

What drives compromise this RAID array?

 

[MOAMH]

You're moving from Intel core 1st gen to Ryzen. With motherboard change OS must be reinstalled.
If this is hardware RAID, then RAID setup is specific to your old motherboard. It can not be directly transferred to a new system.

Create image of the system on backup storage (backup drive necessary),
install OS on new system (new OS drive necessary),
move old drives to new system,
set up raid on new system for old drives,
restore backup to drives (restored OS can not be used).

If you did raid setup yourself, then you must know, how you created it and, if it is hardware or software raid.
Anyway - show screenshot from Disk Management.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

You're moving from Intel core 1st gen to Ryzen. With motherboard change OS must be reinstalled.
If this is hardware RAID, then RAID setup is specific to your old motherboard. It can not be directly transferred to a new system.

Create image of the system on backup storage (backup drive necessary),
install OS on new system (new OS drive necessary),
move old drives to new system,
set up raid on new system for old drives,
restore backup to drives (restored OS can not be used).

If you did raid setup yourself, then you must know, how you created it and, if it is hardware or software raid.
Anyway - show screenshot from Disk Management.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

Thanks a lot for your quick response SkyNetRising. I didn't configure this raid, it just come as part of this xps 8100 model. I have never worked with Raid before and I didn't see any clear information to understand this one configuration expect it is raid 0, consisting of two hard drives. This is the image of my disk management. Disk 0 is the new SDD. The other two are the two hard drives in this raid.

https://imgur.com/GDWPreC

View: https://imgur.com/GDWPreC

 

[MOAMH]

Motherboard RAID 0, moving between old Intel and new Ryzen?
As above, no.

What drives compromise this RAID array?

Thanks for your quick response USAFret. I have 1 T of data on this raid and unfortunately I have tried all reasonable possible upgrades to this PC and I thought it is the time to make more radical changes .
This PC (xps 8100) comes with two hard drives in Raid 0 configuration. If I change the motherboard, I need to move this two disks to the new one. If I just connect them to the new motherboard, they will not work or at least I will loose all the data on them which is not an option for me. So, I thought there may be a way to keep them as a raid and just move them as a raid.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for your quick response USAFret. I have 1 T of data on this raid and unfortunately I have tried all reasonable possible upgrades to this PC and I thought it is the time to make more radical changes .
This PC (xps 8100) comes with two hard drives in Raid 0 configuration. If I change the motherboard, I need to move this two disks to the new one. If I just connect them to the new motherboard, they will not work or at least I will loose all the data on them which is not an option for me. So, I thought there may be a way to keep them as a raid and just move them as a raid.

Moving those drives to the new system, as a "RAID 0", will absolutely not work.

You need to copy all that data to elsewhere.
Build the new system, and then evaluate the storage options.

From your Disk Management pic, that is quite unusual.

Disk 1 and Disk 2 were the two original physical drives?

 

[MOAMH]

Moving those drives to the new system, as a "RAID 0", will absolutely not work.

You need to copy all that data to elsewhere.
Build the new system, and then evaluate the storage options.

From your Disk Management pic, that is quite unusual.

Disk 1 and Disk 2 were the two original physical drives?

Yes, exactly. Disk 1 and Disk 2 are the original physical drivers of this Raid. I'm trying to avoid the moving data to another storage device step because this means I need to find a really big alternative storage. But if there is no alternatives, I will

 

[DSzymborski]

Really, just copy the data somewhere else and wipe the other drives. Almost no purpose to using RAID without a very specific workload.

And running a mediocre, group-regulated PSU with a GTX 1070 and a high-end CPU is also something to remedy.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, exactly. Disk 1 and Disk 2 are the original physical drivers of this Raid. I'm trying to avoid the moving data to another storage device step because this means I need to find a really big alternative storage. But if there is no alternatives, I will

There is literally no alternative.

In the context of a RAID 0, that Disk Management pic makes zero sense.

 

[USAFRet]

Looking at it again, that 64GB(?) Disk 2 is a small SSD, serving as a cache for the 2TB HDD Disk 1.
Not an actual "RAID 0".

Might this be correct?

 

[MOAMH]

Looking at it again, that 64GB(?) Disk 2 is a small SSD, serving as a cache for the 2TB HDD Disk 1.
Not an actual "RAID 0".

Might this be correct?

Yes this is true and weird it comes like this from dell. I tried to check if this is really a raid by disconnecting one of them and non-of them worked. I read about Raid 0 and my limited understanding is that it should be done through two equal disks. I don't know even why it has been designed like this but it may be one of dell rare flows

 

[MOAMH]

Really, just copy the data somewhere else and wipe the other drives. Almost no purpose to using RAID without a very specific workload.

And running a mediocre, group-regulated PSU with a GTX 1070 and a high-end CPU is also something to remedy.

Thanks DSzymborski for your nice response. You are right I think I should consider replacing also the PSU with these changes. It seems really hard to save money with this kind of upgrades. This is why I have waited for 12 years to avoid paying this .

 

[USAFRet]

Yes this is true and weird it comes like this from dell. I tried to check if this is really a raid by disconnecting one of them and non-of them worked. I read about Raid 0 and my limited understanding is that it should be done through two equal disks. I don't know even why it has been designed like this but it may be one of dell rare flows

A decade ago, when solid state devices were small and sort of expensive, this was a somewhat common configuration.
Small SSD paired with large HDD, to, in theory, speed up access to data on the large spinning drive.

Some use cases, that worked. Many, it didn't and was just confusing to the user. As we see here.

Some manufacturers called it a "RAID 0".

Copy that data elsewhere, build the new system, copy your personal files back into whatever space exists on the new system.
Files, not applications.

 

[SkyNetRising]

This is the image of my disk management. Disk 0 is the new SDD. The other two are the two hard drives in this raid.

What are specific make/model names of drives involved?
Drive size 1800GB - this is really weird size. Would this be RAID 0 from 2x 1TB drives (900GB from each drive used)?
64GB drive - this most likely is a small SSD cache drive. Could be in msata form factor. Then it would be hard to notice, if you don't know, what to look for.

 

[Zerk2012]

In 2020 raid is fairly obsolete. Your Dell copy of windows will probably not even work with a new PC, your probably going to also need to buy a new windows license.

I really hate windows 10 but use it, usually with a Dell, HP etc the operating system is married to the motherboard unless something has changed that I don't know about.

 

[MOAMH]

What are specific make/model names of drives involved?
Drive size 1800GB - this is really weird size. Would this be RAID 0 from 2x 1TB drives (900GB from each drive used)?
64GB drive - this most likely is a small SSD cache drive. Could be in msata form factor. Then it would be hard to notice, if you don't know, what to look for.

I am not sure how to find these information but this is what I can see on the system information about this Raid and the disks

https://imgur.com/a/OZmErnw

View: https://imgur.com/a/OZmErnw

 

[MOAMH]

In 2020 raid is fairly obsolete. Your Dell copy of windows will probably not even work with a new PC, your probably going to also need to buy a new windows license.

I really hate windows 10 but use it, usually with a Dell, HP etc the operating system is married to the motherboard unless something has changed that I don't know about.

Thanks a lot Zerk for your nice reply. I completely agree but I am really afraid of all these consequences. Changing the motherboard and CPU can cost me to replace everything = buying a new complete PC will be a more reasonable option 😀

I have been trying to keep using this PC heavily for 12 years now and managed to survive with minor updates with limited costs and I end up to change approximately everything - except the motherboard and CPU - and all my work managed to run smoothly until recently when I start to struggle. If I will need to reinstall a new OS also, most likely I will go with Linux to reduce the costs. I am already using windows 10 with Linux fedora and most likely I will sacrifice windows 10 if I should pay for it 😀 Lets see the prices on the black Friday