KG7 RAID - Is it ALL gone?

[Funger]

My chipset fan died on my ABIT KG7-RAID motherboard, and I am pretty sure that there is some damage to the chipset. I am unable to successfully boot to windows, even after buying a new hard-drive and re-installing windows. Randomly throughout the install process I would get different wonderful Blue "STOP" screens.

I've basically come to the realization that I'll have to replace the motherboard, however the BIG problem is that I have two 60GIG drives Striped together with some VERY important data on them. (like if I lose it, I could very well lose my job) I want to know if there is a way to move the RAIDed drives to another motherboard without losing the data stored on them, and if so, does it need to be an identical motherboard? (or can I take this opertunity to upgrade?) - While I'm at it, if I CAN change motherboards, does anyone have any suggestions to one that is a little more up to date, but would work?

Also, this is the SECOND time I have had a chipset fan die on me. Is this a common occurance, or am I just extremley 'Lucky'? Any help would be apreciated as I need to get this fixed as soon as is possible. Thanks in advance!

Jim
junger@wi.rr.com

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Funger on 11/13/02 05:14 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Hammy]

What is the maximum speed CPU that this board supports? I bought one, but the web site says it supports up to 1.33 or higher? How much higher?

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[snotling]

since you have a new hard drive to spare, I would Ghost the raid Array on the harddrive so the data is secure and do whatever I want with the Modifications on the system.

BTW, I would not recommend the Striping of important data... doubles the danger of loosing it.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Snotling on 11/13/02 06:41 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[JossiBossi]

Well if you have a board with the same HPT controller (and also same biosversion as now)It might work. Just connect the drives in the same way as they are now. If it doesn't work than than It's possible that alll data is gone (that's the risk of a Raid 0 (striping). If those data on your hdd are that important maybe it's a good idea to do backups next time (maybe a raid 0 + 1 but you need 4 hdd's than.)

If your raid 0 is broken this can also help to get it back but i can't garantuee you that it will work.

How to Get a Raid 0 Back


the suggested tool "raidrb.exe" told me, it rebuilt my raid-0-stripe. but
after reboot, the controller still claimed the stripe to be broken.
finally
i thought that the problem may be the raid-controller's bios version -
bundled with the board's bios. (abit's newest bios is 4A (board) shipping
1.01.0402 (hpt370)). updating the controller's bios is not possible
itself -
it needs to be updated by applying a board's bios update. on
http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/kt7faq.htm i found an unofficial
patched
bios version 4A including the newest beta-bios (v2.0.1019 ) for the
hpt370.
now the controller accepted the stripe. i had to enter hpt370-setup to set
the stripe to be booted. now my good old big hdd was visible from DOS. but
there was no partition information left - apparently also destroyed due to
the power loss. now i used the tool "mrecovr2.exe" to rebuild my partition
table (program searches disk for relevant sectors...). my 3 primary
partitions were merged to one new primary partition (some windows data
lost), but my logic drives were rebuild correctly, all important data
restored .
repartitioning the first 12GB back to 3 primary partitions and
reinstalling
windows and linux should be no problem....

conclusions:
-------------
0. a off-board raid-controller may be the better way: bios update possible
without help / files provided by motherboard manufacturer.
1. if you want to run raid-0 be aware of severe problems that may arise.
macke backups.
2. use the tool "raidrb" to make a backup of your raid-configuration and
keep it on a floppy.
3. just in case your partition table will be affected like in my case keep
in mind that the first primary partition will me most likely not correctly
restored! ->> Keep important data in logic partitions at the end of your
drive.

and Mr.Hammy i tought AMD Athlon XP 2100 + is the maximum CPU for the board. (but don't pin me down to it hehehe).

 

[Lonemagi]

try going into your bios and dropping your FSB down to 100, possibly lower. This may allow you to get into windows long enough for a backup.

You dont have an <b>ANY</b> key? Your keyboard must not be Windows XP certified...

 

[Funger]

my processor is an Athlon 1400.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Funger on 11/14/02 09:39 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Funger]

Good idea, but it didn't work. Any other bios settings that I can tweak to sneak me past? It's VERY agrivating because it boots to the windows screen with the progress bar and the scrolling blue gradient. The progress bar gets to the end and then just sits there. (and the gradient keeps on spinning) So, the system isn't exactly halted, but it isn't doing anything of value either.

 

[Lonemagi]

try opening the case, and focusing a fan on the board. Thats hw I got my KG7 non-raid to work when it went. Set your memory timings lower, and make sure you have one stick in there. Remove all unneeded hardware, and try it then. If not, Abit does have a decent RMA service, the turnaround is a week or so. Im getting my KG7 back this week, and giving it to a friend.

You dont have an <b>ANY</b> key? Your keyboard must not be Windows XP certified...