RAID 0 recovery? - New Motherboard

This has been a big stress, so I'm hoping to hear some good news. Here's whats happening:

I used to have an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard with two 250GB drives in RAID 0. That motherboard is no longer functioning, and I've now upgraded nearly everything. I now have an EVGA X58 SLI motherboard installed.

My two hard drives are in fine working condition, however, I have no idea how to get all of my data back. I'm moderately hardware savvy, but I'm unsure of the more detailed bits. I didn't know RAID arrays wouldn't transfer from one motherboard to another type. I'm willing to purchase a new HD to copy all of my information over, but I still have no clue where to begin. If this is recoverable as-is somehow without a 3rd hard drive, that's fine too.

Any help would be much appreciated. If any more info is needed, just let me know. I wasn't able to backup all of the data on my old drives before the motherboard quit, and it's all very important. It's frustrating knowing that all the data is 100% there but I can't get to it.

Thank you.

i thought ich10r has backwards copatability... are you sure you connected them in the right order???

install windows on a seperate drive then enable raid and connect the 2 other drives and see if they are recognized in windows make sure to install intel matrix storage manager...

if not then switch them around maybe you got the wrong order if they still dont work there is some software that will recover your raid array but we will cross that bridge when we get there

Thanks for the reply! It would be excellent if this was backwards compatible.

I don't have a 3rd HDD yet, so if getting the old RAID functional can work, that would be awesome. Since I'm fairly new to setting up a RAID, I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

I have the HDD connected to SATA 8 and SATA 9. After the POST I can get into the RAID utility. The drives appear in the list, but the Type/Status for both is NON-RAID.

I tried switching the connections for SATA8/9 but it's still the same result. System hangs at Verifying DMI Pool Data.

If I connect to SATA 0/1, or 1/0 it's still showing Non-RAID for both, but it gets past Verifying DMI Pool Data and gives me a Disk read error.

ICHxxR families are backward compatible, in some cases they're even upward compatible.

Unfortunately yours are not, they're nVraid right ? I assume you're talking the old raid at A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo.

Yeah sorry, old RAID as in NVIDIA nForce 4 on the old A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard.

I'm actually quite worried about this as I am planning on swapping motherboards in the future... I have a matrix raid going on with a ICH10R mobo and plan on xfering to another board with ICH10R.

Should I make extra precautions such as purchase a 3rd drive to backup my 2 drives? I have an external drive that I backup my most critical data but music and movies etc just sit on the raid 0 without backup... The external is only 250 gig and the Raid 0 is 1 TB

ozzlo said:

I'm actually quite worried about this as I am planning on swapping motherboards in the future... I have a matrix raid going on with a ICH10R mobo and plan on xfering to another board with ICH10R.

Should I make extra precautions such as purchase a 3rd drive to backup my 2 drives? I have an external drive that I backup my most critical data but music and movies etc just sit on the raid 0 without backup... The external is only 250 gig and the Raid 0 is 1 TB

Click to expand...

i would..... but then again it will post probably work without any problems..

and im not to sure about nvidia raid bro but iv never heard good things about nvidia raid lol so dont get your hopes up...

Try
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showpost.php?p=3329132&postcount=6

or


Do not go into the CTRL-I raid utility to fix, this will destroy the data as it resets back to raid disk.

You need a few applications downloaded from the net from www.runtime.org.

You will need a PC that boots and has plenty of connectors for the raid drives you need to get data from.

Connect the drives and boot into windows with raid drives connected, do not enable raid for those drives, just connect and boot into windows.

Windows will go though its discovery and stuff, let it finish but dont go into the drive system manger panel in windows.

Download and run Raid Reconstructor and tell it what raid level you had and select what drives are from the raid set. If you had raid 5 it needs all but one drive to reconstruct the set or it can use all drives, it didnt seem to make a difference in speed. Once Raid Reconstructor runs it quick wizard to figure out stripe and block size it will then prompt you to start up Captain Nemo or Getmydataback NTFS. I used GMDB NTFS.

Raid Reconstructor then feeds its discovery map into GMDB and begins the rebuild process, it will scan the entire raid set for all data and display the directory structure. You can then copy the data from the damaged raid onto a hard disk or whatever you have to hold the data you want to recover.

ps, that's just a copy paste job, not my own work here but I can attest to the first one working just fine with a borked RAID0.

I am in the same boat. Will try the above and post results.

EDIT
Raid Reconstructor seems like its going to work.

Unfortunately my raid is 1tb so its going to take like 4 hours to save the image. I am going to do that tonight.

So here's where I'm at now. I have a new 500GB hard drive with Windows 7 installed. My Windows XP was giving a blue screen. Windows 7 is up and running fine.

Only one of my old RAID 0 drives is showing up in Computer. I've tried switching power & SATA cables, but one of my drives will not show up. Here's what I get in the Computer Management window:

(Image Shack pic, sorry)


And of course, because one of my drives doesn't have a letter, I can't go anywhere with RAID Reconstructor either. I already Initialized the drive and selected MBR. If I click New Simple Volume, wont that format my drive? Not too sure where to go from here.

Edit: And also, right-clicking on Disk 1 instead of Unallocated space give me the option to Convert to Dymanic Disk or Convert to GPT Disk.

N3buchan3zzar said:

Try
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showpost.php?p=3329132&postcount=6

Click to expand...

Can anybody confirm that this will definitely not erase my info if I set to non-raid and create a new array? I still can't get my 3rd drive to show up in Windows 7 to use Raid Reconstructor, so I think my last option is to do this and use TestDisk. I also don't know the original settings for the array, or the order. If I have to do this a few times to vary the Stripe Size, will any data be messed up?

Sorry for all the questions, I'd just like to be extra sure before I mess anything up permanently, as a good chunk of the data is irreplaceable.

Well, you shouldn't have anything important on RAID0 to begin with. A single harddrive failure and it is for sure lost. You should take this as a learning experience and from now on, anything on RAID0, be okay with it being lost.

Otherwise, good luck, not a good situation .

Jester3D said:

Thanks for the reply! It would be excellent if this was backwards compatible.

I don't have a 3rd HDD yet, so if getting the old RAID functional can work, that would be awesome. Since I'm fairly new to setting up a RAID, I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

I have the HDD connected to SATA 8 and SATA 9. After the POST I can get into the RAID utility. The drives appear in the list, but the Type/Status for both is NON-RAID.

I tried switching the connections for SATA8/9 but it's still the same result. System hangs at Verifying DMI Pool Data.

If I connect to SATA 0/1, or 1/0 it's still showing Non-RAID for both, but it gets past Verifying DMI Pool Data and gives me a Disk read error.

Click to expand...

I have that same board, The intel are the black SATA connectors the others are Red JMICRON. You might have it connected wrong from what I am understanding. And you do need to enable RAID and match up exactly the correct intel sata ports. 0-5 ports so look and see on the old board (manual might help) what ports you had them connected to. My 2 cents?

hangten said:

I have that same board, The intel are the black SATA connectors the others are Red JMICRON. You might have it connected wrong from what I am understanding. And you do need to enable RAID and match up exactly the correct intel sata ports. 0-5 ports so look and see on the old board (manual might help) what ports you had them connected to. My 2 cents?

Click to expand...

Thanks I've since moved to the black 0-2 SATA ports (Old HDDs on 0, 1. New Drive on 2) but I'm still stuck with the 2nd drive not being fully recognized by Windows and not being assigned a drive letter. When I try to assign a drive letter, I'm pretty sure it asks me to format the drive first. This happens no matter what SATA port, plug, or power cord I'm using. The image a few posts above is where I'm at now.

Ok, so then when you boot and it shows that the RAID setup such as what drive belong to the RAID volume. This should be in green color text. Whats it showing? And do you have the Intel Matrix Storage Consel installed? If you right click on the drive you have options...

hangten said:

Ok, so then when you boot and it shows that the RAID setup such as what drive belong to the RAID volume. This should be in green color text. Whats it showing? And do you have the Intel Matrix Storage Consel installed? If you right click on the drive you have options...

Click to expand...

No drives belong to any RAID at this moment. However, the two 250GB used to belong to a RAID0 and still have all the information. I'm just not able to access them due to the new motherboard chipset being different from the old non-functional motherboard.

0 & 1 are my old RAID 0 drives. 2 is my new 500GB with Windows 7 installed. Windows is only recognizing 1 of the 2 old drives at this moment. It's asking me to make it a "New Simple Volume" before I can assign a drive letter. I'm assuming this will format it, losing 1/2 my old information and completely screwing me over.

Right now I'm wondering if N3buchan3zzar's link of instructions is going to damage my drives in any way, especially if I don't remember the correct drive order & stripes size. If I have to pick a new stripe size & order three, four, five times, is it going to do anything to destroy the data that is still on my two old drives? This is now where I am stuck in this process of reconstructing my RAID0.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=565177
Ok, I wanted to respond fast and will soon post some pictures but see if you get anything out of this post and by my research YES its backwards compatible.

I just had a more recently updated Windows 7 so i could geniupig some setups for you.(man wish I wouldn't give away old drive for testing different configurations)

hangten said:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=565177
Ok, I wanted to respond fast and will soon post some pictures but see if you get anything out of this post and by my research YES its backwards compatible.

I just had a more recently updated Windows 7 so i could geniupig some setups for you.(man wish I wouldn't give away old drive for testing different configurations)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. I'm still really new at setting up RAIDs (I didn't set up the old one). So when you say backwards compatible, do you mean that if I recreate the array using my current ICH10R motherboard it will be able to read all my data from the nForce 4 motherboard?

It's the "WARNING: ALL DATA ON SELECTED DISKS WILL BE LOST. Are you sure you want to create this volume? (Y/N):" thing that I'm worried about, really...

No, not an nforce4. If thats the case then you need to use that "Raid Reconstructor". I can show you pics of how to configure the drive in RAID on our EVGA X58.

Before you do this you need to copy an image of your drives so RAID Reconstructor will work.

Why doesn't your old board work? Is it completely toast? Are you sure its DEAD? Just seeing if theres a safer way...

Whatever you do not reset the disks and in fact you might need to disable RAID for the time being and may even need to set it to IDE. I haven't read the procedure but it might be involved. Man do you even have enough space to do this?

Any forum member feel free to jump in?

hangten said:

No, not an nforce4. If thats the case then you need to use that "Raid Reconstructor". I can show you pics of how to configure the drive in RAID on our EVGA X58.

Before you do this you need to copy an image of your drives so RAID Reconstructor will work.

Why doesn't your old board work? Is it completely toast? Are you sure its DEAD? Just seeing if theres a safer way...

Whatever you do not reset the disks and in fact you might need to disable RAID for the time being and may even need to set it to IDE. I haven't read the procedure but it might be involved. Man do you even have enough space to do this?

Any forum member feel free to jump in?

Click to expand...

Yeah the nForce 4 board is completely out of the picture. I have a 500GB internal drive and a 1TB external waiting for this old RAID to become functional again.

And setting it from RAID to IDE, isn't that just in 2 settings in the BIOS? I switched to RAID before I installed an OS.

So, two questions for everyone:
1. Is there some sort of hardware nForce 4 compatible RAID controller that I can purchase just to get my data?
or
2. How can I get Windows to recognize Disk 1 just like it sees Disk 0 and Disk 2 so I can use Raid Reconstructor?