Recovering RAID1

[DJMatty]

Hi

I have a PC that has decided it doesn't want to boot any more, and it had a raid1 array via the onboard raid controller. I really want to get the data off the array, but I'm not sure what I can do.

Will I need to get hold of the same raid controller, so that it can read the array? As it's just mirrored is there any chance I can just plug one of the drives into another pc? (i'm thinking no, but it's worth asking )

The motherboard is a gigabyte ga-8inxp, which has the Promise MBFastTrak133 raid controller.

Any suggestions for retrieving the data will be appreciated!

Thanks

Matt

[ultim8um]

As its RAID 1 I suspect you will be able to plug a single drive from the array into another ATA port on the motherboard and look at the drive contents without any issues... If not there are other ways and means e.g. using a MiniPE disk to boot the PC and view / backup the files.

[DJMatty]

Hi ultim8tum

I'm gonna try plugging one of the drives in to my other pc and see if i can read the data on it today.

The pc that won't boot is a gigabyte GA-8INXP mobo with onboard raid and the board won't boot at all, powers up (fans spin and the memory led is lit on the mobo) but no video, no speaker beeps, nothing. So I'm thinking it's something more serious

I had downloaded knoppix ready to see if I could boot from that, but the machine is just dead.

What's a minipe?

Cheers

Matt

[DJMatty]

Plugged in the drive and it works fine, copying my data now. That's handy to know that RAID1 works like that

Thanks

Matt

[Steve]

Yup, RAID 1's usually nice and simple. Booting off the single drive can be another matter, because if it's no longer attached via the RAID controller and appearing as the same device, the OS can throw a bit of a wobbly. Still, who'd ever want to do such a crazy thing, eh?

[ultim8um]

LOL @ Steve

Glad you are getting somewhere anyway... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_PE explains what MiniPE is and how to get it.