Need to save my data

[crusher]

I have a little problem.

I have 2 WD of 120 gigs in raid 0. 1 night there was a storm and my motherboard blow up. That is not the problem, the problem here is that my motherboard was an old MSI 865pe neo 2 platinum edition. Now i couldnt get that board and i cant have my information back.

I tried with my friend's mobo an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition
with an XP pro and it detects everything the hard drives and all things but i cant see the information then when i go to the administrative manager tools they say to me the storage administrator that i need to create a dinamic drive but im afraid if i create that and if it doesnt work can i lose all my info???
other thing i have the array on.

 

[PCcashCow]

HOWTO: Convert a dynamic disk back to a basic disk without data loss
Posted By: o2

**Disclaimer: This ONLY works if you have NOT used ANY of the "new" features of dynamic disks such as extending a partition or software RAID. This is an expert-level procedure, so if you don't know what you are doing, you shouldn't be attempting this.**

1) Install dskprobe.exe on the system. (This is one of the utilities in the Windows 2000 support tools on the install CD, and can be installed by simply copying the .exe file to the hard drive.)
2) Run dskprobe.exe on the system.
3) Select the Drives menu and "Physical Drive. . ."
4) Double click on the drive that you want to convert back to a basic disk. Click the "Set Active" button next to that drive.
5) From the Sectors menu, select "Read"
6) Accept the defaults (begin sector 0, read 1 sector) and click "Read"
7) In the editor, go to the "01C0" line and the third bit should be a "42". Change that to a "07". **Note, a few machines have had this on the "01D0" line instead. I don't know what that means, so I wouldn't try it unless it is on a pure test box. *****
8) From the Sectors menu, select "Write". Confirm all dialog boxes. **Note: This is the step that will hose your box if you have not followed the above instructions correctly.**
9) Exit dskprobe.exe. Reboot
10) Run chkdsk on the affected logical drive(s). If any errors are found, do a chkdsk /f to fix them. Done.

***** svdsinner writes: I did some research, and this relates to having multiple partitions on the drive. I assume partition 1 would be at "01C0", Partition 2 would be at "01D0", Partition 3 would be "01E0", and Partition 4 would be "01F0". I would assume that you would be required to change every partion on the drive back for this to work. However, I have not tested this. Do so at your own risk.

Special thanks go to svdsinner!

Original Thread

~taken from arstechnica.com

This worked of me on a straight disk, but if windows just sees a single disk anyway because of the it looks are raid, then it should work, in theory.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Don't do anything to the drives yet. Your data is probably still there, but we need more info to help you try to access it.

On your old motherboard, how was the RAID-0 set up? Was it a software RAID (done in Windows), or hardware RAID (done using a RAID controller either on the motherboard or on a separate PCI card)?

If it was hardware RAID (done on the motherboard or a PCI card) who was the RAID controller manufacturer and what chip was used? (I suspect you were using an on-board RAID controller, probably a Promise or Highpoint). I tried to find info on your motherboard, but MSI's web site was giving me problems.

If the chip was something common, like a Promise controller, you might be able to buy a low-end Promise PCI RAID card and it may recognize the array when both drives are hooked up to it. Of course, there are a thousand reasons why that might not work. 8O

If it was a software RAID (which I doubt, because you seemed to be booting off of the array, which you can't do with a software RAID), then Windows should recognize it when both disks are plugged into the motherboard. You've already tried this and it didn't work, so that leads me to believe that is was a hardware RAID.

 

[crusher]

the raid is set up with the hardware raid not software, actually i bought a raid card and doesnt work, the reason is because i set up the raid with 128kb blocks and the raid card support only 64kb

 

[SomeJoe7777]

To give you any hope of accessing the data, the RAID card that you hook the drives up to has to be the same manufacturer and probably the same line of cards as well (i.e. Promise FastTrack, LSI MegaRAID, etc.)

Every RAID controller manufacturer identifies the drives in the array via a proprietary, non-standard method. RAID drives cannot be recognized on a different manufacturer's controller.

 

[PCcashCow]

Does you buddy's PC support that block size? Thinking bout how windows sees hardware raid, I think my suggestion would work.

 

[crusher]

yeah i mean when i array the raid i put the array in 128kb blocks on the board, also its a better board than mine, but the other PCi cards that i bought only support 64kb. i tried with knopix to recognize the harddrives to take out the info but was a waste of time trying that. If i put the hard drives on dynamic on the windows it will work? i mean at least can i save my info?????

 

[PCcashCow]

I was in a jam and just needed a Ghost image off a bootable drive. When I daisy'd the drive to another instance of XP, if gave me that same error. When I searched the web I saw that post and was very worried it would wipe my data. But at a point I had to try something, and that posting helped. Now, I don't believe raid is considered to be an extended partition, and your not using software raid. So it MAY work.

Have you tried to boot into the raid itself? There most likely be a driver issue, but see if it works.

 

[crusher]

im going to try that when i get to home. thx

 

[PCcashCow]

Any luck?