Re: [gentoo-user] P4P800 - Intel ICH5R - data recovery?

[José Pedro Saraiva]

On 7/20/05, Patrick Rutkowski <rutski89@×××××.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday 19 July 2005 19:37, José Pedro Saraiva wrote:
> > Thanks for the reply Colin =)
> >
> > > If you remember your stripe size, then you should be able to plug
> > > your drives into any ICH5R-based motherboard and get your data back.
> > > Theoretically, you could plug your drives into any RAID whose BIOS
> > > does not write to the disks when creating an array and then recreate
> > > the array in the BIOS with the same stripe size.  I don't know if
> > > software RAID can rebuild your array, but that seems like your best
> > > bet, lest you have a friend with a lot of SATA RAID controllers (s)
> > > he's willing to lend out.
> >
> > I already ordered another ICH5R motherboard (similar to my P4P800 but
> > a new model, since my old one is not available anymore) to try that
> > out. I'm almost sure that my stripe size is 64KB (default). If so,
> > plugging my hard drives into the new board and creating a new array
> > with the same stripe size will give me access to my data? Or is there
> > the risk of loosing it all? Do you know if the ICH5R writes to the
> > disks when creating the array?
> >
> > > If all else fails and your data is priceless, grab a couple grand and
> > > look into professional data recovery, because unless you can find a
> > > super-geek, that will probably be your best bet.
> >
> > Unfortunately I cannot afford such a service, even though my data is
> > crucial to me, they're just too expensive for my pocket. :-(
> >
> > José Pedro
>
> My one BIG FAT WARNING to you would be to think for 30 seconds or more before
> pushing any buttons when redoing your disks.
>
> Its very easy to accidentally format things when you don't know exactly what
> your doing... at least for me it is; I've done it :-p
>
> Wishing the best of luck,
> Patrick Rutkowski
>
It turns out everything is easier than we thought!
I contacted Intel for some support and here's what they told me:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for contacting Intel(R) Technical Support.

You should be able to just connect both drives to a motherboard with
either the Intel(R) 82801ER I/O controller hub (ICH5R), the Intel(R)
82801FR I/O controller hub (ICH6R) or the Intel(R) 82801GR I/O
controller hub (ICH7R) and everything should work fine.

Now, you just need to connect the drives. Do not create the RAID 0
volume again because this will cause the drives to be overwritten.

Before plugging in the drives, make sure that the onboard RAID
controller is enabled in the BIOS, or that Serial ATA features are set
to RAID. Either one of the above RAID controllers, once enabled at
BIOS level, should be able to detect the RAID structure on the drives.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neat, huh? :D
Now I can blame Intel if anything goes wrong! :>

Regards,
José Pedro

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