Restoring a RAID 1 array after BIOS update & option changes. Or simply recovery?

[Anubis_386]

Restoring a RAID 1 array after BIOS update & option changes. Or simply recovery?

Hey guys.. Just looking for a bit of reassurance to do what I intend to in order to get a friend's PC back running and with his Storage RAID intact.. It's a PC I build/setup a while back and now I have it again to fix after the owner tried a bit of modification..

System Specs

• AMD FX-6100 6-Core CPU (runs happily @ 4.2GHz)
• Asus Sabertooth 990FX Mobo
• 12GB PC3-1600 (8-8-8-24, 2T)
• nVidia 660 Ti 3GB (runs BF4 @ 1175/1600MHz)
• OCZ Vertex 460 SSD + 2x 2TB HDDs (RAID1)

Then issue is; the two OCZ Core series SSDs were swapped out for a single OCZ Vertex 460 SSD and due to issues encountered when trying to install Windows the SATA controller was switched to AHCI (from RAID) and the two 2TB Seagate Storage HDDs that were running in RAID1 were disconnected...

So if I (after first creating a RAID driver install disc) set the mobo's storage chip back to RAID, create a JBOD for the SSD and install Windows.. I'm 1/2 way there..

But then what is the procedure for recovering/rebuilding/restoring (whatever the correct word for the job is) the two Storage HDDs in RAID1? Do I use a tool in the storage oprom to rebuild it or create a new array? Then when in Windows (after the appropriate RAID storage drivers have all been installed) do I initialize the array with the Disk Management console? Alternatively what if I just plug the Storage HDDs in via AHCI? Will I simply be able to recover the data from 1 to the other?

Any input is much appreciated!! Cheeeers guys!

 

[Anubis_386]

BUMP!! I'm desperate for some help please guys.. Any input is greatly appreciated!

 

[Automata]

RAID 1 is just mirroring. You can take one of the disks which was in RAID and read it directly.

From the onboard RAID controllers I've worked with, I haven't seen an option to not initialize an array upon creation, which wipes the drives. I would take an image of the SSD, put the drives back in RAID, see if it works. If it works, you are done. If it doesn't work, re-image the new array.

EDIT: Guess that is an important question to ask: did you use onboard or Windows for RAID?

 

[Anubis_386]

Thanks for the reply thideras! Much appreciated man

It was using the onboard RAID. He'd be happy with just getting the data n his PC back so if I can simply connect one of the drives then great. I can give it a go tomorrow

 

[tachi1247]

Is it necessary to reinstall Windows? onboard raid operated in ahci mode anyway. If you switch back to raid mode it might just recognize one of the drives from the array and just try to rebuild the array.