Help with RAID-0 migration

[ainuke]

I just switched from an MSI K9NU Neo-V mobo to a MA785GM-US2H due to terminal mobo failure.

The issue is that I was running RAID-0 with my OS & Apps (thankfully, most data was on non-RAID drive), and am now trying to migrate the RAID array over to the new board (if AT ALL possible).  The chipsets/drivers are, of course, different, but I was wondering if anyone had any expertise with this sort of thing?  Is there some sort of software-based emulator that would enable me to read the array?  I would then image it and load it onto a new drive.

I would just wipe them and start fresh, except that Outlook has the annoying feature of burying its data file on the OS>User>AppData>etc.  partition (not in the Documents area, where it would make sense...), and I have several years worth of email, contacts, and related data for my business contained in it.

I'm trying to source a used/unwanted MSI mobo that would enable me to retrieve my stuff, but it doesn't seem to be that popular, and it doesn't share its chipset with too many other boards.

And data recovery is exorbitantly expensive here in the Boston area (a previous HDD failure got me a quote for $1200, with no guarantee that they could retrieve anything (!))

Any RAID gurus out there?

[bofh1971]

rebuilding a raid array is quite complex
there is software out there that can image the drives and write the contents to another location

can't remember the name off the top of my head but some recovery tools include this functionality.

the downside is you need lots of hdd space to perform this operation.

Good luck

[absic]

Hi,

You could try using Raid 2 Raid software (just google for it). This might be the kind of thing that you're looking for.

I would just wipe them and start fresh, except that Outlook has the annoying feature of burying its data file on the OS>User>AppData>etc.  partition (not in the Documents area, where it would make sense...), and I have several years worth of email, contacts, and related data for my business contained in it.

One of the many reasons that I use Thunderbird for my e-mail as it is so easy to back-up and transfer when you need to do so.

ATB

[ainuke]

@bofh1971:
Thanks for the info.  Knowing that there are software solutions out there is definitely helpful...

@absic115:
 Have downloaded R2R and am running it now.  The scan for drives seems to be taking forever, no indication on whether it's doing anything or just caught in a loop...
DiskInternals, who distributes it, has a paid version that looks good as well, but is pretty pricey.
Thanks soooo much for the name; I've been going crazy trying to choose the right combination of search terms to come up with something like this on Google.

Will post with success/failure

Peace

[bofh1971]

dont be put off by raid recovery software taking a long time
imagine scanning every sector of both hard drives and then rebuilding a full drive out of the two images
its not a quick process

good luck

btw its easy to restore the outlook files if you can at least grab that
if its outlook express you just need  documents and settings/[username]/application data/microsoft/address book
and documents and settings/[username]/local settings/application data/identities  (there will be a folder with a long name a combination of characters and numbers, this will contain your email folders, you can copy this onto your new installation and use outlook express maintenance settings to change the store folder to this one.

and of course with outlook for office, you just need to find any .pst files.

[ainuke]

UPDATE:

I've loaded both Raid2Raid and RAID Recovery (both from DiskInternals). RAID Recovery is an evaluation copy that is fully functional, up until you want to do anything with the files it's found on your re-created array (i.e. It will flaunt you with a "preview", but require you to pony up $250 US to copy/move/mount anything). It takes about sixty seconds to read/analyze all drives available. It then asks you to chose the participants in your  dysfunctional array. Once chosen, it analyzes the array using different stripe sizes and drive orders, giving you the best possible configuration.
Using this tool, I've seen that my RAID array is alive and well, resting peacefully in its failed-mobo-chipset coma (including my outlook.pst files and game saves).

Not so lucky with Raid2Raid. Free program that says it will enable you to transfer RAID array between chipsets, as in the case of a mobo failure (emphasis mine). It claims to even do this for hardware & OS that don't support RAID.
I wouldn't know. It hangs on the initial scan for disks. Where RAID Recovery found all of my disks (including PATA and non-RAID SATA disks) within 60 seconds, I've let R2R "search for disks available to scan" for over 4 hours, with nothing to show but a green progress slider hypnotically droning across the screen. All other options for the program are unavailable, including minimize/close buttons on the window, and no indication from the HDD LED that there's anything happening. Task Manager shows it as running, but when used to end the process, gives a dialog box stating that it's waiting for a response from me. Perhaps it's not compatible with W7, although I've tried installing/running in compatability mode for both Vista and XP, as well as installing/running as administrator.
There are no forums dedicated to R2R support, and the only reference I've found besides download locations are from users that say it's worked like a charm. DiskInternals offers no explicit support for the free program, although I've emailed their support crew anyway.

I realize this forum is not support for either program, but I'm posting my experience in the hopes that once resolved, this can serve to get someone such as myself out of a future jam.

Thanks for all your help thus far, Gents; you've gotten me further than I could have believed possible.
Back to Google I slog.
Peace

[absic]

Hi,

Sorry you have not had much success so far.

Looking into Raid2Raid it seems as if it works better with Linux and it might be worth while trying to recover your data through that platform rather than Windows.

Good luck and keep us posted.