IDE RAID- Major problem need to save my data

patrick wrote:
snip
I put drives of bad computers into a second computer sytem, boot from
the Knoppix Live CDrom, copy the files over to a known good drive, and
save files in that manner!

snip

That won't solve the problem of putting back together files dispersed
over multiple drives by a RAID controller.

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patrick wrote:

kony wrote:
On 27 Nov 2004 18:07:27 -0800, (MC)
wrote:


I had a motherboard with a built in IDE RAID Promise chipset. I used
two drives for RAID 0 (now I know this was a bad idea). To make a
long story short, the system board is shot and I can't get another
with the same RAID chipset.


What does "shot" mean?

Since this wasn't adressed, "tot", "kaput", "defunct", "deceased", "in a
condition like or similar to that of a human being who has had the
misfortune to occupy the space through which one or more projectiles
launched by a closed-breech powder-actuated launching system of the type
commonly known as a 'firearm' were passing.

Some common failings like failed capacitors or inoperative
bios can be relatively inexpensively fixed, if you don't
have the inclination to do so yourself... especially if you
only need the board operable long enough to copy off data.

Generally cheaper to find a replacement board on ebay. If you're paying
someone to do it then it's cheaper to just get a new board.

Even if I throw the computer out, I really
need to save my data. My questions a

1) If I get another system with a PCI RAID card or IDE RAID chipset on
the motherboard that is not Promise RAID chipset, will my existing
drives work without reformating? (i.e. I can get my data off. I don't
need to boot or anything else).


No, the odds are bad, typically it won't work... but you
might find a promise card with same chipset. Often
motherboards use what they call a "Promise Lite" bios but
it's the same full-featured RAID chip you'd find on a card
(one having same Promise ATA(nnn) chip on it of course.


2) If I just get a new computer (or borrow someones) with normal IDE,
can I plug in my 2 drives as the the 2nd and 3rd drive and use
software RAID (like in Win2000) to get at my data?


No, you definitely can't get that data that way.

What motherboard was it? Is the rest of the system operable
still, for example you have a working CPU and memory
available?
I put drives of bad computers into a second computer sytem, boot from
the Knoppix Live CDrom, copy the files over to a known good drive, and
save files in that manner!

Try it with drives that were formatted using a RAID controller and that were
part of a RAID-0 array and you'll find that that approach doesn't work
unless you have a compatible RAID controller. You have to reconstruct the
RAID, or extract the data sector by sector and then make a software
emulation of the RAID controller, which is a lot more programming than most
folks want to be bothered with doing when a replacement RAID controller
costs maybe the value of a couple of hours labor for someone with the
skills to do that.

BUT, if you are talking moving your drives over to another computer, to
boot up XP or it's ilk, it probably will through you into fits! M$
didn't want that, and so, it can be the dickens trying to do what the
MOTHERSHIP prohibits!

Well, actually, just moving the drives to another computer causes no
problems at all for Windows XP or any other version of Windows as long as
the disk controller is supported by a driver that is either a standard part
of Windows or was installed on the source machine. XP will require that
you reactivate, which takes about five minutes worst-case.

You seem to be trying to make a Windows vs Linux case of some kind, which is
pretty silly since it's a hardware issue.

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