Is there a RAID 0 + 2 configuration?

[Don Chase]

I just had an Intel Desktop System Board number D845EBT quit working on me. It was in a VPR Matrix machine that used to be sold by Best Buy Stores some years ago. The problem is that it had 2 parallel ATA IDE ports configured for RAID drive connection. That's the way the computer was set up when I got it with 2 80GB Winchester Digital hard drives connected in RAID. Every time the system booted it would run through a RAID configuration test and display 'RAID 0 + 2'. Not really knowing anything about RAID, I just lest the configuration alone as it worked fine and gave me what appeared to be a 160GB drive with very good performance. Now that the board had died, I do not seem to be able to retrieve my data from the drives. I bought a PCI SATA Controller Card card for my other computer that does RAID 0, 1, 0 +1, and JBOD for PATA and SATA drives. The problem is it doesn't recognize the data format on the drives I have even though it can read data out there. I'm wondering if anyone reading this has any experience or know how with this Intel System Board using RAID and if they can direct me on how to get my data back.

Please don't lecture me that I should have had the data backed up. That's another problem I have. Not enough hard disks to back up all my data at this time.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Don Chase
dnchs880@gmail.com

 

[Emerald]

where the drives on two separate cables?

if it used two separate cables the 0 + 2 reefers to drive0 and drive2 and uses a RAID0 configuration.

the problem is that you cannot just swap RAID controllers because the chipset puts a signature on the drives; therefore, you will need to use a controller with the same chipset to be able to read your data.

you have two options either find the same motherboard, or find a controller with the same RAID controller chipset (Promise Technology PDC20267).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/D845EBT-INTEL-SB-845E-AGPX1-S-PDIF-Tested-Motherboard-/200650441665?pt=Motherboards&hash=item2eb7b2c3c1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Promise-FastTrak-100-PCI-2-Channel-100-Mbps-RAID-Controller-Card-/220887292926?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336de89bfe

 

[Hawkeye22]

Depending on the RAID controller, it may also be necessary to have the drives attached to the contoller in the correct order. If it doesn't work the first time, try swapping IDE ports.

 

[Don Chase]

emerald,
Thank you for responding. The board has two RAID ports but only one was being used with both drives on the same cable. I didn't know about the chip signature, but that seems to agree with the data scan that the RAID card and software I have seem to indicate on the drives. Also another IT also verified that I would have to use the same system board or as you suggested a controller with the same chip set. The controller would the the lower priced option if it works. I also got information on a possible way to bring the system board back to life, just in case the BIOS is corrupted and not a hardware failure of the board. I'll be trying that tomorrow. Thanks once again for the information. This sounds like my best bet.

Don

where the drives on two separate cables?

if it used two separate cables the 0 + 2 reefers to drive0 and drive2 and uses a RAID0 configuration.

the problem is that you cannot just swap RAID controllers because the chipset puts a signature on the drives; therefore, you will need to use a controller with the same chipset to be able to read your data.

you have two options either find the same motherboard, or find a controller with the same RAID controller chipset (Promise Technology PDC20267).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/D845EBT-INTEL-SB-845E-AGPX1-S-PDIF-Tested-Motherboard-/200650441665?pt=Motherboards&hash=item2eb7b2c3c1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Promise-FastTrak-100-PCI-2-Channel-100-Mbps-RAID-Controller-Card-/220887292926?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336de89bfe

 

[Don Chase]

Hawkeye22,

I tried that option already as well as two different driver versions with different dates. Didn't make any difference. I think Emerald has the right idea. It makes sense that the chip set would apply a signature to the data in a proprietary situation.

Don

Depending on the RAID controller, it may also be necessary to have the drives attached to the contoller in the correct order. If it doesn't work the first time, try swapping IDE ports.

 

[Don Chase]

Best answer selected by Don Chase.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey