Access RAID-0 data from dead Asus A7N8X2.0 mobo with Silicon Image RAID controller?

I believe my Asus A7N8X2.0 (deluxe) motherboard is damaged, because
the system would not shut down for three weeks and now it will not
boot my system disk. The fans turn, but the after five seconds, the
system seems to restart. I never see the bios screens.

I would simply buy a new computer, expect that I have an onboard RAID
controller with two SATA HDDs connected. The RAID controller is on the
Asus motherboard: Silicon Image Serial ATA, SataLink, SiI3112ACT144,
Q21932.1A, 0307, 1.1.

I have learned that I won't be able to access these two striped RAID-0
drives in a new system unless the RAID controller chip is identical or
very similar to the one that created the RAID on my dead system.

Therefore, can anyone advise me of whether *any* new Asus mobo with
Silicon Image RAID controller will be able to access my existing
stripe RAID? Or should I try to buy my old mobo again and connect
everything to that?

Anyone have the same problem?

it would have been better to cross post, rather than multipost

"Thumper" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
>I believe my Asus A7N8X2.0 (deluxe) motherboard is damaged, because
> the system would not shut down for three weeks and now it will not
> boot my system disk. The fans turn, but the after five seconds, the
> system seems to restart. I never see the bios screens.
>
> I would simply buy a new computer, expect that I have an onboard RAID
> controller with two SATA HDDs connected. The RAID controller is on the
> Asus motherboard: Silicon Image Serial ATA, SataLink, SiI3112ACT144,
> Q21932.1A, 0307, 1.1.
>
> I have learned that I won't be able to access these two striped RAID-0
> drives in a new system unless the RAID controller chip is identical or
> very similar to the one that created the RAID on my dead system.
>
> Therefore, can anyone advise me of whether *any* new Asus mobo with
> Silicon Image RAID controller will be able to access my existing
> stripe RAID? Or should I try to buy my old mobo again and connect
> everything to that?
>
> Anyone have the same problem?
>

Thumper wrote:
> I believe my Asus A7N8X2.0 (deluxe) motherboard is damaged, because
> the system would not shut down for three weeks and now it will not
> boot my system disk. The fans turn, but the after five seconds, the
> system seems to restart. I never see the bios screens.
>
> I would simply buy a new computer, expect that I have an onboard RAID
> controller with two SATA HDDs connected. The RAID controller is on the
> Asus motherboard: Silicon Image Serial ATA, SataLink, SiI3112ACT144,
> Q21932.1A, 0307, 1.1.
>
> I have learned that I won't be able to access these two striped RAID-0
> drives in a new system unless the RAID controller chip is identical or
> very similar to the one that created the RAID on my dead system.
>
> Therefore, can anyone advise me of whether *any* new Asus mobo with
> Silicon Image RAID controller will be able to access my existing
> stripe RAID? Or should I try to buy my old mobo again and connect
> everything to that?
>
> Anyone have the same problem?
>

I think the Syba card with the SiI3112 has all but disappeared from
retail, but I see one here.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...=done&nextloc=

It is a PCI card, and the SD-SATA150R should have the RAID firmware on
it. It should behave like your A7N8X-E Deluxe onboard, except that on
the new motherboard, if you wanted to boot from it, you might need to
select "boot other" or something.

Archived product description.
http://web.archive.org/web/200612030.../03/index.html

Archived driver page.
http://web.archive.org/web/200704020...73-0203-1.html

There used to be firmware files, for flipping the card between RAID
mode and a vanilla SATA controller, but I expect those would be hard
to find now. The siliconimage.com site used to have them.

Paul

"Thumper" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
>I believe my Asus A7N8X2.0 (deluxe) motherboard is damaged, because
> the system would not shut down for three weeks and now it will not
> boot my system disk. The fans turn, but the after five seconds, the
> system seems to restart. I never see the bios screens.
>
> I would simply buy a new computer, expect that I have an onboard RAID
> controller with two SATA HDDs connected. The RAID controller is on the
> Asus motherboard: Silicon Image Serial ATA, SataLink, SiI3112ACT144,
> Q21932.1A, 0307, 1.1.
>
> I have learned that I won't be able to access these two striped RAID-0
> drives in a new system unless the RAID controller chip is identical or
> very similar to the one that created the RAID on my dead system.
>
> Therefore, can anyone advise me of whether *any* new Asus mobo with
> Silicon Image RAID controller will be able to access my existing
> stripe RAID? Or should I try to buy my old mobo again and connect
> everything to that?
>
> Anyone have the same problem?
>

Maybe you should try PSU, reset BIOS ect, or a few other things first,

Alternately you could try and source the same board second hand.

Paul, that is exactly what I was hoping to find. Thanks so much for
posting these links. I will try this separate card on another PC and
see if I can get see the contents of my RAID-0 drives.

This is actually the best scenario, as it avoids having to buy the
same old mobo again and allows me to move the SATA raid card from
system to system.

Problem: Asus A7N8X (deluxe) motherboard (aka mainboard, mobo) died,
leaving my RAID-0 stripe hard drive array homeless, as the HDDs relied
on the onboard Silicon Image SATA controller card (SiI 3112).

Solution: I bought a Syba PCI Serial ATA (SATA) Host Controller Card,
which had the exact same controller chip as the one that came with the
Asus motherboard. I installed the PCI card in an old PC. I connected
the two SATA hard drives (which were in a RAID-0 array on my dead
computer). I turned on PC. Windows XP detected the new hardware card.
I installed drivers from CD. I restarted. I can now see the striped
hard drives in My Computer. Success!

Thanks for all those who helped and especially to the guy who
suggested the PCI controller card.