RAID array will not detect (promise raid controller)

[pagemap]

A friend of mine's raid array will not detect any more. If he cant get any data back then he will lose 60 gig of mp3s. He has a promise fastrak100 ide raid controller (on-board).

Also, will a highpoint raid controller detect a raid array made by a promise? Everyone that I know that lives near him (I live 2 hrs away) has a highpoint controller.

Any ideas?

[jase71]

For that amount of stuff, it might be worth investing in a PCI Promise RAID card... I think they're pretty reasonably priced...

Plug that in, disable the onboard card, and see if he can get it to recognize the array.

That would at least determine whether it's the drives, or the card that are causing the problem. If it's the onboard Promise, he's got a replacement right there. If it's the drives, well.. he's in trouble, and he can return or sell the Promise card...

[Memo]

What doesn't detect it the BIOS or OS? If it's Windows XP, then you have to press a certain key while you were installing XP that says "Install 3rd Party RAID controller" I believe.

[NuTs62]

I have a Highpoint RAID controller, and my BIOS won't detect it. Win2k detects it fine though. I have 2 HD's running off of it, but I can't raid it unless I can enter its BIOS. If jase71's idea dont work, tell your friend to go for a 3Ware RAID card.. That's what I was drooling over, but didn't wanna spend the extra cash. I think I might change my mind, if my crap Highpoint card doesn't work out. Not sure if anyone has any experience with it, but I've only heard good things about the 3Ware card.

[rajatQ2]

try the drives on a regular (non-raid) IDE bus. if one of the drives does not detect, there is your problem. Raid Busses, i've seen a promise onboard fastrak do this, will not initialize their raid chip unless it can recognize 2 drives plugged into it in the proper way. Maybe one of the drives has a bad / loose cable. That would be enough for the fastrack not to initialize.

what raid is it? Raid 0? 1? 0+1?
i hope for his sake that its raid 1 :)