Retrieving data from RAID 5

I could be wrong, but I would think that you would just need to hook the hard drives up to a RAID controller on another server that already had a booting operating system...then you would be able to access it as an additional drive set.

In general, you need something with the same controller as the original.  I have heard that some "families" of controllers are also compatible, but my first try would be to get the same motherboard.

I guess I should have asked if the crashed situation had an on-board RAID, or if you had a RAID card.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=80143&item=5129095159&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Talk to that seller there (out of the US)...they were trying to sell your motherboard in a bundle system last week & no one bought it, so maybe it is available to buy.

The controller on the original 4PCA3+ has a HPT374 embedded controller and I have a similar Epox board but it has a HPT372N. I believe they both have SATA Raid. If I boot the new board up with the 3 hard drives, the RAID sees them but all I get is create RAID etc, it doesn't see them as a RAID array.

Does this help?

It looks like you may need the exact same HPT374 controller.

You must have been using a software RAID configuration because the HPT374 does not support RAID 5.

According to the Epox Website:

• Extra 4 IDE ports by Highpoint 374 IDE RAID controller supports RAID 0,1,10,5

I'm almost sure I had it configured on RAID 5.

The HPT374 does support RAID-5: http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20040625/sata-raid-04.html

I guess I should have rephrased that question.
You must be using a software RAID 5 because the HPT374 does not support a Hardware RAID 5 configuration.

Does that a difference in terms of retrieving the data?

I have never tried to revive a software RAID 5. Probabably the easiest way is to use your similar Epox board and get a PCI RAID card that has a HPT374 chipset on it.

Thanks. I'll see if that works.

Did you see my link to the same motherboard?