Question RAID0 Drives, MB Failure, Recover Data

[eng8492]

My desktop motherboard failed somehow, most likely because beer entered the case and flowed down everything inside like a little shower. Worse, it was my last my bottle.

I have 2 drives in a Raid0 array, and need to recover their contents because this terrible loss occurred in between the regularly occurring weekly Sunday night disk imaging.

I bought the same computer/motherboard off of Ebay. I will disconnect the drives in it, make sure that the bios is set to RAID, then I will reinstall my boot drive, start the OS, and resolve any graphics card driver problems.

Next I will connect the raid0 array--2 non bootable HD's.

Do the drives have to be in the same SATA ports that they used in the beer soaked computer or will the Intel Raid driver on my bootable hard disk figure it out?

 

[jimmysmitty]

I hate to be the one to say it but the odds are you are not going to be able to recover any data. RAID 0 is not a redundant array. Its performance and the data is split between the drives. The Intel RAID itself is built onto the board. Its not a software RAID and not a full hardware RAID. But due to that since the chip itself has no information of the RAID it wont see anything but two individual drives.

Now you can try and hopefully it works. And no they don't need to be in the exact same ports just make sure they are in the Intel SATA ports and not the other non Intel ports.

 

[velocityg4]

As long as RAID is enabled in the BIOS. The Intel RAID manager should recognize the existing array. The same ports aren't necessary. They just need to be on the same controller as one another.

To clarify on many Intel boards. Two ports are part of one group and four ports are part of another. Both drives must be plugged into only one of those groups.

Also getting the same board was not necessary. Intel RAID works between generations. I've taken an Intel RAID from one computer and just plugged it into another several generations newer (P45 to Z77). It was recognized and worked fine. I can't recall if I had to go into the RAID configuration utility and enable it. Just that it was recognized and all data remained intact. It was a three disc RAID 0.

The only concern is if your motherboard had a secondary controller. Many added a second one from the likes of Marvell (for example) for more SATA ports. Then you must be sure you plug a Marvell RAID into the Marvell ports or Intel RAID into the Intel ports.

 

[eng8492]

As long as RAID is enabled in the BIOS. The Intel RAID manager should recognize the existing array. The same ports aren't necessary. They just need to be on the same controller as one another.

To clarify on many Intel boards. Two ports are part of one group and four ports are part of another. Both drives must be plugged into only one of those groups.

Also getting the same board was not necessary. Intel RAID works between generations. I've taken an Intel RAID from one computer and just plugged it into another several generations newer (P45 to Z77). It was recognized and worked fine. I can't recall if I had to go into the RAID configuration utility and enable it. Just that it was recognized and all data remained intact. It was a three disc RAID 0.

The only concern is if your motherboard had a secondary controller. Many added a second one from the likes of Marvell (for example) for more SATA ports. Then you must be sure you plug a Marvell RAID into the Marvell ports or Intel RAID into the Intel ports.

Thanks for reading the post and having a well-informed answer.

Generally I put the boot drive into port 0, so I guess I will plug the hard drives into 2 and 3.

The motherboard was from dell and the array was monitored by the Intel control panel/driver-- thus I think that the chances of having been plugged into a marvel chipset is small.

But this process never goes as smoothly as it should (I recall that my Samsung desperately wanted AHCI? turned on in the bios but something in the RAID setup made that impossible)

 

[velocityg4]

Thanks for reading the post and having a well-informed answer.

Generally I put the boot drive into port 0, so I guess I will plug the hard drives into 2 and 3.

The motherboard was from dell and the array was monitored by the Intel control panel/driver-- thus I think that the chances of having been plugged into a marvel chipset is small.

But this process never goes as smoothly as it should (I recall that my Samsung desperately wanted AHCI? turned on in the bios but something in the RAID setup made that impossible)

If a boot drive was setup for AHCI. You can't just simply switch to RAID or vice versa. Even if the BIOS had RAID enabled and the drive itself wasn't RAIDed. This is a driver issue and a Windows issue. Mac/Linux would simply load the correct controller driver on boot. There are methods around this which I won't delve into unless asked.

Those port numbers will probably work. I don't know how the motherboard you're using is setup. As the oft seen Intel 2/4 split would be something as Ports 0 and 1 belong to one group and 2 through 5 on another or vice versa. This may not even be an issue on a newer computer. I was just looking at the specs on my computer and it allows RAID across the SATA channels. My older board did not. If your Dell only has 4 ports than there is likely no issue at all.

 

[eng8492]

If a boot drive was setup for AHCI. You can't just simply switch to RAID or vice versa. Even if the BIOS had RAID enabled and the drive itself wasn't RAIDed. This is a driver issue and a Windows issue. Mac/Linux would simply load the correct controller driver on boot. There are methods around this which I won't delve into unless asked.

Those port numbers will probably work. I don't know how the motherboard you're using is setup. As the oft seen Intel 2/4 split would be something as Ports 0 and 1 belong to one group and 2 through 5 on another or vice versa. This may not even be an issue on a newer computer. I was just looking at the specs on my computer and it allows RAID across the SATA channels. My older board did not. If your Dell only has 4 ports than there is likely no issue at all.

Ok-

Just for posterity-- I am all set now:

The bios had AHCI defeated because the Intel Raid Driver would not work with AHCI enabled. I don't know if this is a general condition or just because I built the array on the fly with the Intel utility while Windows was running. Samsung Magician utility said that the AHCI must be enabled to maximize Samsung SSD performance.