Using WindowsXP to Make RAID 5 Happen

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Porting A Windows RAID Array To Other Systems

We set up the RAID 5 array using Asus' P5DGC-V, which uses the ICH6 Southbridge.

One scenario many administrators are afraid of is the death of a mass storage controller. Usually, identical or at least suitable replacement devices are not at hand, making it especially difficult to run an intact array on another host system/controller. The main problem here is that RAID signatures of different RAID adapters typically are not compatible with each other.

Of course we wanted to know if there is a similar problem when running Windows RAID arrays: Is it possible to inherit an existing RAID setup by only attaching the drives to another host system?

The basic test machine consisted of an Asus P5GDC-V. This one is based on Intel's 915G chipset and comes with the ICH6 Southbridge, on its part featuring four native Serial ATA ports. Here we deployed four Western Digital WD740 Raptor drives.

When we chose the destination system to port the RAID array, we specifically selected one whose SATA controllers are incompatible with the ICH6 ones. The AOpen AX4SPE MAX II comes with the 865P chipset and the matured ICH5 Southbridge. On the one hand, this component is not an AHCI-compliant device. On the other hand, it comes with only two SATA ports, forcing us to attach at least two drives to the Silicon Image Sil3114, which AOpen placed on the board, too.

We have to admit we did not expect the swapping to be so smooth. All we had to do was to attach the SATA cables to any free ports of the destination system and we were done. Neither did the order of how drives were attached matter, nor did it make any difference whether we used the Silicon Image controller or split the array to run both on the ICH5 and the Sil3114.

Getting the four drive RAID 5 array running on another system was enjoyably easy. Nothing had to be reconfigured, and we even picked SATA ports arbitrarily.

Patrick Schmid
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Can I grow an array made this way? That is, add another disk without having to lose the data currently held on the raid?
    Reply
  • op365
    From past experience with Hardware RAID, you would have to first backup your data and then break the RAID and put in the higher capacity drives and create a new container.
    The feature that you want/asking about is called X-RAID
    Reply
  • micokeman
    I have used this hack and it works, but there are some problems that can occur. First of all, if you do this on SP2 and upgrade to SP3, XP will no longer see the RAID5 drives. Uninstalling SP3 allowed me to regain access to the RAID5 devices, but I would continuously get blue screens. After a repair of XP I no longer got blue screens, but I could also no longer see the data on the RAID5 drives. I suspect XP saw them as foreign drives and XP can't import foreign RAID drives!!! Yes, the hack works, but be aware that a service pack upgrade might render the data inaccessible.
    For those of you wondering, I was able to get my data back by installing Server 2003 and importing the RAID5 drives. No data lost, WHEW! You can also use a trial Windows Server 2003 to access your data for 30 days. Get the download from here.
    Reply
  • This works with SP3 and also with the x64 version of XP.

    To get it to work with SP3, you just have to redo the changes above.

    To get it to work with x64, just locate those same strings in the files and apply the changes. Notice how the changes are only swapping the locations of the words SERVERNT and WINNT. I'd post the exact changes here, but it would take forever to type out all of those hex values. UltraEdit doesn't seem to allow one to copy the hex data to the clipboard.

    Reply
  • I have also notice the problem when upgrading to SP3 that the RAID no longer works. Even after changing the files (dmboot.sys, dmconfig.dll, dmadmin.exe) on the SP3 release I still could not get RAID to work correctly. I have taken the 3 files from a system running SP2 and copied them to the system running SP3. It looks like the SP2 files work on SP3 but I have only had the system running for about a week.
    Reply
  • SlAoTkAiN
    I was lucky and installed sp3 and then used the hack and got a the raid working. The only problem I'm seeing is that XP doesn't start up the raid at boot. I have to go into manage and re-activate the drive. Anyone have any suggestions?
    Reply
  • I got it working again after migrating from sp2 to sp3, but I have to go into manage and re-activate the drive every time I reboot.
    Anyone has a solution for this?
    Reply
  • tiborakos
    After spent a week wondering what went wrong with my XP SP2 raid5 setup...i fell into this, and remembered i hd installed SP3 as well!!!
    Is there a way to get those SP2 files from somewhere please? Else i think i might try the server2003 solution.
    As for the "re-activate the drive every time I reboot" it has happened to me in my old PC after the mod, but could not find a way to solve it
    Reply
  • cwilk
    I am lost with the hex editing. I tried a fix from Randem Systems but that doesnt work. Anyone have a copy of the files i can get?
    Reply
  • tiborakos
    Cannot help with the files unless you want mine. btw, i managed to get the Raid5 volume working again, after uninstalling SP3 and getting back to SP2.
    What if i copy the files, install SP3 again and just replace them with the current ones? Do you think it might work? Or i will end up needing "reactivate the drive every time i reboot" ?
    Reply