Urgent: My MOBO is dead

[janicekoh]

I am running on

OS: Windows XP Pro service Pack 2
SATA RAID 0: 2 X 80GB (Seagate)
on board RAID controller: Sil3112 (Silicon Image)

Motherboard (mobo) GA-8KNXP
Socket 478
Intel 875P chipset

My motherboard (mobo) is dead.

Problems
1. I could not find the same mobo replacement in my country.

2. I have important data in the harddisks (NTFS), I can't afford to
loose it.

3. When I take out the SATA cables, I forgot to label which is the
first one. Would it cause data corruption if I put in wrong order
into the RAID controller?


Question

1. Must I get the same chipset in order to boot up my OS?

2. Can I get a newer Sil3112 controller to boot up my RAID 0?

3. Can I get a different make (e.g. ASUS, Abit) of MOBO with the same
chipset and Silicon Image 3112 controller?


Your help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Jan Alter]

From what you're saying you may actually need the exact mb to be able to
boot into Windows without having to do a repair install. However, if you
were to get a new mb with SATA connections and a new second hard drive and
install Windows on it you should be able to hook up your current SATA drive
as a second drive and be able to see all the files. Sounds as if you already
have that second drive available anyway.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Situations like this are reminders that RAID is not the ideal way to back up
data. External drives, CDs, DVDs, and tape would have the advantage when a
mb goes altogether.

 

[Apollo]

From what you're saying you may actually need the exact mb to be
able to boot into Windows without having to do a repair install.
However, if you were to get a new mb with SATA connections and a
new second hard drive and install Windows on it you should be
able to hook up your current SATA drive as a second drive and be
able to see all the files. Sounds as if you already have that
second drive available anyway.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Situations like this are reminders that RAID is not the ideal
way to back up data. External drives, CDs, DVDs, and tape would
have the advantage when a mb goes altogether.

You misunderstand the OP, it was a Raid0 array.

Personally I wouldn't connect them to anything other than the
*exact* same mobo, not that I've ever been in your position. Wait
and get the exact same mobo, or get the existing one repaired.
One slip, so to speak and your array could be hosed.

Working, regular backups are essential with raid0. I run it, but I
sync the Raid0 partitions to a huge pata drive every few hours, if
I had stuff that I could not bear to loose I wouldn't run Raid0 at
all.

To the OP - I feel for ya.