PANIC! - Mac Pro 2008 RAID Card Vanished!

Question

Hi all
Right I seem to have a major issue so hoping someone can help.
This morning I was using my MP there was a click the screen went blank and then the MP tried to reboot. The white light came on but the screens did not. I turn off the unit and all connected devices at the mains, waited a few mins and tried to re boot. The screen when blue but nothing loaded. I then got my old SL disk and booted from that. It booted and looking at disk utility there are no drives. Even worse I booted RAID utility and it tells me there is no RAID card!
Now in essence I have got no further due to having to leave for work but I thought I'd ask for advice / ideas before I got back to the machine tonight.
I will obviously try reseating the unit (with and without drives) but does it sound like the card is knackered!
If this turns out to be the case is there a way I will be able to (some how) access data off the three drives that were in a RAID 5 config. or is the data lost?
I do have a spare new battery for the card so would it be worth trying this as well?
Any pointers you could give would be appreciated.
Actually while were on the subject. If the card is dead then what card if any would you recommend to replace it with. (Not that I can currently afford to do this!). A actual Apple 2008 RAID card will be like Rocking Horse S**t to get hold of. It would need to be bootable and preferably do internal and external (but just internal would be fine)
Thanks
Steve

Answer 1

Ok this has got a bit strange
Once the init task had ran everything went green. So I then ran the Verify RAID set. again after a few days to verifying everything when green again. At this point the machine has not been powered down since 02/05/2012 @ 16.35
Sunday, 6 May 2012 02:06:34 British Summer Time
Background task completed: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:43 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:44 British Summer Time
Redundancy verification started on RAID set “RS1”
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 05:13:54 British Summer Time
Background task completed: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:35:29 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 07:18:37 British Summer Time
Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup
critical
So I shut the machine down. All ok.
Now I have booted the mac up and I get the following:
Sunday, 6 May 2012 13:43:33 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 16:15:12 British Summer Time
Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup
critical
Sunday, 6 May 2012 02:06:34 British Summer Time
Background task completed: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:43 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:44 British Summer Time
Redundancy verification started on RAID set “RS1”
informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 05:13:54 British Summer Time
Background task completed: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:35:29 British Summer Time
Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 07:18:37 British Summer Time
Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup
critical
As you can see it has added a 3 May - Critical after the 6th when everything was ok and it started a init run again!
The battery states it's charge
Any suggestions?
Do you think it will make a difference if I get a new battery for the RAID card? as I suppose it is 4 years old!
Cheers Steve