The Raid Migration Adventure

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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

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CPU
Socket 478Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz(Prescott 90 nm, 3.0 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache)
Socket 754AMD Athlon 64 3200+(Clawhammer 130 nm, 2.0 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache)
Socket 775Intel Pentium 4 560(Prescott 90 nm, 3.6 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache)
Socket 775Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800(Conroe 65 nm, 2.93 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache)
Socket 939AMD Athlon 64 4000+(Clawhammer 130 nm, 2.4 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache)
Socket AM2AMD Athlon X2 5600+(Windsor 90 nm, 2.8 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache)
Motherboard
Intel Platform S775Lanparty UT ICFX3200-T2R/GAMD Crossfire Xpress 3200 For Intel / SB600
AMD Platform 754DFI Lanparty UT nF3 250GbNVIDIA nForce3 250Gb
AMD Platform AM2Asus M2N32-SLI DeluxeNVIDIA nForce 590 SLI
Intel Platform S478Asus P4C800-E DeluxeIntel 875P, ICH5R, Promise FastTrak
Intel Platform S775Asus P5AD2-E DeluxeIntel 925XE, ICH6R
Intel Platform S775MSI 975X Platinum Power Up EditionIntel 975X, ICH7R
Intel Platform S775Gigabyte 965P-DQ6Intel P965, ICH8R
Intel Platform S775Asus P5K3 DeluxeIntel P35, ICH9R
AMD Platform 939Asus A8V DeluxeVIA K8T800, VIA 8237
RAM
RAM ICorsair CMX512-3200XLPRO XMS3208v1.12x 512 MB DDR-400 (CL 2.0-2-2-5)
RAM IICorsair CM2X1024-6400C3 XMS6403v1.12x 1024 MB DDR2-800 (CL 4.0-4-4-8 1T)
RAM IIIGeIL DDR3-1066 G31 GB1066C6DC2x 512 MB DDR3-1066 (6-6-6-15)
Hard Disk
Hard Disk IWestern Digital WD1500ADFD2x 150 GB 10,000 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA150
Hard Disk IISamsung HD321KJ2x 320 GB 7.200 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA300
DVD-ROM
DVD-ROM IGigabyte GO-D1600A (16/48 X) IDE ATA133
DVD-ROM IISamsung SH-D163A (16/48 X) SATA150
Graphics Card
Graphics Card IZotac 8800GTSGPU : Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS (500 MHz)RAM : 320 MB GDDR3 (1200 MHz)
Graphics Card IIATI Radeon 9800XTGPU : ATI R360 (412 MHz)RAM : 256 MB GDDR2 (730 MHz)
Power
Power SupplyPC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510ATX 2.01, 510 W
Power SupplyEnermax EG565P-VEATX 2.01, 510 W
System Software & Drivers
OSWindows XP Professional 5.10.2600Service Pack 2
DirectX Version9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Platform AMDRadeon Xpress 3200 for IntelATI Catalyst 6.11
Platform Nvidia nForce3 250GbnForce Driver 5.11
Platform Nvidia nForce 590 SLInForce Driver 9.35
Platform Intel 875PINF Update Utility 8.2.0.1014
Platform Intel ICH5RAID/AHCI Software 5.5.0.1035
Platform Intel 925XE/P965/975XINF Update Utility 8.2.0.1014
Platform Intel ICH6/7/8RAID/AHCI Software 7.0.0.1020
Platform Intel P35INF Update Utility 8.3.0.1013
Platform Intel ICH9RAID/AHCI Software 7.5.0.1017
Platform VIA K8T800 Pro/8237HyperionPro 5.11A
Graphics Driver NVIDIAForceWare Release 158
Graphics Driver ATICatalyst 7.4
Patrick Schmid
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 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.
    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?
    Reply
  • 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.

    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).
    Reply
  • Bodhammer
    Great Article!

    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?

    Reply
  • Bodhammer
    Great Article -

    Can I go from a 875P to an X58 motherboard?
    Reply
  • momatik
    Great stuff !

    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 :)
    Reply
  • ddd_81
    Is it duable to migrate RAID 0 from Intel to AMD without dataloss:
    ICH8R -> SB710
    ???
    Reply
  • ddd_81
    Is it duable to migrate RAID 0 from Intel to AMD without dataloss:
    ICH8R -> SB710
    ???
    Reply