I have a stripped RAID matrix, 2xWD2000GD (C:12.61GB;D:360.00GB).
If I change my MB, can I keep the data intact, withought rebuilding the RAID or when I put my 2 HDDs on the new MB, I have to rebuild the RAID matrix and lose all data ?

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World's best Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge mod and Star Trek: Starfleet Command 3 mod: Overmind.ro

In that situation I'd definitely recommend backing up the data, install your new raid setup then restore the data.

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If it is a totally different board than the old one(different manufacturer, model, chipset, etc.), a complete reformat and reinstall is always recommended to insure optimum performance. If the new board is identical to the old one(same make/model, bios, raid controller and bios version), you may be able to get away with not having to start again from scratch. Even if the latter is the case, I personally still prefer to start with a clean slate just to avoid any potential problems down the road. Just save all your important data to another hd or optical media, wipe the drives, reinstall Windows and apps then copy all your data back to the new array.

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There are two kinds of people in the computing world.....those who have lost data, and those who will.
If your data is worth anything, back it up!

RAID matrix? lol. A matrix is waht you would refer to a network such as the internet, not hard drives. Whoever told you that, is just as confused as you are.

RAID configurations are called "Arrays". Infact that's what RAID stands for. Redundant Array Of Independant Devices.

In short, yes you will loose your current RAID Array when using another motherboard, since the array must be recreated on the RAID bios. This also holds true for I/o cards too. Hardware based RAID arrays are stored on RAID cmos. If you use another hardware based RAID device, the cmos will obviously not contain the array data, as it is stored in the one you are curently using.

The only solution is to backup your data, and restore it after you created the array on your new motherboard and installed Windows.

jes, yes, I was going to backup the data, but it's a lot of it. I'm gonna be completely out of space.

jwsm, the MB will be a different one (current one is ABit Socket A, the other one is ASUS 939).

Takezo_dono, yes, my array is not a matrix, but if I've had 4 HDDs it've been a matrix. Anything with 2x2 elements can be called a matrix (of course we ca also have a linear matrix, but that's just too much math)..

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World's best Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge mod and Star Trek: Starfleet Command 3 mod: Overmind.ro