The Raid Migration Adventure
How To Migrate: First Steps
First of all, we strongly recommend that you back up all of your important data before trying any migration, because we don’t know that any company has ever validated RAID migration scenarios. As a result, there is no guarantee of success here whatsoever.
The ideal scenario would be that you only need to attach the drives to the new controller. In most cases it is obviously not going to be that easy ; here are some of the open questions :
- Can Windows boot on the target system if the correct storage driver isn’t installed ?
You can try selecting a default storage driver under Windows, but our experience has been that this doesn’t work either. - Does the order in which you attach the drives to the storage controller matter ?
Some controllers complain, while others don’t. - Is it possible to add the appropriate storage driver ?
Yes, it is. You will have to run a Windows XP or Vista repair installation. Go all the way to where you select the installation partition. When Windows ask you if you want to reinstall or repair, choose repair. The system will keep all your installed applications, but you will have to reinstall drivers - including the mass storage driver. - If the migration process fails, will I be able to put the source system back together ?
Yes. We did not lose data by hooking up our RAID drives to a new controller. Unless you physically change the RAID setup, the new controller should not touch the disk contents.
Test Setups
CPU | |
---|---|
Socket 478 | Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz(Prescott 90 nm, 3.0 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache) |
Socket 754 | AMD Athlon 64 3200+(Clawhammer 130 nm, 2.0 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache) |
Socket 775 | Intel Pentium 4 560(Prescott 90 nm, 3.6 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache) |
Socket 775 | Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800(Conroe 65 nm, 2.93 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache) |
Socket 939 | AMD Athlon 64 4000+(Clawhammer 130 nm, 2.4 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache) |
Socket AM2 | AMD Athlon X2 5600+(Windsor 90 nm, 2.8 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache) |
Motherboard | |
Intel Platform S775 | Lanparty UT ICFX3200-T2R/GAMD Crossfire Xpress 3200 For Intel / SB600 |
AMD Platform 754 | DFI Lanparty UT nF3 250GbNVIDIA nForce3 250Gb |
AMD Platform AM2 | Asus M2N32-SLI DeluxeNVIDIA nForce 590 SLI |
Intel Platform S478 | Asus P4C800-E DeluxeIntel 875P, ICH5R, Promise FastTrak |
Intel Platform S775 | Asus P5AD2-E DeluxeIntel 925XE, ICH6R |
Intel Platform S775 | MSI 975X Platinum Power Up EditionIntel 975X, ICH7R |
Intel Platform S775 | Gigabyte 965P-DQ6Intel P965, ICH8R |
Intel Platform S775 | Asus P5K3 DeluxeIntel P35, ICH9R |
AMD Platform 939 | Asus A8V DeluxeVIA K8T800, VIA 8237 |
RAM | |
RAM I | Corsair CMX512-3200XLPRO XMS3208v1.12x 512 MB DDR-400 (CL 2.0-2-2-5) |
RAM II | Corsair CM2X1024-6400C3 XMS6403v1.12x 1024 MB DDR2-800 (CL 4.0-4-4-8 1T) |
RAM III | GeIL DDR3-1066 G31 GB1066C6DC2x 512 MB DDR3-1066 (6-6-6-15) |
Hard Disk | |
Hard Disk I | Western Digital WD1500ADFD2x 150 GB 10,000 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA150 |
Hard Disk II | Samsung HD321KJ2x 320 GB 7.200 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA300 |
DVD-ROM | |
DVD-ROM I | Gigabyte GO-D1600A (16/48 X) IDE ATA133 |
DVD-ROM II | Samsung SH-D163A (16/48 X) SATA150 |
Graphics Card | |
Graphics Card I | Zotac 8800GTSGPU : Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS (500 MHz)RAM : 320 MB GDDR3 (1200 MHz) |
Graphics Card II | ATI Radeon 9800XTGPU : ATI R360 (412 MHz)RAM : 256 MB GDDR2 (730 MHz) |
Power | |
Power Supply | PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510ATX 2.01, 510 W |
Power Supply | Enermax EG565P-VEATX 2.01, 510 W |
System Software & Drivers | |
OS | Windows XP Professional 5.10.2600Service Pack 2 |
DirectX Version | 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) |
Platform AMDRadeon Xpress 3200 for Intel | ATI Catalyst 6.11 |
Platform Nvidia nForce3 250Gb | nForce Driver 5.11 |
Platform Nvidia nForce 590 SLI | nForce Driver 9.35 |
Platform Intel 875P | INF Update Utility 8.2.0.1014 |
Platform Intel ICH5 | RAID/AHCI Software 5.5.0.1035 |
Platform Intel 925XE/P965/975X | INF Update Utility 8.2.0.1014 |
Platform Intel ICH6/7/8 | RAID/AHCI Software 7.0.0.1020 |
Platform Intel P35 | INF Update Utility 8.3.0.1013 |
Platform Intel ICH9 | RAID/AHCI Software 7.5.0.1017 |
Platform VIA K8T800 Pro/8237 | HyperionPro 5.11A |
Graphics Driver NVIDIA | ForceWare Release 158 |
Graphics Driver ATI | Catalyst 7.4 |
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Current page: How To Migrate: First Steps
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Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.
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gothamite Great article, but does anyone know if an ICH7R -> ICH10R migration is possible? I am replacing an ASUS P5WDH Deluxe which died with a new board containing the ICH10R chipset and hope that I can just plug my old drives into the new board without losing the data. I accept I might need to use the XP repair thingy.Reply -
Passarinhuu My old ICH6R motherboard stopped working and I got a new ICH9R Asus P5K Pro to replace it. When I plugged the old disks I tried to boot winxp and I got to the loading screen but then got a BSOD.Reply
I was already expecting that and tryed to run a repair install. The problem is, even when i correctly load my RAID drivers provided by the mb maker, winxp install doesn't detect the disks. If I set the SATA mode to AHCI in the BIOS winxp can detect them but the repair doesn't allow me to boot windows.
What am I doing wrong and how can i fix it? -
gothamite OK - I got my Asus P5Q Deluxe with Intel ICH10R and successfully migrated my 4 drive RAID set from the P5W-DH Deluxe's ICH9R. The only thing is one of the drives shows as off-line (i.e. not part of the RAID set).Reply -
Just a note on your Intel chipset migration... I've moved systems from ICH8R to ICH9R (and 10R) controllers without needing to run a Windows Repair installation. All you need to do is ensure that you're running the most up to date chipset drivers BEFORE the migration.Reply
Windows will start up, install the new chipset drivers, and tell you it needs to reboot to complete the driver installation. Reboot again, and you're ready to go.
I've done this with RAID0 and RAID1 arrays, moving from ASUS P5B Deluxe (ICH8R) boards to all of the following: ASUS Maximus Formula (ICH9R), P5K Premium (ICH9R), and P5Q Pro (ICH10R). -
Bodhammer Great Article!Reply
So, I want to go from an 875P Chipset in RAID 1 to a X58 Chipset sticking with XP for now.
Can it be done?
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momatik Great stuff !Reply
I put 2 drives from a nforce3 250 and conected them to a nforce4.
Used a XP-CD with the enforce4 drives embedded.
But i only see 1 partition !?
What am i doing wrong ?
Tryed several stripe sizes.
Thanks for help :)