Native RAID and Dynamic Disk Support
What happens if your motherboard just fries, leaving you no choice except buying a readily available replacement? Finally, what if your old board gets discontinued, and you are forced to replace a faulty one with a new version with a different RAID controller? |
RAID arrays are gaining popularity among advanced computer users thanks to the built-in RAID support provided by modern motherboards. Assembling several disks into a RAID array allows for increased reliability or higher transfer speeds, or both.
Native RAID Compatibility Issues: Intel, nVidia and VIA Chipsets
What happens if you created a RAID on a system board with a VIA chip set, and then decide to upgrade to Intel or nVidia or vice versa? Or what if your motherboard just fries, leaving you no choice except buying a readily available replacement? Finally, what if your old board gets discontinued, and you are forced to replace a faulty one with a new version with a different RAID controller? In cases like those, plugging in your hard disk array into a new motherboard won’t make a working RAID array. At best, you’ll get several separate disks. At worst, the new RAID system will attempt ‘repairing’ the array, destroying your data to the point of complete loss.
Important to know: functionalities of the VMFS tools includes the RAID Recovery™ abilities for corrupted RAID arrays.
Windows Dynamic Disks: Solution or Problem?
Windows 2000, XP, as well as 2003 and 2008 Server employ dynamic disks, a software-based technology that is similar to RAID. Often used on server operating systems, dynamic disks perform similarly to ‘real’ RAID arrays. Windows software enables low-level support of these disks instead of the chips on the computer’s motherboard.
Dynamic disks allow upgrading computer hardware at any time without trouble. Everything is fine until you switch the operating system. Dynamic disks created in Windows 2008 Server are not recognized in prior versions, and RAID 5 dynamic disks are not recognized in Windows XP. As such, dynamic disks are more of an issue rather than a solution to RAID incompatibilities.
The Solution
The Native RAID and Dynamic Disk Support technology developed by DiskInternals is the real solution to the problem of broken hardware and software-based RAID arrays. The technology recognizes and mounts RAID arrays created with all current Intel, nVidia or VIA chipsets, and fully supports Windows Dynamic Disks, adding backward compatibility between the different versions of Windows.
The technology can mount the following types of native RAID arrays: JBod (RAID 0), Stripe (RAID 0), Mirror (RAID 1), RAID 5 (with complete recovery of all data if any one disk is missing or damaged), and RAID 0+1 (RAID 10). DiskInternals data recovery products employ this technology to repair broken RAID arrays and recover data if any disk is corrupted or damaged.
Native RAID and Dynamic Disk Support supports all types of dynamic disks, including Simple, Span, Stripe , Mirror and RAID 5 arrays, allowing mounting a dynamic disk on any Windows version. You can even boot from a Boot CD and still have access to the RAID and dynamic disks!
Native RAID and Dynamic Disk Support is part of all data recovery products manufactured by DiskInternals. A stand-alone implementation of this technology is featured in a free RAID reader product, RAID 2 RAID.
Data Recovery Solutions for RAID Arrays
DiskInternals RAID Recovery