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From: E on 17 May 2010 12:18

>
> So either find a motherboard with an Nvidia chipset and
> RAID drivers in place, or "become good at coding dd into a
> script" :-)
>

Wish I would have did some more research before attempting this. I maybe
should have just bit the bullet and bought a Dell replacement
motherboard. They said they had one for over $400.

Everything would have been so much easier for me then. The front panel
connectors, lights, and switches on a Dell are bad enough, especially
the USB/audio jack board that has a proprietary interface to connect to
the main board via ribbon cable, and then the power switch/LEDs that in
turn connect to it with a ribbon cable. I know it's possible, but I
don't have the patience to experiment at this point.

I am familiar with DD, but have never used it. I know it comes in handy
for imaging drives. If I could pull it off it would be a feat, but I'm
not ready to experiment with someone else's data.

Thanks again Paul
Eddie

From: Paul on 17 May 2010 13:37
E wrote:
>
>>
>> So either find a motherboard with an Nvidia chipset and
>> RAID drivers in place, or "become good at coding dd into a
>> script" :-)
>>
>
> Wish I would have did some more research before attempting this. I maybe
> should have just bit the bullet and bought a Dell replacement
> motherboard. They said they had one for over $400.
>
> Everything would have been so much easier for me then. The front panel
> connectors, lights, and switches on a Dell are bad enough, especially
> the USB/audio jack board that has a proprietary interface to connect to
> the main board via ribbon cable, and then the power switch/LEDs that in
> turn connect to it with a ribbon cable. I know it's possible, but I
> don't have the patience to experiment at this point.
>
> I am familiar with DD, but have never used it. I know it comes in handy
> for imaging drives. If I could pull it off it would be a feat, but I'm
> not ready to experiment with someone else's data.
>
> Thanks again Paul
> Eddie
>

If you're copying the RAID0 array, to a separate spare disk, there is
no danger to the user's data. As long as you're not *writing* to the
original disks...

If done correctly, tools like chkdsk would indicate all is well, while
if the copy is done with the wrong stripe value, it'll be gibberish.
And you'll be testing the copy of the data for consistency, rather
than the original data.

If you use a tool like HDTune from hdtune.com, you can scan for bad blocks,
and as long as the bad block scan on each disk is clean, then there is
little to fear while making the copy. If the disks were damaged, then
we're talking more of a "data recovery" problem, rather than a pure
"data copy" problem.

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

It's really a question of time versus money tradeoff, as to how long
it would take to copy the data and get it into a form you can use.
There is RAID recovery software out there, and at least some of it
will demonstrate it knows the format, by "teasing" you with file names
and the like. (At least some of the products are "try before you buy",
effectively holding the data for ransom until you buy the product.)
So if you have more money to spend, and less time available,
there is probably software that can copy the data for you right now.
("dd" is for poor people like me :-) )

And yes, the Dell connectors will undoubtedly be a challenge. All
part of the fun. I can see Michael Dell laughing now.

Paul
From: Geoff on 21 May 2010 03:49
On 17/05/2010 05:34, E wrote:
>
>
> I'm working on a Dell XPS-600 with a failed motherboard. The PC had two
> 160GB drives that I assume were set up in a RAID 0 configuration since
> it was a gaming PC. I hooked them to a new motherboard and tried to boot
> from the drives but it halts in POST because it can't find anything to
> boot from.

raid 0

named because of the amount of data you will get back if something goes
wrong

enjoy :)
From: Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) on 21 May 2010 06:58
> raid 0
>
> named because of the amount of data you will get back if something goes
> wrong

Whether one used RAID or not, one should always back up your data! :)

--
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/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
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^ ^ 18:57:01 up 2 days 22:08 2 users load average: 1.02 1.03 1.00
不借貸! 不詐騙! 不援交! 不打交! 不打劫! 不自殺! 請考慮綜援 (CSSA):
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From: kony on 22 May 2010 14:14
On Mon, 17 May 2010 00:34:05 -0400, E
<eddie180(a)xlxoxcxaxlxnxext.com> wrote:

>
>
>I'm working on a Dell XPS-600 with a failed motherboard. The PC had two
>160GB drives that I assume were set up in a RAID 0 configuration since
>it was a gaming PC.

That is a strange assumption to make. Most OEM, and most
gaming systems, do not ship with RAID0.

Do you have other evidence to suggest it was a RAID0, for
example that you can't pull the drives out and read each
independently on another system after the HDD manufacturer's
diagnostics cleared them as functioning normally?


>I hooked them to a new motherboard and tried to boot
>from the drives but it halts in POST because it can't find anything to
>boot from.

Did you go into the bios and set it to boot from either
drive? I could assume you did, but at some point I could
assume a lot of things and overlook what has not been done
yet, since the problem remains meaning something hasn't been
done yet.


>
>I have gone into the BIOS and RAID setup utility of the new board and
>tried to set up a RAID 0 array hoping it would at least boot part way
>into the OS which did not work.

Don't ever do that. Do not ever ever set up an array trying
to get one back. (If it is an array at all). If the raid
controller is compatible it would recognize the array itself
with no "help" from the user, all that would be needed is,
if the bios had defaulted to non-raid/legacy emulation mode,
is to enable raid support.

As it stands, if it has written to the discs as I suspect it
has, you may be out of luck unless you can use a motherboard
with the same chipset to make the same array config on a
different drive, use a sector editor to show what was
written, then use a sector editor to write that to the discs
with the array... and if it didn't write to the same area on
the drive you may still have lost the data overwritten by
the new raid controller and attempt to make the new array.

If the data is valuable stop now and contact a data recovery
center detailing what you have done thus far.


>I have also booted a live Suse Linux CD
>to see if I could access them from there. Partitioning software in Suse
>says it can't read the partitioning information, but does show that
>there is a FAT partition labeled DellUtility. I have not tried to
>configure the two drive as RAID 1.

OK. Unplug one drive and see if it still shows the
DellUtility partition. If it does not, unplug that drive
and plug in only the other drive and see if it shows the
partition. If it can see the partition on either drive with
only one drive plugged in, that in itself is proof the
drives did not have a RAID0 array.


>
>I have no experience with RAID, but since the drives are the same size
>and this was intended by Dell to be a gaming PC I assume that they were
>originally set up as RAID 0.

Don't ever assume that. Assume the simplest and typical OEM
PC configuration and work from there, only assuming RAID
when something suggests it directly from evidence trying to
access the discs.

For the record, when you are dealing with a RAID0 array you
don't want just any random board with a raid capable
controller, you want a board with the same raid controller
chipset and ideally even the same raid bios (embedded in the
motherboard bios file).

For RAID1 it is a different matter, each drive can be
treated as a duplicate of the other and read by any
(non-raid too) controller unless it is a very strange
proprietary controller which is hardly ever the case since
there is no reason to deviate from the standards to do a
RAID1, except to lock people out of access and try to force
repurchase of the same hardware again which is a possibility
I can't rule out but thus far it is not at all common if it
happens at all in the industry.


>There is an option to set the stripe size
>in the RAID setup of the motherboard but I am afraid to change it
>because it warns that it will delete the MBR. The user probably has no
>back up of data.

Ask user if data is valuable. However, you are trying to
salvage an existing windows installation to reuse it on
another board with a different chipset, which in itself is
an operation which requires adding drivers to let windows
finish booting, and registry entries, which are probably
needing written to an NTFS filesystem which linux could do,
but not the registry AFAIK.

In other words, your best bet is trying to salvage the data
and starting with a fresh windows installation after
formatting the drives.

However, 160GB drives are fairly old by now (unless WD
Raptors which may not be yet), IMO when you are setting up a
system for another tour of duty it is prudent to get a new
drive so your work is not wasted by a drive failing in a
short period, nor the owner suffering additional expenses or
burden beyond the cost of the new hard drive... they are
already at the end of their expected lifespan even though
some drives continue to work years longer (but others
don't).

First step is ask the owner how valuable the data is and
what folders it is in. IMO, the data can't be too terribly
valuable since anyone can Google search for how to backup
data and find some way to do it if motivated by the value of
the data.
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