Is it possible to migrate RAID 0 disks

[Evo]

I have a couple of identical Maxtor SATA drives that were in a good RAID o config on an ABIT MB. I want to move the same RAID disks as they are with the data intact to an ASUS MB. In fact I have tried this but without success. On the ASUS MB the RAID status is "Good" and striped as it was. It's using the same stripe size (64k)....I was seemingly able to re-establish the RAID array.

I'm pretty sure the RAID chipset is different on both MBs. On the new ASUS MB the RAID array in the BIOS looks good it doesn't boot. I've tried to repair with the winxp CD, and even when I load the new RAID drivers (F6) windows setup says there are no disks present.

Does anyone know if I can do this or if there are any tools that will let me see the if the construction of the array is still valid? I don't want to destroy the array and start again if possible, I'm willing to put the disks back as they were and backup/restore the data using winxp NTBACKUP (inc. ASR if necessary)...but I'm not sure if it will restore?

Any ideas?
Cheers
Mark

 

[PCcashCow]

Inside the Raid Utility have you set the the array to bootable? You need to do this in order for the sub-system to direct to the boot loader.

Also in the XP recovery console did you run the
FIXMBR C:
FIXBOOT C:
BOOTCFG /rebuild ?

Be sure that you do to fix the boot ( I am assuming the C: is your windows directory.

Another suggestion would be to Ghost your Data on another drive while attached to the old hardware( this involves wiping your array) that way you have the data. Build your raid 0 in the on the new hardware and with the Ghost CD and the Ghost'ed image attached, move the data onto the array. After this you may need to do a repair to load the correct driver and fix mbr again.

 

[Evo]

The RAID is configured as bootable.....I tried a Repair from the XP setup (after loading the RAID driver) but it didn't find any repairable partitions. I then tried ENTER to imitate an XP install, the system tried to read the volume but then hung straight away.

I thought about ghosting but I haven't used any of the later versions....I remember older versions of Ghost could be funny about the hardware the image was restored to if it wasn't similar enough to the source.

I was considering a simple NTBACKUP + restore and then mayve fixing the BOOT.INI etc.....I am hoping the XP Repair process can fix something like this. I'll probably add the new RAID drivers to my XP cd to make the process a little quicker.

I'll try your suggestion tonight and report back

Cheers
Evo

 

[FITCamaro]

No. RAID arrays using an onboard controller will only migrate to a new motherboard if the controllers on both boards are the same or nearly identical (maybe different revisions of the same controller).

I found this out the hard way too.

The ghost idea may work but the problem is I'm pretty sure some data relating to the old array on the old controller is gonna go with it and will leave you with two disks as if you had just moved them over to the new controller from the old.

 

[Evo]

Hmmm.......this is a real shame. I think I will try the backup restore routine and see where that gets me. I could attempt a backup and partial restore of the windows registry trying to avoid hardware related hives but I think that's just asking for trouble. Yes in fact I think it would be a nightmare......since some of the software will be M/B specific.

I'll try some stuff out tonight...I think it's going to be a long night!

Thanks

 

[Evo]

This is what I've done so far:

I moved the disks back to the old system in the hope that I could boo from them again and recover/backup the data. Unfortunately the array was broken on the original controller and the system would only allow me to create a new array......so I'm disapointed at that.

Moved the disks back to the new system.....again when I load the Raid driver during the XP setup process and then press F6 to repair...the system attempts to read the partition "Reading xxxx bytes from disk 0 on controller 1" etc... again at this point the system freezes.

So I installed a PATA disk with XP installed...this was an obsolete disk from a dual boot, dual disk system....so in fact this wouldn't boot either....I tried a repair on this disk but then it prompted for drivers that I didn't have.

Tonight I'm going to install XP fresh on the single PATA disk and boot from that. Hopefully when I install the Raid driver the system will detect the striped raid disks......I'm hoping that windows has some tools to recover the data...or that I might be able to use some 3rd party software instead........any suggestions?

Cheers
Mark