Error 0141 (Raid 0 Setup)

Thanks Bev, I've tried those methods too but no luck.

Are you using an actual card for your RAID, or are you using the built-in RAID?  If you are using a card I would say that it has failed.  Connecting the drives to the SATA ports on the computer is not likely to help since the data written to the drives using a third party chipset is unlikely to match that written by the on-board Intel ICH9R chipset.  You will need to rebuild your system from the beginning; hopefully you have a back-up of your system to assist you in this process.

Sorry I'm an idiot. I have RAID 1 not RAID 0. So it should have the same data on each drive.

The problem with a RAID 0 is that there is no redundancy.  If you lose a drive on RAID 0 your data is unrecoverable.  Each drive has roughly half the data and is unreadable on its own.  You have the same problem if your RAID card has failed.  If the data on the drives themselves is intact you might be able to recover the data by installing a working card of the same type and manufacturer and plugging the drives into the same ports from which they were removed.  If that is not possible you would need to talk to a professional data recovery service, which is not cheap normally and is more expensive when a RAID is involved.  It is for these reasons that backing up your data is so important and especially so with RAID 0.

How you rebuild your system is dependent on what you want to do with it.  If you want to stay with a RAID you need to decide whether to purchase a new RAID card or go with the on-board RAID capability.  Once you have decided upon the hardware you need to configure a RAID, partition and format the volume, and reload your operating system, applications, and restore any data you wish to keep.  The process will keep you busy for about a day, assuming you have all the necessary installation media and data back-ups.  If you need specific help with this, just post another question.

For the future I would suggest that you acquire an imaging program that would allow you to make a complete system image.  Having such an image allows you to short-cut the program installation portion of the restoration process.

Thanks a lot JackShack. I have an actual RAID card. Could you explain in a little more detail how I would go about rebuilding my system? I really can't afford to lose my data.

If I was to repurchase the same RAID card and reinstall it. Might it be possible for it to simply work? Thanks again for all the help.

Yes, it is possible that the drives would work with a new card identical to the one you started with.  When you create a RAID the initial sectors are written with code that allows the RAID controller to recognize the drives as part of a RAID.  This is the reason that your computer would not recognize the drives when you attached them to the on-board controller.  If the card is the problem, and the data on the hard drives is undamaged, replacing the card may be all that is necessary.

You mentioned that after a few tries you could see the drives displayed in the status screen from the controller card.  If the card is alive at all, is it possible that you could enter the RAID configuration page and reset the drives to non-RAID?  I know that if this is done with the Intel controller to drives that are part of a RAID 1 that the RAID volume data is stripped off and the drive is converted to a standard independent hard drive.  Your computer might boot from such a drive and allow you to recover the data.