I want to set up a RAID 5 array in a machine that has an intel motherboard. It has built in raid (sata). My concern is what happens if the motherboard fails?
How can I take those hard drives and move them to a different machine – with a different motherboard and restore the raid array (the OS is not on the raid array, only data).
I am assuming there might be a function in the bios to back up the raid config, which means I could have a spare motherboard of the same type – or possibly other intel desktop boards are compatible to be able to import a raid config?
If this is going to be an issue, possibly software raid is something I should consider?
Note: I also found the grayed out RAID-5 option in Windows 7 disk management. Searching windows help I found a page titled "Move Disks to Another Computer" which mentions RAID-5 and that of course you would need to move all the disks in the set to the new computer, then use the import foreign disks option. This seems like exactly what I want, but searching for the windows 7 raid-5 option seems like it is not available? Then why is it a menu choice?
Best Answer
In the event that the array cannot be resurrected on another platform, you reach for the offline backups that you have been making regularly.
You have hit the nail on the head though - you cannot guarantee that a hardware (or part-hardware) based RAID array will work on different kit so you would need to ensure you have access to an identical motherboard.
ps: https://serverfault.com/questions/2888/why-is-raid-not-a-backup