Importing raid tables to a new controller? Is it Possible?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

Hey guys... I recently had to upgrade against my will from an nf7s
with an SiI 3112 raid controller to an AV8 wich i believe uses a
VIA VT6420 controller. I was just wondering if there is any way to
restore my original mirrored tables and keep my data from the two
healthy drives. And if not, any suggestions on how to prevent this
calamity the next time i fry my controller. TIA

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

"Demential" <demential@silentweb.net> wrote in message
news:3oidnfRXxrvvV2ffRVn-1w@golden.net...
> Hey guys... I recently had to upgrade against my will from an nf7s
> with an SiI 3112 raid controller to an AV8 wich i believe uses a
> VIA VT6420 controller. I was just wondering if there is any way to
> restore my original mirrored tables and keep my data from the two
> healthy drives. And if not, any suggestions on how to prevent this
> calamity the next time i fry my controller. TIA
>

There dosn't appear to be a universal Raid format which allows drives set up
with one make of controller to work with another.

The solution, as with all Data Loss problems, is to invest in a backup
device. Backups can be used when you move your data between PC's, not just
in the event of data loss.

The big problem for modern PC's is that hard drives are huge. Even
backing up to DVD is time consumming and requires lots of disks.
The easiest option is to consider having a removable hard drive and use
Drive Imaging.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

"Demential" <demential@silentweb.net> wrote in message
news:3oidnfRXxrvvV2ffRVn-1w@golden.net...
> Hey guys... I recently had to upgrade against my will from an nf7s
> with an SiI 3112 raid controller to an AV8 wich i believe uses a
> VIA VT6420 controller. I was just wondering if there is any
> way to restore my original mirrored tables and keep my data from
> the two healthy drives.

I'm by no means the expert on VIA controllers, but it's unlikely you'll be
able to import your mirror array intact. Hopefully one of the members with
more experience of this hardware will be able to confirm to the contrary.

However, seeing as it is a mirror array, one would hope that plugging one of
the disks into your new controller will see it recognised as a singleton,
non-mirrored drive. If so it's obviously a fairly simple case of getting
your OS running and creating a new mirror array once it's up.

> And if not, any suggestions on how to prevent this
> calamity the next time i fry my controller. TIA

Aside from the obvious admonishments about having backups to restore from,
the safest way to transfer a RAID array seamlessly from one board to another
is to buy a board that supports the same type (or brand) as you used
previously. IOW buying another SiI equipped controller would have been the
easiest option, provided you could find a board that otherwise met your
requirements.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com