Reading data on another machine from 2 pair of healthy RAID 0 disks

SolarFlare

Honorable
Mar 9, 2012
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0
10,510
I need to get my data back from two healthy RAID 0 configured HDDs.

Here is the story: The video circuitry of my Sony VAIO VGN-AR690U failed (two months after its 4 year extended warranty has expired) . I believe the system came with a RAID 0 based on Intel I/O Controller Hub 8 (ICH8R).

I have been trying to recover the data using the trial version of RecoverMyFiles. The software RAID option did not work. So, I went to Hardware RAID option, but since I don't know what the stripe size and offset sectors' configurations were, I tried the "Find Layout" option, which has been running hours and hours with no end in sight.

The operating system was Windows Vista. Each 2.5 inch HDD is a 160 GB Hitachi SATA.

Do you have any suggestions how to recover the data without paying big bucks?
 

Wamphryi

Distinguished
You need an identical controller and you would have no problems. What you do need to be careful of is that you could damage the RAID array by having other types of controllers and software accessing the drives. Any ICH8R Controller should do the job. If you are having to set up striping etc it means the controller you are using either does not recognise the array configuration or you have destroyed the array which means you will have probably lost your data. You may be able to recover the data if you can get them back into the right configuration using speciality software. However the fact they are in RAID 0 complicates things a great deal. If you can get an identical controller (on any motherboard really with support for the ICH8R) and you plug the drives on the controller should see the RAID 0 array straight off. If it needs to ask you to configure an array well......not so good.