Raid compatibility generally only exists within one
company's product line. You can move a RAID from one
Promise RAID controller or chip, to another Promise
controller or chip. For the Intel ones, like ICH5 through
ICH9, something like a RAID0 or RAID1 with two disks,
stands a good chance of being movable from one
motherboard to another.
But if you're moving a RAID from Nvidia to Intel, I
would not bet on that getting very far. The reason for
this, is there is no industry standard that I'm
aware of, that define a standard format for "metadata"
in the form of the "reserved sector" on each RAID disk.
That area of the disk, contains identity info needed
by the BIOS and the RAID driver in the OS. (Metadata
is why you can swap the SATA cables on two RAID0 disks,
and the array still works. The data must be interleaved
in the correct order for the RAID0 to work properly.)
To move the array, this is the sequence I would try.
In this description, I'm assuming the boot volume is on
the RAID0.
1) On the old computer, transfer (clone) the RAID0
contents, to a new single disk of sufficient capacity.
2) Connect single disk to new computer.
3) Set new computer BIOS to RAID mode.
This is to allow a RAID driver to be installed.
4) Do a repair install, by booting the WinXP install CD.
You want "repair install" and not the recovery console.
Press F6 when prompted, and install the Intel RAID driver.
You only have one hard drive at the moment, and you might be
saying to yourself "why the RAID driver?". But the RAID
driver is needed to make the other steps possible. If you
don't use the RAID driver now, you're screwed.
5) After the repair install is finished, any Service Packs
and Security Updates have been reinstalled, you now
have a new computer booted off a single disk. Shut down
and connect a second new disk. Intel has a "RAID migration"
capability (like Nvidia, only not as many options), and
by doing the migration in Windows, you can actually
continue to work, while the Intel software moves the
data from the single disk, into a RAID0 configuration.
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/sb/cs-009326.htm
6) You may need to tidy up, by changing the partition size
when the migration is finished. Otherwise, you might not
be getting the full capacity of the new RAID.
And hey, you got a free backup, in the form of the two
original RAID0 disks
Why did I go through the "single disk" step ? Why
didn't I just "break" the array on the old motherboard,
then "make" the array on the new motherboard ? It is
because I cannot be sure of the interleave order,
amongst other things. The location of the reserved sector
may not be compatible between the two arrays either.
Thus, for safety, going through the single disk stage,
means not relying on any metadata, when that single,
non-raid disk, is connected at first to the new
motherboard.
HTH,
Paul
