Moving RAID to new Computer

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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

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May 1, 2013
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Hello Everyone,

I currently have a RAID 5 array running off my Biostar TZ77A motherboard, off the Z77 chipset. I am getting soon an ASUS P8Z77-V Pro motherboard to use instead. I want to rebuild the array in there.

My question is, can I just move the hard drives and initialize the RAID in BIOS, or do I need to backup all of my files on external drives and re transfer them once the PC is setup?
 
Solution
drtweak
Well 1) I would make sure everything is backed up to begin with before you move. 2) You should move the hard drives over and then once RAID is turned on on the new motherboard it SHOULD hopefully see the old RAID settings and ask to Import the Forign Raid Configure Config.

If you can'd do that you may have to create a new RAID which WILL erase everything. Now just FYI if you don't have a backup of your data NEVER EVER EVER INITIALIZE a RAID! IT WILL ERASE EVERYTHING! You want to REBUILD or RECONSTUCT the RAID. Never Initialize unless you just build it.
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drtweak

drtweak

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Sep 17, 2012
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Well 1) I would make sure everything is backed up to begin with before you move. 2) You should move the hard drives over and then once RAID is turned on on the new motherboard it SHOULD hopefully see the old RAID settings and ask to Import the Forign Raid Configure Config.

If you can'd do that you may have to create a new RAID which WILL erase everything. Now just FYI if you don't have a backup of your data NEVER EVER EVER INITIALIZE a RAID! IT WILL ERASE EVERYTHING! You want to REBUILD or RECONSTUCT the RAID. Never Initialize unless you just build it.
 
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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

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Woo haha well thanks for that. Glad I know now not to hit initialize. See I don't have a back up cause I don't have large enough storage to back up everything without dumping all the data on my laptop, two other smaller desktops, and two external drives and piling it up every where so I want to try and avoid that if at all possible.

I am at around 4TB of data used, but I will fill up my two 1TB externals just in case, and delete all my STEAM games since I can just redownload those. That should get me closer.

Thanks for your help, I will backup as much as possible and hope for the best.
 
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TyrOd

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Dr. Tweak answered your question, but I would add that not having a back up is never a good idea. RAID is no replacement for backup.
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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Yea had a buddy with a RAID 5. Something happened and he though it need to be Initalized. Wasn't until half way though did he realize it was erasing all his data which he didn't have a backup for. Also Raid are a LOT harder to recover data from than a single non RAID drive. I may not have any protection with my RAID which is a RAID 0 (My raid card only does 0, 1 , 10) but i have my 2 2TB in a RAID 0 but i have a 4TB hard drive i backup up to. Plus that drive is only things like movies, tv shows, anime ect and I always keep a text file list of EVERYTHING so if it goes out and i lose a few movies or something so what not a big deal.

But yea back everything, the move it and and turn on the raid. Hopefully it will just see it, ask to import the RAID config, and you should be good to go. I've done this a few time but I move it from one server to another that had the same exact RAID Controller though. Hmmm..I should try playing around with that haha
 
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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

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Well fortunately it is going from an Intel Z77 raid controller to another Intel Z77 RAID controller so I think that at least helps make it more likely than jumping to a completely different chipset.

I will try and backup everything.
TyrOd: I have heard that before and I can understand that its not the best option for a backup. However I cannot afford to keep a couple of large disks around just for holding a copy of everything. I tried that with I had 2x2TB and 1x3TB disks, and kept two copies of 3TB of data among them with 1TB unprotected. I figured if I buy an extra 2TB disk and RAID 5 at least I have 5.4TB of protected data instead of 3TB and with the new motherboard I can afford later to make it 7TB protected.

Again I know its not the best option but it is all I can do for now.
 
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TyrOd

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You miss understand the purpose of RAID. It's not that "its not the best option for a backup". It's not a backup at all and won't help you protect your data in the vast majority of situations.
RAID is redundancy, which means that it increases "uptime" when losing access to your data means losing money by the hour. It does not statistically decrease your chances of data loss in any significant way.
 
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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

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The only thing RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 6 do is backup data on more than one disk to make it less likely you will lose data. RAID 1 might boost performance cause it can read from two copies of the data, but otherwise it doesn't do nothing at all. RAID 5 and RAID 6 exist only for the purpose of having parity data on multiple disks. If a person just wanted one large disk then they would do RAID 0 and RAID 5 and RAID 6 wouldn't exist.

I don't expect a massive storm, fire, or other disaster to wipe out my entire system and if it did I would have bigger issues to worry about wouldn't I? The only concern I have is a single disk failure and in which case I would simply replace that one disk immediately, let the RAID rebuild, have no lose of DATA and everything is now secure again. For this purpose it works completely as a backup. Not as good as having tape, disk, hard disk, or backup on servers but its a lot cheaper also.
 
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TyrOd

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No not at all. 2 drives failing simultaneously is rare and RAID 5 will protect you against that, but it won't protect you against the most common causes of data loss in RAID 5 arrays. Controller/system failure, failed rebuilds, outdated/inconsistent parity as a result of firmware corruption, viruses, file system corruption, accidental deletion or reformatting, etc...

All of those things, on top of the increased risk of user error in troubleshooting, make RAID insufficient as a backup to any degree.

You are also more likely 2 be able to recover data from a single failed drive than from a failed RAID5. So, though the MTTDL is significantly lower from a RAID5 over a single drive, the ultimate chances of unrecoverable data loss are similar if you don't have a dedicated backup.
 
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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

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Well yea it is still vunerable to controller/system failures and etc. but I am less worried about those. The HDDs I am using half were refurbished drives. Two of them have 5 year warranties. I am mostly trying to protect from the two refurbs going out. The controller is on an ASUS P8Z77-V Pro motherboard so I don't suspect it will go out, while it could. That is my 2nd biggest fear but not even half as much as I worry a drive failure so I consider it an acceptable risk I must take at this time.

For the others, I keep the file system on an SSD. My current Biostar TZ77A system has already been reinstalled with Windows twice since the RAID was initially set up and was able to rebuild after each occasion without issue. I am the only user so I know I won't accidentally delete or reformat anything.

I agree with you that its not a great kind of backup. It has several points of potential failure and is more risky but for now it seems safer than letting the data sit on one disk, since I cannot afford a better backup.

I can understand data recovery is easier on a single disk, that makes a lot of sense, but I cannot afford to pay a pro to recover data anyways. I have data recovery tools and know how to use them, but the last 5/6 of the HDDs I have had fail on me were all complete failures. Not just a lose of data and it shows up blank. So in that case I am not able to recover data anyways.

Trust me I understand the problems with it, and I know its not great but its what I can afford given my situation its what I have to do. In a few years when I finish college I will buy a few 4TB or larger disks and keep them as backups but for now I can't do that.
 
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TyrOd

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I understand.

If you have friends or family willing to share a part of their storage to pool with you, I would suggest using something like crashplan's free backup software. You're basically creating a shared storage pool for a kind of off-site backup option.

 
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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

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It sounds interesting. I will look into it and see if maybe we can do that, since I do keep backup copies of pretty much everyone's files.

Also for this thread I wanted to come back and say it worked. I backed up everything to be safe, but after setting up the new PC the RAID was picked up by Intel and rebuilt. So I guess its possible to move RAIDs from one Intel Z77 chipset to another some times.
 
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