Moving RAID-0 or just reading the data

[anothercopy]

Hi everybody

I had a RAID-0 created on a J-micron JMB363 chipsed (ASUS P5KC motherboard + 2x WD250GB drives, Q6600). I had problems with what I thought were hdd drives and I was planning to do a backup on the weekend, but it turned out that the mobo died ...
Anyway now I need to get a new mobo but I would like to get my data back from my old RAID but from what I read its not gonna be easy.

#1 would be a new mobo witha different chipset that can read my old RAID-0 metadata and use it normally. Unfortunalelly I'm almost sure that any other raid controllers wont read j-micron configuration and the new chipset would have to be some new J-micron with backward compatibility (plug it in and pray it works). Any thoughts on this one ?

2nd best option would be to buy a new mobo with some other chipset than J-micron (which is really crappy). And creating a software RAID backing up the data and building the raid again on a new chipset . I found something called http://raid2raid.com/ . Its supposed to read other controllers metadata and make the raid visible to the system, but they only mention intel, nVidia and VIA controllers =/ any other stuff that would help me out on this one ? It doesnt have to be windows where I can copy the data. I have access to Sun servers and can use Veritas or SVM under Solaris 10 if that helps.

Other option would be to buy a new mobo with J-micron chipset. Do you know anything about new mobos with J-micron ?

Last option well buy some old ASUS P5KC plug it in, set up and pray it works. Any chance of data loss or actually my drives working again ?

If there are any other options I'm welcome to suggestions =) Thanks in advance

 

[440bx]

Your safest bet is to replace the motherboard with an identical one. Here is something you might be interested in:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-P5KC-LGA-775-Intel-P35-ATX-Intel-Motherboard_W0QQitemZ110425920161QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b5e5d2a1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I am NOT associated in any way with the seller and derive absolutely NO benefit whatsoever if you decide to purchase that board.

If you value the data that's the best option. Once you have your RAID array back up and going, I suggest you consider the following:

1. Never use the RAID facilities that are built into motherboards. I don't think I have to point out why given the situation you are in at this time.

2. I would never, ever, use RAID-0 regardless of the performance gains. It doesn't matter how fast it was when all your data is gone. Which RAID-0 doubles the chances of that happening. On the other hand, what I would do isn't necessarily what you are free to choose to do.

For RAID, I would suggest RAID 1 using this card:

http://www.microbarn.com/details.aspx?rid=101458

You can break the RAID 1 created by this card and connect either one of the drives to a standard SATA controller to access your data. Therefore, you don't depend on the card for access and replacing them is quite inexpensive.

The same comment I made about the motherboard applies to this card. I derive no benefit from posting the link.

HTH.

 

[anothercopy]

Thx, I'll try buying a new mobo. I was thinking about a different mobo with JMB363, any ideas ? Right now I'm kinda puzzled what to do milions of mobos to choose from.

I'm not affraid of data loss. I kept all the data that was sensitive on an external hdd. Too bad it got stolen like 2 months ago and I didnt buy a replacement yet. The only 2 things I really need is some materials I gathered for my MSc (I was going to write something today ...) and software I was using to do it. All on that two drives. Its a MSc about databases and data warehouses so the performance boost was kinda a good thing. But you have a point in 1. I'll probably move to software raid.

I'm still trying to find a way to get my data back during next few days.

 

[cjl]

If you get a different board with exactly the same controller chip, you'll be fine. I've done it before with an Intel ICH9R based array.

As for the comment about never using RAID 0? I have a RAID 0 array and love it. If losing data would be more than a minor inconvenience however, precautions must be taken to avoid any trouble. My array is backed up (using Norton Ghost) onto a separate 1TB internal weekly for example, so I can never lose more than the past week's data.

 

[440bx]

Hello cjl,

You are correct, as long as whatever board he chooses uses the exact same controller, everything should work fine.

About the RAID 0,

I deal with people (small businesses actually) that cannot be without their computers even a few hours (for instance, accountants, the last thing they want is to have their computer down on April 14 and to hear that his/her computer won't be available for a few days and, that in addition to that, whatever he/she did the last 2 days is gone - which they have not backed up because they've been too busy doing other things). You could say that any of those events would be "inconvenient" for them.

I suppose that if the computer is for entertainment only then RAID 0 might be ok and, as you pointed out, Ghost works fine for those who can afford losing a day/week of work.

Take care.

 

[anothercopy]

Well this is not a mission critical machine =) Its a personal computer. For production servers I would consider only RAID 1, 5 or 10 =)

Anyways do you know any other mobos with this chipset for Q6600 ?

 

[440bx]

Anyways do you know any other mobos with this chipset for Q6600 ?

The only way that comes to mind to find other motherboards that use that chipset is to go to newegg, use the power search to select all the boards that are socket 775 based and then "manually" look at the specs of every board that is of interest to see if they use that chip.

Laborious and tedious but no better method comes to mind.

HTH.