# Can I migrate my NV RAID 5 array to another controller?



## bud951 (Dec 15, 2009)

Hi, I have an Nvidia RAID 5 array that I created on my old 780i MB. I have since given that motherboard to a family member but I kept the array since I have a lot of data on it. It consists of 3 hard drives in RAID 5 but it was created with the Nvidia software and controller. Can I move my existing NV RAID 5 array and my data to my new areca RAID 5 controller card?


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## bud951 (Dec 16, 2009)

any info?


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## Batou1986 (Dec 16, 2009)

if you can remember all of your settings and properly order the drives as they where before it should be fine


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## Mussels (Dec 16, 2009)

no, i dont believe arrays can be migrated between different controllers.


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## bud951 (Dec 17, 2009)

would it be possible to get my NV raid5 that was created on my newer nforce 780i working on my older nforce 4 controller and then save my important data over to another drive?


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## newtekie1 (Dec 17, 2009)

Not likely.


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## bud951 (Dec 17, 2009)

Are all RAID controllers proprietary? Do they all use there own unique storage method even though the RAID array is the same type?


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## Disparia (Dec 17, 2009)

When talking about RAID-1, 9 out of 10 times you can hook up one of the drives to any controller, RAID or not. But when talking about a RAID-5 or 6 you need to use something identical or close to it. If nForce 4 is all you have at the moment, that's what I'd try.


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## bud951 (Dec 17, 2009)

Well I will have an Areca controller tomorrow. I was hoping to simply move my existing RAID5 that was created by an Nvidia 780i controller right over to my new card. If that is not possible, I figured I could use the Nforce4 to possibly save most of my important files and move them to another drive such as a USB or just another hard drive since the RAID5 was created on an Nvidia controller. Just an idea. I will try of course but I was hoping someone had done something similar to this and was successful.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 17, 2009)

Usually when moving from similar controllers, such as one Intel onboard controller to another, the array can be saved/rebuilt and you can access the data.

However, it is far more successful moving from an older controller to a newer.  In my experience, it is rarely successful when moving from a newer controller to an older.

And it almost never works when changing controller type completely.


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## Mussels (Dec 17, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> Usually when moving from similar controllers, such as one Intel onboard controller to another, the array can be saved/rebuilt and you can access the data.
> 
> However, it is far more successful moving from an older controller to a newer.  In my experience, it is rarely successful when moving from a newer controller to an older.
> 
> And it almost never works when changing controller type completely.



that sums up my experiences perfectly.


Intel to intel i've had luck, intel to NV/AMD i've had no luck.

Silicon image i've only had luck porting to some Nvidia chipsets, because they were rebadged silicon image anyway (Nforce 4 era)


One problem is that some brands (nvidia) use third party controllers sometimes - so on the outside its nvidia to nvidia, but on the inside it might be Silicon image to nvidia


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