Abit KT7 RAID-0 Recovery Question

captbicscaptbics
edited August 2003 in Hardware
I have an Abit KT-7 motherboard using 2 IBM 60GB hard disks as the RAID-0 array (each is the master on separate Highpoint IDE channels at end of separate cables using Cable Select). I have been using v2.0.1203 RAID BIOS and the v2.0.1203 Windows driver. These drivers and BIOS have been roick solid over the past 2 years. I have about 40GB of data on the RAID array (out of about 110+GB total) -- unfortunately not backed up anywhere else (my fault). I am running Win98SE on this system.

Something has happened to my original motherboard (not sure what - went flaky). This past week I bought another (now discontinued) Abit KT-7 motherboard and replaced the original. It seems to be working fine with the main non-RAID Windows C: drive as well as DVD-burner and CD-ROM (same setup as on the prior motherboard). I plugged the 2 IBM drives into the same RAID IDE channels because I think the data is still there waiting to be recovered if I can get the RAID-0 set up again WITHOUT reformatting the IBM drives. That's why I bought an identical motherboard as a replacement.

Only now the RAID BIOS (before it gets to the Windows bootup) fails to detect either IBM hard drive during the scan -- just gives the "no drive" message on the BIOS screen twice; once for Master and once for Slave. It used to look at all 4 IDE channels (I'm pretty sure) and detect the 2 drives as masters and nothing on the slaves. The motherboard is running Windows 98SE just fine. How can I recover my data? Is there something else I can do to get the RAID BIOS to recognize my IBM drives? Has anyone else had this happen?

TIA,

captbics

Comments

  • AgeekAgeek
    edited August 2003
    Hmmm... The RAID BIOS Array Structures are in part changed and morphed by the development of the BIOS itself. The BEST way I know to attempt to do this is to match the BIOS version to the old board's BIOS version. Can you see if the RAID controller is identical, first, compared to old board's chip?? If so, see if the boards are different versions and if not see if you can flash the BIOS back to the OLD BIOS version long enoguh to do a recovery. IF the mobo and RAID chips are too different this might break your computer until you reflash it, so have current BIOSs backed up first if you want to try this and you are reasonably sure the base hardware is the same.
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited August 2003
    Originally posted by captbics
    Only now the RAID BIOS (before it gets to the Windows bootup) fails to detect either IBM hard drive during the scan -- just gives the "no drive" message on the BIOS screen twice; once for Master and once for Slave.
    Did you enter HPT bios to tell the controller there are 2 new drives present? and keep the boot order intact.
    Also, follow Ageek advice and make sure the board and HPT bios are the same as before.

    Good luck!
  • captbicscaptbics
    edited August 2003
    Equito and Ageek,

    Thanx for the replies. (Equito, I remember you from a few years ago on this forum...glad to see you're still around.)

    Here's a little more info on my 2 Abit KT7s:

    The new mobo is v1.02. The old mobo (the flaky one) is v1.01.

    I pulled the BIOS chip from the old mobo and installed it on the new one, so I have the same KT7 3c BIOS as before (it's on a BIOS Savior) with the same RAID BIOS v2.0.1203 embedded in it. But it's on a v1.02 mobo now.

    Now when I booted up Win98SE, I did notice it said it found a new internal VIA bridge or some such thing (I don't remember exactly) and went and loaded a driver for it. I guess that says there is something slightly different in the mobo v1.02 chipset versus the mobo v1.01 chipset. But other than that, Windows is running flawlessly.

    But maybe the fact that the mobos are not identical is causing the problem.
    Did you enter HPT bios to tell the controller there are 2 new drives present? and keep the boot order intact.

    I've gone into the HPT BIOS, but it won't even detect the hard drives, so I cannot select them for the RAID array. It should say something like "IBM Deskstar 60GB" blah, blah, but is says "no drive" for all 4 drive locations (Master, Slave, Master, Slave). If there's another way to tell the RAID BIOS I have new drives, it's not in the manual and not obvious to me. Let me know how do that if there's another way.

    Thanks again,

    captbics
  • captbicscaptbics
    edited August 2003
    I just put the old KT7 v1.01 mobo back in. I was able to bring it up. It somehow reverted to an older BIOS (maybe that's the BIOS Savior kicking in), so I reflashed to the same BIOS verison I was using when it went down. I disabled the RAID at first. It came up, and I was able to boot onto the C: drive with Win98SE with no problems.

    So I rebooted, enabled the RAID in the KT7 BIOS, and let it try to detect the RAID drives. Again, even on the old motherboard, it does not even see any hard disks attached to the RAID IDE channels ("no drive" on all 4 -- it should say something, shouldn't it?). I then turned off the machine and tried swapping the RAID drive cables in case I had them backwards. Again, nothing. Even if I had gotten the 2 RAID drive cables reversed, it still should see them.

    And then the old mobo went away again and would not get past the POST...I think there's a failing component.

    Anyway, at least I confirmed the old v1.01 mobo cannot see either RAID drive as well as the newer v1.02 mobo.

    I'm beginning to think this is a lost cause. I may give the raidrb utility on my new v1.02 mobo a try while my old mobo is in never-never land. I found it mentioned in one of Paul Howland's Unofficial KT7 FAQs, and then I found it on line.

    Not sure what else to do.

    captbics
  • Cool-CanuckCool-Canuck
    edited August 2003
    First the "Dummy Check". Do you have power to the drives?? I just hate it when I do something dumb like that.

    Try one drive at a time. One of them may have gone bad and screwing up the whole deal. If that's the case, you lost the info.

    Might try plugging them into the IDE and seeing if the BIOS recognizes them.

    Can't think of anything else at the moment. Good luck.
  • captbicscaptbics
    edited August 2003
    Cool Canuck,

    "Dummy checks" are always good. I couldn't get my C: drive to boot earlier, but somehow in futzing around with cables and trying to isolate the problem I had not reconnected the power to that drive. I found that with a voltmeter test. But I did test the RAID drive power connectors as well after that. They showed the +12V and +5V like they should. Dang, nothing on RAID is easy.

    I like your idea to hook up the IBM drives to regular IDE to see if the board BIOS can "see" them as IBM drives. That I'll try next. You would think at least one of the two would show up that way.

    But then, I remember IBM drives are notorious for failing (in fact, they've gotten out of the hard drive business because of it, I believe). In fact, one of the two I'm using is a replacement for a 40GB IBM drive that failed after only 6 months of use. IBM upgraded me to a 60 GB drive as a replacement, and I bought another IBM drive to make a RAID pair (throwing more bad money at the problem). This pair has been good for over 18 months and screaming right along.

    OK, here we go....

    captbics
  • captbicscaptbics
    edited August 2003
    Looks like both drives are dead. I plugged each IBM drive separately into the non-RAID IDE connectors alone, with the current cable and a different cable, and the BIOS failed to detect anything -- just a "no drive" response on each one separately. I changed jumpers on each drive from cable select to master. No joy.

    I then reconnected the RAID array, disconnected all other IDE drives, and tried to run the Highpoint raidrb utility that supports rebuilding RAID-0 arrays. It reported "no drive" on all RAID channels and wouldn't even run the utility. Again, no joy.

    I think I'm hosed. Time to move on...Beware of any and all IBM hard drives regardless of how well they seem to be working. They are just waiting to eat your data....

    captbics
  • WolfmanWolfman
    edited August 2003
    Try raid 0+1 next time,but always backup on a cd, spare disk- if its important .
  • WolfmanWolfman
    edited August 2003
    that motherboard was a buggy version,try a kx7=R late model.
  • captbicscaptbics
    edited August 2003
    Wolfman,

    Thanks...yeah I am RE_LEARNING this lesson. It turns out I had saved the really important stuff in bits and pieces over several regular hard drives. I've been stumbling over it the last weekend or so. Ironically, I don't even remember doing the saves of it. I guess I'm more disciplined than I thought. What I cannot remember must not have been very important...just GBs of it.

    I'll have to look into RAID 0+1. I really like the RAID performance...but at the price of reliability. Life's full of trade-offs.

    captbics
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