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My ProLiant ML350 G3 Tower server's system board has gone bad after it had an inch of its lower edge in rain water. I have a SCSI controller Smart Array 532 with six (36GBx3 and 146GBx3) under RAID5 drives installed. As per the messages it seems System board has damaged. Could I move this controller and drives to another machine (not the same) and retrieve my data? Any DOs and DON'Ts?

ewwhite
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FAIKHAN
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  • This is an excellent example of why RAID isn't backups. If your data exists only on these drives, then attempting to recover that data will require a tricky and easy-to-get-horribly-wrong process, that will *only* work on 11+ year old hardware that you hope is going to be in working condition. Recovering your data from real backups that aren't on this same hardware is trivial. – Ernie Jun 08 '15 at 16:38

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Personally, I'd get a new Smart Array 532 and attach the drives to it. The chances of the existing SmartArray having gotten shorted in the dunking event are non-zero and you don't want that further corrupting your data. Best to take the drives as they are, put them in an entirely new enclosure, and hope for the best. The Smart Arrays are pretty clever about picking up the RAID config off of the drives.

sysadmin1138
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Yes. You can move your drives to another server (running a similar Smart Array controller), or move the drives + controller to a newer system. Be sure to keep the drives in the same physical order.

The controllers compatible with your disks (and RAID metadata) are the Smart Array 500-series, 5300-series, the 641/642 and the 6400-series. The ProLiant ML350 G3 was end-of-life back in 2004, so you may have trouble finding a similar system.

ewwhite
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  • This is the best answer so far, with the most helpful information and the best details. – Ernie Jun 08 '15 at 16:33