Moving an nVidia RAID Drive to a New Mobo

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miketd

Weaksauce
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Jun 4, 2003
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So I have (had) a raid 5 setup using the nVidia onboard RAID on a MSI K8NGM2-FID 939. The motherboard is acting up and I need to replace it. The problem is obviously that I don't know how I'll get my data off this raid drive. If I'm replacing the motherboard, I'd like to just upgrade. I don't want to buy the same motherboard for a second time. Are there any newer motherboards that will be able to read my raid configuration so I can save my data?

-Mike
 
You will need to determine the chipset that is providing the raid functionality (nForce southbridge, stand-alone chip, or something else), then get a board with a later generation of the same thing. Either a later nForce southbridge or a later model in the same line of stand-alone controllers, or whatever.

If what you get is from the same line as what you had, even if it is a generation or several newer, you should be able to get the array to be detected by the new chip. At least that is what I think based on the only article on migrating raid arrays I have ever read (around somewhere, and fairly recent).

Good luck!
 
Subscribed, as I'd like an answer to this as well. Specifically, I'd like to move from a MSI K8N Neo Platinum (Socket 754), to an EVGA nForce680i SLI A1 (socket 775)
 
Well, I've been looking around and I don't think I'm going to find a compatible motherboard. So, I'll throw in a curveball that isn't strictly hardware related (sorry admins): I am using mdadm (ubuntu server) to manage my raid configuration and have been told that nVidia mobos offer "fake raid". My coworker suggested that I may be able to plug my three drives into any motherboard and get mdadm to recognize the drive. Anyone know if this will work?
 
miketd said:
Well, I've been looking around and I don't think I'm going to find a compatible motherboard. So, I'll throw in a curveball that isn't strictly hardware related (sorry admins): I am using mdadm (ubuntu server) to manage my raid configuration and have been told that nVidia mobos offer "fake raid". My coworker suggested that I may be able to plug my three drives into any motherboard and get mdadm to recognize the drive. Anyone know if this will work?
Click to expand...

In theory, if the software that setup and administers the RAID is the same, then yes, it'll work. Unfortunately, if you boot to the RAID, then your motherboard will have to detect it first otherwise it won't work.

Does anyone know the RAID controller for the MSI K8N Neo Platinum, and the EVGA nForce 680i A1 mobo>?
 
Ludic said:
In theory, if the software that setup and administers the RAID is the same, then yes, it'll work. Unfortunately, if you boot to the RAID, then your motherboard will have to detect it first otherwise it won't work.
Click to expand...

Well, not really. The motherboard could just hand off to the boot manager of what ever OS is being used, then the boot manager might be able to use the OS drivers/utility to "see" the raid array and boot from it. That could work.

Ludic said:
Does anyone know the RAID controller for the MSI K8N Neo Platinum, and the EVGA nForce 680i A1 mobo>?
Click to expand...

The 680i uses the one built into the Nforce 6-series southbridge. The older 590 can see the raid arrays made by a 3-series generation Nforce SB chip. I believe that means the one in the NF6 SB chip could too, but I don't know for sure. Your MSI board uses the NF3 SB chip to offer 0/1/0+1 raid modes, only. If that is what you are using, then there is at least a shot (a pretty good shot, in my opinion) you can move that array to a newere 680i board.

Source article

That article is what convinced me to do raid with an add-on card, or just not at all. My data is important to me.

Of course you might be talking about the NF4 based MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum vs the NF3 based MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum which I think (hope?) you're talking about. So if that is the case (in other words it supports, and you are using, raid5), then you are likely screwed. This is because the raid5 support on the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum comes from a Silicon Image chip. The Nforce SB only did 0/1/0+1, so MSI used the SI chip to give a raid5 option. If you are using the Neo4 model, you might be able to get a Silicon Image chip based raid card (likely pretty cheaply) and have it detect your raid5 array.
 
Betrayer00GT said:
Well, not really. The motherboard could just hand off to the boot manager of what ever OS is being used, then the boot manager might be able to use the OS drivers/utility to "see" the raid array and boot from it. That could work.

The 680i uses the one built into the Nforce 6-series southbridge. The older 590 can see the raid arrays made by a 3-series generation Nforce SB chip. I believe that means the one in the NF6 SB chip could too, but I don't know for sure. Your MSI board uses the NF3 SB chip to offer 0/1/0+1 raid modes, only. If that is what you are using, then there is at least a shot (a pretty good shot, in my opinion) you can move that array to a newere 680i board.

Source article

That article is what convinced me to do raid with an add-on card, or just not at all. My data is important to me.

Of course you might be talking about the NF4 based MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum vs the NF3 based MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum which I think (hope?) you're talking about. So if that is the case (in other words it supports, and you are using, raid5), then you are likely screwed. This is because the raid5 support on the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum comes from a Silicon Image chip. The Nforce SB only did 0/1/0+1, so MSI used the SI chip to give a raid5 option. If you are using the Neo4 model, you might be able to get a Silicon Image chip based raid card (likely pretty cheaply) and have it detect your raid5 array.
Click to expand...

I'm going from a nForce3 MSI K8N Neo Platinum. No 2, 3, 4 after Neo. Just plain Neo, the first. The Neo2 platinum was the same board in socket 939 flavor if I remember right, where mine is a Socket 754 motherboard. And I'm using RAID 0, so no RAID 5 issues to worry about. I'm actually quite a bit encouraged after reading that article, and I'm completely prepared to lose everything I don't have on my external drive. I'm upgrading to Vista 64bit as well during this move, but I'm not thrilled about having to inject the RAID drivers with a floppy =\
 
Ludic said:
I'm going from a nForce3 MSI K8N Neo Platinum. No 2, 3, 4 after Neo. Just plain Neo, the first. The Neo2 platinum was the same board in socket 939 flavor if I remember right, where mine is a Socket 754 motherboard.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I missed the "754" part. Well, I think you're good to go with the 680i, also based on the article I linked.

Good luck!


Ludic said:
I'm upgrading to Vista 64bit as well during this move, but I'm not thrilled about having to inject the RAID drivers with a floppy =\
Click to expand...

If I went to Vista today, I would go 64-bit, too. Not so much in February when I actually did switch to Vista, however. 64-bit support is still not a big deal for me right now, but it is certainly a "nice to have", even for me ATM.

My next machine will run 64-bit OEM Vista Ultimate. That will likely be a while from now, though.
 
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