Server died

[Tommy L]

Server died, I think the motherboard is kaput.

I have decided to demote a workstation to be the new server and buy a new workstation, so here's my question:

I have a Asus P6T in the 'new' server. The OS (W7) is running on a new SSD. I have two drives which were in RAID1 from the old server with all my data on which have to go into the new server.

So.

Can I just stick the drives in and tell them they are RAID1 drives? Will this wipe the drives?

I tried this and in BIOS I could only find an option to globally change the drives from IDE to RAID. I couldnt do it on an individual drive basis, so it just failed to boot as the SSD was listed as RAID also.

When I install the drives and dont change the BIOS then one drive shows up in the drive manager with a flag saying it has an identical drive ID as another drive (or something like that) so only one shows in Windows

 

I know thats a bit of a jumble, but Im kind of in a bad place as this stops me working, any help much appreciated.

[numerobis]

i think you have to enable RAID in the BIOS as you did and then enter the RAID-BIOS by pressing ctrl-I after you'll be prompted to do so.

Normally it should be possible to use the RAID1 with another board if they have the same chipset or simply plug in one original RAID disk and then rebuild the other one. Or just copy back the backup to the new RAID1 - i hope you have one... a RAID1 is no backup!

If not, it think, this dead board could be a good reason start with a backup... and i i where you, i would do this before i try to rebuild the RAID.

[Tommy L]

i think you have to enable RAID in the BIOS as you did and then enter the RAID-BIOS by pressing ctrl-I after you'll be prompted to do so.

Normally it should be possible to use the RAID1 with another board if they have the same chipset or simply plug in one original RAID disk and then rebuild the other one. Or just copy back the backup to the new RAID1 - i hope you have one... a RAID1 is no backup!

If not, it think, this dead board could be a good reason start with a backup... and i i where you, i would do this before i try to rebuild the RAID.

Yes, I have another copy of my data. My entire plan is just RAID1 which is backed up to WD Passport external drive. I should have more than that but I dont...

The drives are fine, thats the first thing I checked. I was getting repeated BSOD, some data corruption on current job files which scared me (bizzare errors in PS and some irretrievable crash on exit from Max). I switched out the OS drive for a new one and did not cure it. So I am assuming that further investigation will just annoy me intensely so Ill just move to a new machine.

Its a bummer because Ive just done fresh install from the ground up. Server, 2 x workstations, 7 x nodes. Everything was slick until this hiccup.

I think Im going to have the two drives not in RAID, but set one up as a backup drive to run once a week.

[numerobis]

i have a RAID1 in the Server and two external backup drives in rotation... i'm a bit paranoid since one data drive crashed a few years ago

[Nic H]

you could add a third drive and do RAID 5 tommy?

[Tommy L]

Yes Ninic, but its the installation on the P6T thats the problem. Im ok with the level of redundancy that the RAID1 + external backup gives me.

[artmaknev]

That sucks, I had similar scenario, since then I am using NAS with 4 drives in ZFS Raid (self-healing they say..), but its good that you have external backup, because making new Raid in BIOS might erase the drive, I am not sure, but one wrong move in BIOS and the data is gone!