Computer geniuses, I need your advice!!

derelicte · #1 05-28-2008, 04:45 AM

so.. my comp died. it's most likely the motherboard and power supply ( i think something short-circuited). anyway, i knew it would die someday, but i think my harddrives are safe!!

the thing is, I was running 2 pairs of sata drives on Raid0 configurations. How can I access them? Would it require me to setup raid drivers on another pc? do i have to have them slaved to read them? What if my other desktop only has one extra free sata port? could i still just run one of the drives to access it? I'm currently on my laptop.. there's no feasible way to make a raid0 pair of satas work as externals, is there?Please help me find a good solution to this mess please!!

Thanks TB computer geniuses!!!

playinpearls · #2 05-28-2008, 06:17 AM

brother, you used the wrong RAID for that....raid 0 is pretty much un-recoverable. wiki can explain it better than me... :

RAID0: Provides improved performance and additional storage but no fault tolerance. Any disk failure destroys the array, which becomes more likely with more disks in the array. A single disk failure destroys the entire array because when data is written to a RAID 0 drive, the data is broken into fragments. The number of fragments is dictated by the number of disks in the drive. The fragments are written to their respective disks simultaneously on the same sector. This allows smaller sections of the entire chunk of data to be read off the drive in parallel, giving this type of arrangement huge bandwidth. RAID 0 does not implement error checking so any error is unrecoverable. More disks in the array means higher bandwidth, but greater risk of data loss.

Now if you are right and one of your drives hasn't failed....which is about 50/50....you may be able to install a raid driver on another computer and set those to slave and try to read the info off of them. but electricity is unfortunetly a necessary evil with computers....it makes then work, but destroys them quick...
I haven't played with RAID enough to know is you can get around it or not...someone might be able to give you some kind of work around...

derelicte · #3 05-28-2008, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by playinpearls

brother, you used the wrong RAID for that....raid 0 is pretty much un-recoverable. wiki can explain it better than me... :

RAID0: Provides improved performance and additional storage but no fault tolerance. Any disk failure destroys the array, which becomes more likely with more disks in the array. A single disk failure destroys the entire array because when data is written to a RAID 0 drive, the data is broken into fragments. The number of fragments is dictated by the number of disks in the drive. The fragments are written to their respective disks simultaneously on the same sector. This allows smaller sections of the entire chunk of data to be read off the drive in parallel, giving this type of arrangement huge bandwidth. RAID 0 does not implement error checking so any error is unrecoverable. More disks in the array means higher bandwidth, but greater risk of data loss.

Now if you are right and one of your drives hasn't failed....which is about 50/50....you may be able to install a raid driver on another computer and set those to slave and try to read the info off of them. but electricity is unfortunetly a necessary evil with computers....it makes then work, but destroys them quick...
I haven't played with RAID enough to know is you can get around it or not...someone might be able to give you some kind of work around...

i'm 99% sure my hdds are fine, my mobo has been acting up since day1.. until it died. ok, so what if my new comp only has 2 sata ports available? i guess i can't unattach one of the raided drives and read them individually can i?

sigh..

i_got_a_mohawk · #4 05-29-2008, 03:06 AM

I don't know if you can get around it.

I lost a HDD just a few months back (thread on here somewhere about it).

In my new PC, im using 4 HDDs, two in Raid0 for programs, stuff off CDs or DVDs so it isnt a major loss, everything else is stored on two HDDs in a Raid1

playinpearls · #5 05-29-2008, 06:05 AM

no, cause basically it takes one string of data and writes it in between the two disks. You'd probably be lucky if you even saw files...

your safest bet would be to buy the same motherboard and install the drives onto it in the same slots. power supply wont matter. plug everything back in the same, and the hard drives may detect that there was no change in harware, and it may start up like nothing happened. check pricewatch.com for you model number. If its still available, they will have it...

playinpearls · #6 05-29-2008, 06:11 AM

is there a specific reason your running raid on a home computer? I thought about a while ago, but couldn't come up with a good reason to use it otehr than to get to know it so it would help me at work later down the line. RAID was initially designed for data servers when hard drives weren't that big, or they need a good fault tolerance for high access uses. Sometimes it speeds up data writing, but not by that much....

DigMe · #7 05-29-2008, 06:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by playinpearls

Sometimes it speeds up data writing, but not by that much....

Many gamers like Raid 0 because it results in faster performance and quicker load times. It is proven faster. There are any number of benchmarks out there that you can look up. I don't do it though simply because my drive is fast enough to do what I need it to do and I didn't want the risks.

bc

mjolnir · #8 05-29-2008, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by playinpearls

no, cause basically it takes one string of data and writes it in between the two disks. You'd probably be lucky if you even saw files...

your safest bet would be to buy the same motherboard and install the drives onto it in the same slots. power supply wont matter. plug everything back in the same, and the hard drives may detect that there was no change in harware, and it may start up like nothing happened. check pricewatch.com for you model number. If its still available, they will have it...

+1 This is the option most likely to get you back up and running.

Once you do this, however, I'd advise you get rid of the RAID setup completely, or if you absolutely must have it, get an external backup drive.

derelicte · #9 05-29-2008, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by playinpearls

your safest bet would be to buy the same motherboard and install the drives onto it in the same slots. power supply wont matter. plug everything back in the same, and the hard drives may detect that there was no change in harware, and it may start up like nothing happened. check pricewatch.com for you model number. If its still available, they will have it...

I really think I'm gonna do that now, thanks so much! I wonder why I didn't think of that. I was even considering buying another new desktop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by playinpearls

is there a specific reason your running raid on a home computer? I thought about a while ago, but couldn't come up with a good reason to use it otehr than to get to know it so it would help me at work later down the line. RAID was initially designed for data servers when hard drives weren't that big, or they need a good fault tolerance for high access uses. Sometimes it speeds up data writing, but not by that much....

This was my gaming computer.. I had raptors going berserk to gimme 60 fps gaming!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigMe

Many gamers like Raid 0 because it results in faster performance and quicker load times. It is proven faster. There are any number of benchmarks out there that you can look up. I don't do it though simply because my drive is fast enough to do what I need it to do and I didn't want the risks.

bc

Totally.. but now i guess I see the drawbacks..

U guys are awesome!

playinpearls · #10 05-29-2008, 08:52 AM

i knew gaming was involved! lol! i'm not a big gamer, guess that puts me out of the home-RAID loop...

Trevor.A · #11 05-29-2008, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by playinpearls

no, cause basically it takes one string of data and writes it in between the two disks. You'd probably be lucky if you even saw files...

your safest bet would be to buy the same motherboard and install the drives onto it in the same slots. power supply wont matter. plug everything back in the same, and the hard drives may detect that there was no change in harware, and it may start up like nothing happened. check pricewatch.com for you model number. If its still available, they will have it...

You still have to construct the RAID array on the new motherboard. The only way you're going to get everything off is if you can create the array again on another motherboard without destroying the one that's on there now. If you just plug it in and try to boot, you're not going to get very far. There are programs that can pull data off a destroyed array though.

What's wrong with the computer, how do you know the motherboard is dead?

i_got_a_mohawk · #12 05-29-2008, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derelicte

I really think I'm gonna do that now, thanks so much! I wonder why I didn't think of that. I was even considering buying another new desktop.

This was my gaming computer.. I had raptors going berserk to gimme 60 fps gaming!

Totally.. but now i guess I see the drawbacks..

U guys are awesome!

Sticking your drives in a raid will make games load quicker, won't give you better FPS

Not that I need to worry about FPS, 8800 GTX baaaaaayyyyyybbbeeeeee !

I have had Raptor drives before, don't like them, too expensive, had one fail, and they are damned noisy!

derelicte · #13 05-29-2008, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by i_got_a_mohawk

Sticking your drives in a raid will make games load quicker, won't give you better FPS

Not that I need to worry about FPS, 8800 GTX baaaaaayyyyyybbbeeeeee !

I have had Raptor drives before, don't like them, too expensive, had one fail, and they are damned noisy!

true that, but when ur making leet gamer movies while u play, u need the speed!!!!

nice vidcard btw

i_got_a_mohawk · #14 05-29-2008, 01:14 PM

True, but a decent 7200 drive wont be much slower.

24" widescreen
Q6600 + Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme + Xilence 120mm fan (not OC'd the chip yet)
Asus P5K-Premium Motherboard
4x 1Gb Corsair XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5
XFX 768Mb 8800 GTX
Asus Xonar DX PCI-e sound card
Belkin TI Firewire card
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 320Gb drives (Raid0)
2x Samsung F1 500Gb drives (Raid1)
Corsair HX 620 PSU

All housed in an Antec P182

Looooovvvveee my new PC, can play games with decent settings and max resolution