Dead Motherboard trying to save hard drives

[bschonfeld]

My my motherboard has died and I need to replace it. I have two hard drives set in Raid 0 and according to the tech if I replace the Motherboard and processor then I will have to re-install windows and have a good chance at loosing all my info. My hard drives are still good and I dont want to lose any of the pictures that I haven't been able to back up yet. Is this true or can anyone provide me with some help.

My (old computer)
BFG 590 Sli Motherboard
AMD 4200 X2
4 Gigs ddr2 G. Skill
2 320 Gig sata WD Hard drives
Evga 8800gt card
Windows Vista 64

If I replace the motherboard I will be upgrading my processor also.

 

[sub mesa]

If you just want your data back, you can do that with software no need to buy a motherboard of the same type.

You can try Ubuntu Linux recovery. Don't worry it is not difficult at all:

- go to ubuntu.com download latest desktop .iso
- go to your BIOS and set SATA transfer mode to AHCI instead of the current RAID mode.
- burn the .iso and boot from it - Ubuntu should boot and you should see Ubuntu desktop
- click Places menu, click Home folder. Now on the left side you should see "... GB Filesystem" entries. Click on those.
- if all went well, you can see your files appearing right now; if that is true your data is still there are you can copy over the network

This procedure is safe as its read-only; the Ubuntu cd is a livecd that does not require installation of any kind.

If it didn't work, please open a terminal (applications->accessories) and attach the output of following commands:
ls -l /dev/sd*
dmesg | grep GiB
ls -l /dev/md*

 

[bschonfeld]

Thanks for the input. I got really lucky. I was able to get a laptop and check my Seagate backup drive and it saved me. It even saved the pictures I was looking at 5 minutes before the computer crashed. I learned a good lesson. Make sure all info is always backed up regular basis.

I was also in the process of looking at that Ubuntu Linux recovery program when I the backup drive working. Thanks for the help.

I was also advised that if a friend has the same raid drivers on thier motherboard that they could connect your hard drives to the motherboard, set them as a slave drive in raid and recover the infomation. I didn't have a chance to try I but it might help other people.

Thanks again sub mesa for the quick response .

 

[paulcooperorama]

depends on the motherboard you used and the motherboard you are getting as a replacement. if the raid controllers are compatible you will not loose any of your data. otherwise you will loose your data... at times like this it is a good thing to purchase a raid controller. even if your motherboard dies you can transfer drives and controller from machine to machine