Hi Folks,
I have a three disk raid 5 array that was running from an MSI K9N motherboard using the NVIDIA® nForce 570 SLI MCP Chipset. I was able to breadboard the motherboard long enough with reset BIOS to see that enabling the RAID in BIOS allows the computer to recognise the RAID and boot up successfully. Unfortunately the motherboard will not respond at all now. In looking for a replacement I was able to find an MSI K9N2 board which uses the NVIDIA® nForce 750a SLI single chipset. Does anyone know if this later version of the RAID controller would be able to recognise the RAID built on the previous controller version? Are there any software tools that people might recommend to recover the data by placing the disks in another computer without a controller?
I hope this has not been covered elsewhere - I did have a look round before posting!
Regards,
Peter.
@ merrymeetpete:
Hello Peter,
welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
The nForce 750a chipset (MCP67 with AHCI support) belongs to a totally different nForce chipset development branch than the nForce 570 chipset (MCP55 without AHCI support). Nevertheless the transfer of your RAID5 system may work. Very important is the version of the NVIDIA nForce RAID ROM, because not all of them do fully support RAID5 arrays.
I don’t think, that it is possible at all to read data of a RAID array without the presence of the related hardware, that means a suitable RAID Controller.
Regards
Fernando
Hi Fernando!
A belated thanks for the info supplied!
This has been a bit of a long term project for me… an update…
I was able to get the RAID running on the nForce 750a motherboard and it all booted and ran well enough for me to update drivers and get things right in Windows 7 32bit. Almost unbelievably (!) a memory module failed just after I got everything running well - and once again degraded the RAID5! I booted in degraded mode with the intention of using the Mediashield apps to sort out the rebuild - the storage option on the Nvidia control panel just crashed and wouldnt run. I then tried to specify the rebuild at BIOS level expecting the rebuild to kick off once in windows - no such luck!. After that the PC would not boot any more…
I then built a windows 7 64 bit OS on another single disk to boot from. When I opened the Storage app on there the array appears as degraded and there is only one option offered - to delete it. The BIOS level app also shows the array as degraded. I was able to use a piece of software in windows (ReclaiMe) to detect the RAID5 and it was able to create a disk image onto another storage device - after using FixDisk on that data I was able to recover an MBR for the image to reconstruct the partition data - the data is obviously still there in the RAID5.
I am hopeful that I just need to get the MediaShield app running correctly under windows 7 64bit and get the options up to rebuild the array. Have you any pointers for this? Does it sould like I have an incorrect driver somewhere? Could it be that the MBR data has been wiped off the array and is stopping MediaShield from working?
Thanks in advance for any further input!
Peter.
Not really.
Which nForce SATARAID driver and which RAIDTOOL version did you install?
I don’t think, that the MBR data have been wiped, but maybe the MediaShield application cannot see/read them.
The following is from the README that come with your driver downloads :
Ethernet Driver (v73.35) customized and corrected by Fernando
SATAIDE Driver (v11.1.0.44) customized by Fernando
SATARAID Driver (v11.1.0.43) customized by Fernando
RAIDTOOL Application (v11.1.0.43) "Sedona"
SMU Driver (v1.71) customized by Fernando
SMBus Driver (v4.69) customized by Fernando
Away Mode Driver (v6.0.6000.115) WHQL
HD Audio Driver (v1.3.12.0) WHQL
Installer (v8.36)
The driver for Nvidia Nforce RAID Controller is showing as 11.1.0.43.
nvraidservice.exe also reports the same version if I look at it in a TaskManager window - does that define the RAIDTOOL version for you???
Regards,
Peter.
Yes!
What happens, when you join the NVIDIA MediaShield Utility by hitting CTRL+N while booting? Does the Utility see your RAID5 array (maybe as degraded)?
The strorage array shows up when the machine boots and detects Storage Arrays - it shows as degraded (and flashes orange / red).
I have an F10 option option during boot to enter the Storage Setup utility - that shows the array as degraded when you enter the utility.
I will reboot and look again in a minute to see the exact info in the F10 screens and to see if CTRL+N does something different at boot time??? I assume that is the BIOS boot sequence rather than windows boot sequence?
The F10 option shows N/A in the Boot column and DEGRADED in the Status.
CTRL+N does nothing for me on BIOS or Windows boot…
Peter.
Ok, with your mainboard you enter the RAID Utility by hitting F10, but users of other nForce chipset boards may have to use another keyboard button combination (like CTRL+N).
I thought it might be something like that!
The F10 option shows N/A in the Boot column and DEGRADED in the Status.
That means, that the RAID5 data of the MBR are still present, but the array itself has to be repaired.
So you should try to get the NVIDIA MediaShield software (RAIDTOOL) working again. Since I don’t have an nForce RAID system since many years, I doubt, that I will be able to help you.
OK Thanks for your help Fernando - I will update the post if I am ever able to recover the RAID.
Peter.