"the gnome" said:
At a guess Windows will detect new hardware because of the KT chipset
change, as to the RAID question, I don't know.
the_gnome
If you download a Promise RAID manual for one of their PCI products,
it says:
"I already have an array on an older FastTrak controller. Can I
move that array to my new FastTrak SX4030, SX4060 and S150 SX4-M
controller?
Yes. All FastTrak controllers read the arrays the same way and
can be moved from one controller to another."
They say this about moving a drive from an ordinary IDE interface
to a RAID controller (of course this isn't your test case):
"The Operating System no longer boots after creating a Mirrored
Array using your existing boot drive using Windows 2000/XP/2003
Server. This is due to Drive Geometry issues. You can verify
this if you move the original drive back to the onboard controller
and it boots successfully. Each controller can view a drive
differently. This can be an issue for a new controller that loads
the original Master Boot Record (MBR) and then has a problem
translating it or the Operating System boot record.
For Windows 2000, XP and 2003 Server, Promise recommends a clean
install of the Operating System. This action restores the MBR and
OS boot record. This requires repartitioning and formatting the
drive."
What the first paragraph above means, is you can definitely use
your array for data, and expect the data to continue to remain
accessable when moved to another Promise controller. The only
question in my mind, is whether a repair install, and pressing
F6, will be necessary to get a driver onto the disks. To boot
from the disks, needs a driver, and a driver can work with more
than one controller chip. But whether the driver used for the
RAID on the 266-e will work with the 333, is something I don't
know. A repair install, means having to reinstall service
packs and security updates from Windowsupdate all over again,
just to have the opportunity to press F6 and load a new
RAID driver early in the process.
If the RAID controller chip on the A7V333 was on a plugin
PCI card, you could plug that card into the old computer,
install a driver for the new controller, while the disks are
connected to the old controller, and then when you move the
disks and new controller to the new motherboard, it should
boot up properly. Maybe there is some way to prep the system
for the new controller in advance, but I don't know whether
the installer for the A7V333 will do that or not. Perhaps
you could download the installer for the controller on the
A7V333, to your A7V266-e motherboard, and try to install it,
and see if it "takes" or not. If the installer doesn't complain
about not being able to see the hardware, then the implication
is, you could boot from it when the disks are moved. If the
installer exits, then all you can depend on, is the data on the
disks being accessable, as long as a separate boot disk with
drivers for the new motherboard, is available to boot from.
AFAIK that doesn't give you a migration method, to make the
RAID your boot disk. At least, it isn't obvious to me, how
you would do that.
Paul
