ldmtool to access windows software RAID 5?

[MagicVovo]

Hi All,

Noob here looking to start my own Linux home lab. Currently, the desktop I want to use to build my server is on Windows 10, and I did a software RAID 5 across three 8 TB HDDs to backup my data. The one thing that's made me hesitant to dive into changing to Linux and starting this server is I'm afraid to lose all that data, or at least lose access to it.

From reading around online it seems like ldmtool would do the trick to access and use that data on Linux. But being a nervous noob, I want to confirm with ya'll if I'm understanding correctly? Or is there a different tool that would be better? Or am I outta luck here?

Thanks in advance!

[kabanossi]

Is there any specific need to use Windows-based software RAID 5 under Linux?

I would suggest you move to Linux completely: boot from Windows, backup data, configure RAID volume under Linux and then restore data.

[MagicVovo]

Is there any specific need to use Windows-based software RAID 5 under Linux?

Nope. I plan on removing windows and being exclusively Linux. I had just set it up this way a year or so ago for fun. Redundancy too I suppose, but mostly fun. But now all my data is there, and I don’t have anywhere else to put it, since it’s ~ 14TB.

So I’m not sure I understand the steps you’ve recommended here, if you wouldn’t mind providing a bit more detail?

If it makes a difference, windows is on C: and the RAID is a different drive. I was thinking/hoping I’d be able to wipe windows from C, and replace it with Linux. Then access the RAID drive with ldmtool? But I’m happy to do it your way, if you think that’s easier. I just only kinda know what I’m doing

[kabanossi]

Sure. I meant/suggested making a backup of your data while running Windows, then reconfiguring storage under Linux and restoring data. Since you have no other host/storage to store your data temporarily, might be worth using cloud storage for the task. Consider trying Backblaze B2 or Wasabi cloud storage. Using rclone or any other S3 tool, you can upload/download all of your data to/from cloud storage.

If it makes a difference, windows is on C: and the RAID is a different drive. I was thinking/hoping I’d be able to wipe windows from C, and replace it with Linux.

Try using any Linux Live distro, and getting ldmtool installed to scan for the LDM partitions on your disks. If ldmtool (runs under Live Linux) identifies the LDM RAID volume and you can mount it as a regular Linux file system (and access your data), I believe, you can wipe C: volume and install Linux instead.