Windows not detecting RAID =/

[suicidemonkey]

Hey guys! Having RAID issues...

I use a RAID 1. I upgraded my CPU to Ivy Bridge and got a new motherboard (P8H77-I) recently. So I reinstalled the OS, installed RAID drivers then plugged in the drives.

Windows 7 doesn't detect either drive... bit worried about the data now =/

Any help much appreciated.. Cheers

[Waco]

I assume you checked the disk manager to make sure they were active/online?

[Chrispy_]

I assume you're not using this RAID array for your OS, so the steps you need to take are as follows, Apologies if all this seems obvious/patronising to you, I'm don't know how much you know or have already tried:

1) Make sure you have the necessary SATA RAID drivers installed for the H77 chipset, otherwise windows may bluescreen when it tries to boot after a SATA mode change.
2) In the BIOS, ensure the SATA mode is set to RAID, or RAID/AHCI. The H77 RAID functions won't be enabled if you have AHCI or IDE mode set here.
3) On exiting the BIOS, keep an eye out for the RAID configuration screen before you see windows start to load (It varies from board to board, but there's normally a prompt to press somthing like CTRL+R or CTRL+I).
4) From there, see what it says about your RAID volume.

You are looking for "RAID member disks" in the RAID config screen:
If they're detected as foreign disks, you may need to import them.
If you see a degraded volume it means one of the disk isn't working properly (but you should still see the RAID in windows)
If you don't see any disks at all, try panicking!

Google is your friend, otherwise come back here and post what you've got.

[suicidemonkey]

I assume you're not using this RAID array for your OS, so the steps you need to take are as follows, Apologies if all this seems obvious/patronising to you, I'm don't know how much you know or have already tried:

1) Make sure you have the necessary SATA RAID drivers installed for the H77 chipset, otherwise windows may bluescreen when it tries to boot after a SATA mode change.
2) In the BIOS, ensure the SATA mode is set to RAID, or RAID/AHCI. The H77 RAID functions won't be enabled if you have AHCI or IDE mode set here.
3) On exiting the BIOS, keep an eye out for the RAID configuration screen before you see windows start to load (It varies from board to board, but there's normally a prompt to press somthing like CTRL+R or CTRL+I).
4) From there, see what it says about your RAID volume.

You are looking for "RAID member disks" in the RAID config screen:
If they're detected as foreign disks, you may need to import them.
If you see a degraded volume it means one of the disk isn't working properly (but you should still see the RAID in windows)
If you don't see any disks at all, try panicking!

Google is your friend, otherwise come back here and post what you've got.

Thanks for the info. Yep have tried all of the above. The drives aren't detected in the BIOS, in the RAID config screen or by Windows.

Time to panic? There's a lot of extremely important data on those drives.

[mac_h8r1]

is your old motherboard/computer dead? Can you plug it back in, fire it up, offload the data? Then you can make a nice shiny new array and move the data back.

If not, we'll have to go deeper.

[suicidemonkey]

is your old motherboard/computer dead? Can you plug it back in, fire it up, offload the data? Then you can make a nice shiny new array and move the data back.

If not, we'll have to go deeper.

Yep the old mobo is dead.

I guess it's not possible to pull one of the drives out and plug it into an external caddy or something? I realise it wouldn't be possible with a striped RAID, but as it's a mirrored the data will be intact..?

[cheesyking]

Yes, since it's raid 1 you should be able to put one of them in a USB caddy and access it normally.

It's very odd that they aren't showing up in the bios/raid setup, could what killed your old mobo have damaged the drives too?

[suicidemonkey]

Yes, since it's raid 1 you should be able to put one of them in a USB caddy and access it normally.

It's very odd that they aren't showing up in the bios/raid setup, could what killed your old mobo have damaged the drives too?

I guess it's possible but the non-RAID drives that were attached to the motherboard are fine so I think it's unlikely.

I'll plug one of them into a caddy tonight and report back.

Thanks for the help

[just brew it!]

Moving anything other than pure software RAID arrays from one motherboard/controller to another is a dicey proposition. Hopefully you're able to get your data back... and in the future, don't rely on being able to migrate motherboard-based RAID arrays, and make backups of your important data (RAID isn't a backup).

That said, if the drives are not detecting in the BIOS it sounds like something killed the drives.

[Chrispy_]

That said, if the drives are not detecting in the BIOS it sounds like something killed the drives.

I hate to confirm the bad news, but drives that won't even detect are usually dead.

Your old board is dead, but it would have used a very common SATA controller, most likely ICH10R if it's less than 3 years old, otherwise ICH8R was also extremely common. Assuming the external caddy fails, the next step is to try and find a work/colleague/friend who has an older machine with the same controller as your old board, and see if you can try one of your RAID1 member disks there briefly.

The only alternative is to send off to a data recovery lab where they'll probably transplant the platters into another drive and recover for several hundred dollars.