RAID1 - what happens if your motherboard RAID controller dies?
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Posted by on May 22, 2008, 4:25 pm
Please log in for more thread options intend to set up two identical drives in RAID 1 configuration. My worry is how I would go about recovering the data from either drive if my motherboard goes down. I assume that you can't just plug one of the drives in to another motherboard and expect it to be read by a normal SATA2 (in my case) connection. So how would I recover the data in this worst case condition? | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Arno Wagner on May 22, 2008, 4:40 pm
Please log in for more thread options Coingratulations, you have found one inherent porblem with hardware-RAID (as opposed to software RAID). Having a spare mainboard is handy. This has all sorts of problems, e.g. whai if the CPU dies and a replacement is difficult to obtain. Controller card is a little better but not oo much. There is RAID recovery software, but it costs money. I would advise to use software RAID instead, as here you can just move the drives to a different machine. Arno | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by NB on May 22, 2008, 4:51 pm
Please log in for more thread options On May 22, 4:25=A0pm, clangers_sn...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> I have a motherboard with a hardware RAID controller built in and I
> intend to set up two identical drives in RAID 1 configuration. My > worry is how I would go about recovering the data from either drive if > my motherboard goes down. I assume that you can't just plug one of the > drives in to another motherboard and expect it to be read by a normal > SATA2 (in my case) connection. So how would I recover the data in this > worst case condition? You would need to replace the motherboard anyways, and that would fix the problem (assuming the motherboard hasn't been discontinued). | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by SteveH on May 22, 2008, 5:28 pm
Please log in for more thread options clangers_snout@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> I have a motherboard with a hardware RAID controller built in and I
> intend to set up two identical drives in RAID 1 configuration. My > worry is how I would go about recovering the data from either drive if > my motherboard goes down. I assume that you can't just plug one of the > drives in to another motherboard and expect it to be read by a normal > SATA2 (in my case) connection. So how would I recover the data in this > worst case condition? It depends entirely on the mobo/controller(s) in question. For example, I have a customer whose MSI socket 754 mobo failed, this had 2 SATA srives in Raid1. I got him a new board, an Intel P35 based one, so different kit all round. I attached one of the drives in normal mode and it was read immediately, just needed to change the drivers and we were up and running. I then just added the 2ns drive back and rebuilt the Raid. This does not mean however that it will work this way every time, you just have to suck it and see sometimes. -- SteveH | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Arno Wagner on May 22, 2008, 7:37 pm
Please log in for more thread options In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage SteveH
> clangers_snout@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>> I have a motherboard with a hardware RAID controller built in and I
>> intend to set up two identical drives in RAID 1 configuration. My >> worry is how I would go about recovering the data from either drive if >> my motherboard goes down. I assume that you can't just plug one of the >> drives in to another motherboard and expect it to be read by a normal >> SATA2 (in my case) connection. So how would I recover the data in this >> worst case condition? > It depends entirely on the mobo/controller(s) in question. For example, I
> have a customer whose MSI socket 754 mobo failed, this had 2 SATA srives in > Raid1. I got him a new board, an Intel P35 based one, so different kit all > round. I attached one of the drives in normal mode and it was read > immediately, just needed to change the drivers and we were up and running. I > then just added the 2ns drive back and rebuilt the Raid. > This does not mean however that it will work this way every time, you just > have to suck it and see sometimes. The issue here is where the RAID stores its metadata. If in EEPROM, you are fine. If on the end of the disk, you are fine as well. If at the beginning of the disk, it gets difficult. But, true, for RAID1 you may get lucky. I would advise you to try removing a disk and reading it non-raided in a different computer. If that works, it should also work in the future ;-) Arno | |||||||||||||||||||
> intend to set up two identical drives in RAID 1 configuration. My
> worry is how I would go about recovering the data from either drive if
> my motherboard goes down. I assume that you can't just plug one of the
> drives in to another motherboard and expect it to be read by a normal
> SATA2 (in my case) connection. So how would I recover the data in this
> worst case condition?