Retrieving Data from Raid

[kaiweiler]

I have two drives in Raid-0 with the OS loaded on it.
I had a problem with the OS and my PC would not fully boot. I had some fairly important documents that did not make it to backup yet, is there any way to recover these?
I tried booting from an old IDE drive I had, but it will not pick up the raid array although it recognizes both drives individually in device manager, and only sees one other drive in "my computer" and sees it as 0gb.
The failure was not hardware related as far as I know.

How can I go about recovering these files if it is possible at all?

Thanks

[ryan_975]

http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm

I've never used it, so I can't say how it works, but it's what came up in Google.

[kaiweiler]

I'll check it out, thanks
Also for got to mention that booting last known good config wouldn't work, and neither would repairing with my vista cd, or booting to safe mode :(

[DonDon]

Is the Raid array hosed, or just the OS?

Try installing another hard drive into the system, install the OS to that drive, and see if that version of the OS can still access the array.

If the array is still accessible, do not allow anything else to write to it as that may complicate data recovery options later.

And now to beat your dead horse...

Never EVER trust a Raid0 setup with important data.:D

Don

[kaiweiler]

Is the Raid array hosed, or just the OS?

Try installing another hard drive into the system, install the OS to that drive, and see if that version of the OS can still access the array.

If the array is still accessible, do not allow anything else to write to it as that may complicate data recovery options later.

Don

That's what I did, I installed Vista onto an old IDE drive I had laying around, Device Manager recognizes both drives fine, in My Computer it shows as a single drive as it should but when I try to access it it treates it unallocated space or something, gives me the window asking to format the partition...
Is my data gone?

[ryan_975]

That's what I did, I installed Vista onto an old IDE drive I had laying around, Device Manager recognizes both drives fine, in My Computer it shows as a single drive as it should but when I try to access it it treates it unallocated space or something, gives me the window asking to format the partition...
Is my data gone?

Depends. If this is a RAID array that was set up using an onboard controller's utility at boot time, then most likely it uses a proprietary partition scheme that Vista doesn't recognize. In normal cases this data isn't passed on to the OS, so it'd look like one normal drive to it. But when the array configuration data is lost, the controller doesn't know it set up an array on these drivers and just lets the OS see them as independent devices.

[DonDon]

Well, I'm pretty sure the data is still there, unfortunately, I am not sure how to reconstruct the array. I remember someone recommending this program before though. Raid Reconstructor (http://www.runtime.org/products.htm)

I don't know how it works, or if it will work for you, but the price is not too bad at $99 bux. Better than most of that type of program I have seen. You may need some additional software to access the files after you restore the Raid data though.

Good luck

Don

[kaiweiler]

Well, I'm pretty sure the data is still there, unfortunately, I am not sure how to reconstruct the array. I remember someone recommending this program before though. Raid Reconstructor (http://www.runtime.org/products.htm)

I don't know how it works, or if it will work for you, but the price is not too bad at $99 bux. Better than most of that type of program I have seen. You may need some additional software to access the files after you restore the Raid data though.

Good luck

Don

Yes I had a look at that program, how it works is it makes an image of each individual drive and then you use another piece of software to merge the two images and virtually create the array.
The problem is that the program does not see either drive, although they are listed in Device Manager

Depends. If this is a RAID array that was set up using an onboard controller's utility at boot time, then most likely it uses a proprietary partition scheme that Vista doesn't recognize. In normal cases this data isn't passed on to the OS, so it'd look like one normal drive to it. But when the array configuration data is lost, the controller doesn't know it set up an array on these drivers and just lets the OS see them as independent devices.
The Raid array was created with an onboard controller, but Vista was the original OS as well.

[ryan_975]

Yes I had a look at that program, how it works is it makes an image of each individual drive and then you use another piece of software to merge the two images and virtually create the array.
The problem is that the program does not see either drive, although they are listed in Device Manager


The Raid array was created with an onboard controller, but Vista was the original OS as well.

My point was that the RAID controller showed the array to Vista as a single drive. Vista had no idea that it was actually several different drives. Drivers just give Vista access to the controller, not the actual array. When your controller loses the array configuation data it no longer treats the drives and a single device, but as independent ones. Vista now sees the bare naked drives but doesn't understand the proprietary formatting the controller uses to store data.

[kaiweiler]

Okay, I understand that.
And just reinstalling the raid drivers won't make the OS recognize the array? So is there any other way to make the OS see and access the drive?

[kaiweiler]

Good news! I got access to the array again!
What I did:
Installed Vista64 onto an old IDE drive
Boot from IDE with no other drives connected
Installed Raid Controller software that came with motherboard
Shut down
Connected both drives that were in the raid-0 array
Set BIOS to read the onchip SATA type from Native IDE to RAID
Restart
Accessible

:)

Thanks for the help though guys

[kaiweiler]

I'm wondering if there may be any way to make the Raid array bootable again? I'm not sure of what the problem was, it would just show a black screen after the Vista loading screen.
Would copying the "boot" directory from the healthy IDE install onto the Raid array possibly fix this? Or could there be another way to fix it?

[Ockie]

I highly recomend that you do either a raid 1 array/or/jbod or get a proper backup solution.

[DonDon]

Boot your PC from the Vista install DVD with just the Raid array connected and choose the "restore boot files" option. That may fix you up.

Don

[kaiweiler]

I highly recomend that you do either a raid 1 array/or/jbod or get a proper backup solution.

My backup drive was supposed to be here a week ago, but DirectCanada doesn't seem to want to send it :mad:

[mbrockma]

I am having a similar problem. After changing some BIOS settings my raid-0 array showed up as "failed" and would not boot. After a few restarts it seeming fixed itself (went back to "normal") and booted up into vista. But now one of the partitions on the drive (the storage partition) is not formatted, as soon as windows logs in I get a message saying the the F drive needs to be formatted. Is there any easier way to recover the data from the partition? I know the OP said he was able to by installing vista in an old IDE, but maybe there is an easier way for me to do it since I my boot partition is working and its only the storage partiton that is un-formatted.