Can you unRAID a RAID setup?

m5rcc

Back to the problem with my old PC, where the PSU has blown. I used to have three disks, but on opening my tower it would appear that I have six separate SATA hard drives.

Is there anyway to access these hard drives, with its data obviously, externally?

jaydeeuk1

Yes. Do you know what raid format was used? Might require either purchasing a raid NAS box which typically supports 2 drives, or cheaper would be a PCIe raid card if you're motherboard doesn't support it. Even cheaper and easier would be to purchase a new £15 PSU and copy across network

m5rcc

Well I dunno if the motherboard is also blown. Removed two of the six HDs and they do power up fine.

I don't know what RAID setup they are, I just assume they are there six HDs for the three HDs I saw previously.

Hammyman

Ah. Sounds like they might be running in striped mode if it is for speed, where one file is split over two or more discs. In that case I wish you luck.

esuhl

Most consumer RAID implementations use "fake RAID" built-in to the motherboard rather than being handled by a separate RAID controller.

Unfortunately most of these implementations are manufacturer-specific, so if your motherboard fails, the only way to recover data from hard drives in a RAID would be to access them using another motherboard of exactly the same model as the faulty one.

That's the main reason I gave up using fake RAID a few years ago. I'd only consider it in future for small drives (SSDs?) that only contain OS files so my personal data can remain safe.