Changing Raid Driver without Windows reinstall

[Scottso]

I am going to be changing my motherboard form a nForce 3 chipset to an ATI 3200/ULi M1575 based system. I currently am running a Raid 1 (mirror) array.

I would like to be able to change the Raid drivers to ULi's WITHOUT having to reinstall WindowsXP. This, of course assumes, that the system will not work with the Nvidia drivers currently in use.

Does anyone know, A, if the system will boot and function with the currnet array and drivers, and B, how I can[/b] change these drivers without a Windows reinstall?

Thanks....

 

[PCcashCow]

I am going to be changing my motherboard form a nForce 3 chipset to an ATI 3200/ULi M1575 based system. I currently am running a Raid 1 (mirror) array.

I would like to be able to change the Raid drivers to ULi's WITHOUT having to reinstall WindowsXP. This, of course assumes, that the system will not work with the Nvidia drivers currently in use.

Does anyone know, A, if the system will boot and function with the currnet array and drivers, and B, how I can[/b] change these drivers without a Windows reinstall?

Thanks....

SomeJoe7777 Has a sticky on this! Search the boards as well, may have done it with much success, just need to dig a little before you post.

 

[Scottso]

Thanks PC. I had already read that post by SomeJoe, but it didn't actually apply to my situation. It was for an existing single drive operating system installation. Mine is on a Raid 1, 2 hard drive set up.

I also looked extensively on the forum for an answer to my question prior to posting.

Actually since posting I think I've discovered an even a greater problem. Even if I reinstall windows it appears I may loose all of my present data just by installing the new ULi RAID configuration on these existing drives.

I hope someone has a way out of this...

 

[PCcashCow]

Why not just Ghost you data or back it on a network, then restore it to the new array?

 

[Alyarbank]

Ghost your Data like PCcashCow has said or you can use the "File and Settings Transfer Wizard" in Windows XP to backup your data and Application Settings to DVD or Network share or something.

If you backup your Data and Settings, you can do a fresh install to the new hardware, then install All your Applications. After your Applications are all installed, run the Wizard and import the Data and Settings from your old setup and your back to where you were before. Just like it never happened.

TYPE: "migwiz" without the quotes at the RUN dialouge or Prompt. to start the Wizard.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

You can do it, but it won't be easy.

You'll need another drive to temporarily store your boot partition, at least as large as the RAID-1 currently is.

You're essentially doing two very different things here. 1. You're changing the storage controller used to start up Windows. And 2. You're changing motherboards and probably some other hardware as well.

I posted the following in another thread for someone who was changing the motherboard in his rig. He was changing from an Intel 865PE chipset to a 975P chipset, so some of this info is specific to him. You'll need to modidy those Intel-specific things to your motherboard transition, which is nForce3 -> ATI 3200.

This is doable. What you will essentially do is remove the drivers for each of the old pieces of hardware one at a time, move the hard drive to the new machine, start up, and reinstall the drivers for the new hardware. After everything is installed, we'll do one more procedure to clean up.

First things first: Back up everything you can't afford to lose. There is risk associated with this procedure. I take no responsibility if you lose data. This procedure is for convenience only, and isn't guaranteed to work properly in all circumstances.

1st, on the old machine, we're going to remove the old drivers. During this process (especially after restarts) you will see the found new hardware wizard pop up. Cancel it each time you see it.

1. Remove the NVidia drivers (Add/Remove Programs).
2. Remove the Creative Soundblaster drivers (Add/Remove Programs).
3. (This is the critical step). We're going to change the Intel IDE driver to a generic driver.
3a. Go into Device Manager.
3b. Expand the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers"
3c. Right-click the "Intel 82801EB Ultra ATA Controller" entry, and click on "Update Driver".
3d. The Hardware Update Wizard will start. Click "No" to "Connect to Windows Update to search for a new driver" and click Next.
3e. Click "Install from a List or Specific Location" and click Next.
3f. Click "Don't search, I will choose the driver to install" and click Next.
3g. Click the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" and click Next.
3h. When the driver finishes installing, click OK.
4. Shut down the machine, remove the hard drive.
5. Transfer the hard drive to the new machine, hook it up.
6. On the new machine, in the system BIOS, make sure your IDE controller is in Legacy/IDE Emulation mode, NOT SATA/AHCI mode. (If you get a STOP 0x0000007B error/blue screen on the next bootup, then it isn't. Recheck your BIOS settings).
7. Your new machine should boot into the existing Windows XP installation. The Found New Hardware Wizard will run multiple times on the first bootup to install/reinstall a lot of system devices. Make sure you let it completely finish doing everything (may take several minutes). Also, XP may ask you to reactivate at this point. If so, call Microsoft and do it - it's no big deal, I've done it multiple times.


OK, now we're going to install drivers for all your new hardware.

8. Install the network drivers for the ASUS on-board networking from the ASUS CD.
9. Once the network is up and running, get on the Internet, download the latest chipset drivers from ASUS for this motherboard (or from Intel for the 975P chipset) and install them. This will also update the IDE drivers to the Intel-specific ones for the ICH8/ICH8R.
10. Install drivers for the ATI video card.
11. Install drivers for the on-board sound.


And now, we'll do a cleanup procedure to remove all traces of the old hardware and drivers.

12. Open a command prompt, and type the following exactly as shown and hit enter:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

At the same command prompt, type the following exactly as shown and hit enter:

start devmgmt.msc

13. Device manager will open. In the "View" menu, select "Show Hidden Devices".
14. You will see devices listed under virtually every category that are light colored/transparent, indicating they are not present.
15. One by one, right-click each device that is light colored, and click "Uninstall", except for any devices listed under "Non Plug-And-Play Drivers". Do NOT touch anything under that category.
16. Close device manager and the command prompt. Restart.

You should now be running on your new hardware. If you now want to change the mass storage controller to SATA/AHCI mode, follow the procedure in the Hard Disk forum called "Switching Storage Controllers w/o Reinstalling Windows".

The reason I like this procedure over SysPrep is that SysPrep requires the mass storage controllers on the machines to be identical. This procedure allows you to move to a different mass storage controller provided that it can operate in IDE mode, even if the mass storage controller is a different manufacturer.

Essentially since you're changing the motherboard and the storage controller used to boot Windows, you're going to need to combine the two procedures.

What I'd do to make it easier is first use the FAQ (Switching Storage controllers) procedure to get your old rig running on a single hard drive instead of the RAID.

Then, use the above quoted procedure to change motherboards and associated hardware.

Finally, use the Switching Storage Controllers procedure again to get the new system into a RAID-1 configuration.

Like I said, it's not going to be easy, but it's probably doable.

 

[Scottso]

First, thanks to all of you for your time and help, I really do appreciate it!

I have to absorb eveything you've given me here SomeJoe7777. When I've I think I have the game plan down I'll probably have a few more questions but you definetly got my wheels turning.

Thanks again.

 

[Mondoman]

Hopefully, your current RAID has a method to convert a pair of drives in a RAID 1 array into two duplicate single drives. The new RAID controller may let you preserve your current data on the drive when you re-RAID it. In any case, as others have mentioned, back up everything first.

 

[Scottso]

The documentation for the ULi Raid states that it may be possible, but I might loose the data (covering their a's). I guess I'm going to back up everything and see if it flys.

My problem still is that, the way I see it, the only way for me to install the new Raid drivers before the new system boots is by doing a new Windows install. Unless of course I get a windows prompt of missing drivers upon loading. I'll have a floppy ready when I try it.

Any other suggestions? Can I load the ULi divers before I make the system conversion? Will windows then be able to find them? Will the additional Raid drivers screw up my old operating system before I power down?