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RAID 0 / Power Outage issue

N

noct3rn4l

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
143
Hi guys,

The power went out the other day and i'm having trouble booting up..

i have (2) 256gb 840 pro's in RAID 0 and (2) HDDs as storage drives (1x 1TB seagate barracuda and 1x 3TB seagate barracuda).. i was in the process of taking the two HDDs out to troubleshoot when i realized i didn't try clearing CMOS.. so I proceeded to do so, and the computer started right up (although the two HDDs were disconnected). I went into UEFI and changed ACHI to RAID and was able to boot my RAID array. However, when I plug my two HDD's back in, Windows freezes at the loading screen. If i disconnect the two HDD's i can get into Windows.

Any ideas on how to fix it? I was thinking that deleting and recreating the array and then plugging the drives back in afterwards would solve the issue, but this seems like it should be fairly straight forward if the RAID array is intact.. any ideas?
 
if you delete the array on the controller, and the controller is onboard (host RAID) you're probably going to have a hard time importing that drive config into the controller. that's usually reserved for stand alone controllers.

the bitch about a raid0 is that if there's 1 bit error, you can trash the whole array. it's meant for data that you don't care about, for scratch space, or for an os drive where you have the actual installed data or saved programs elsewhere.

...and this is why.. i'd get into windows and get your data off to one of the spinning drives, then delete the array and reload windows.
 
Well thats the thing, all my data is on the HDDs, not the raid drives. But when i plug the hdds back in (specifically the one with all the data) i cant boot into windows. But if i keep it unplugged, or just plug in the 3tb drive which is formatted but doesnt have any data on it, i can get into windows.
 
Try plugging the 3TB drive in after windows boots.


Edit: Wait a minute all hard drives are not working now? Sounds like a driver problem.
 
But when i plug the hdds back in (specifically the one with all the data) i cant boot into windows
Click to expand...
Sounds like there's something on that one drive your machine doesn't like.

There's no OS on there...is there?

Drive bad from the power outage?

You can use somekinda HDD - USB connection to see if there's a drive problem.
 
Sounds like there's something on that one drive your machine doesn't like.
Click to expand...

I got confused what the OP was talking about. However yes if he plugged all drives back in instead of 1 at a time there certainly could be a bad disk causing windows to hang (or appear to hang) at boot since windows looks at all drives while booting. In this case isolating the bad disk can solve this.

Drive bad from the power outage?
Click to expand...

It could have been on its way out. Was the machine powered up for a days before the outage? When was the last boot?
 
Nope, theres no OS on the 1tb. Yes the computer was on for awhile when the power went out, and when it did i didnt turn it on until a few days later which is when i noticed it didnt power on at all. A friend recommended i get a ups and reinstall from scratch which is what i was in the moddle of doing (thus unpluggig the hdds) when i realized i didnt try clearing cmos. When i did, it strted i went into bios, loaded optimized defaults and restarted again. i tried booting but it said "no os installed". Which was when i realized i had to turn raid back on. When i did that i noticed my raid array still said bootable, so i gave it a go and it started up. I then powered down, plugged in both drives and it hung. I then tried plugging in 1 hdd at a time and it wouldnt start with the the 1tb hooked up, regardless of the boot order; even if i left the 1 tb plugged in but disabled it in the boot order it still would hang and show as the only drive connected; even if i changed te sata ports or data cables ot was connected to.

How can i test to see if the 1 tb has failed? is there any way to recover the files?
 
How can i test to see if the 1 tb has failed?
Click to expand...

You could try plugging the drive in after windows boots. If that does not work boot off a linux livecd /iso and use smartctl to look at the SMART raw data (we can help with that).
 
Pluggong the drive in with the comp on wont damage the drive?

Yea id def need help with that second option
 
Pluggong the drive in with the comp on wont damage the drive?
Click to expand...

No. SATA has supported hot plugging since SATA1. Although windows has for the most part required AHCI or RAID to recognize a drive as removable linux and other operating systems (for the most part) supported hot plugging with SATA since SATA1 came out. Although to make your life easier plugin the power before booting and plugin the SATA cable after you are in windows.
 
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You can use somekinda HDD - USB connection to see if there's a drive problem.
Click to expand...
Like I said above I always try a SATA to USB connection to make it easier.

You can "see" the files if they still exist and if there's something on there that your machine doesn't "like" the USB connection still lets the machine work.

Get a cheapo HD docking station and go for it. :)
 
ay guys, i ordered it, just waiting for it to arrive... Ive got little faith tho.. I deleted n recreated the raid array and reinstalled windows, and still getting same results. I unplugged the 3tb n tried using its sata cable/power on the 1 tb and still no go. Tried hotswapping, windows didnt detect anything when i plugged it in. What are my chances here?
 
what about retrieving any of the data?
Click to expand...

If the drive is partially readable you can recover by using a program called ddrescue available on a lot of linux livecd / usb sticks to make a bit for bit copy of the readable sectors from a bad disk to a new drive of the same size or greater than the bad drive.
We can guide you through that.

if the drive is not readable by ddrescue you will most likely have to send it to a recovery company. This can cost $1000 US so depending what your data is worth you can consider this approach.

Either way I believe its best to look at the SMART status of the disk then decide where to go from there.
 
noct3rn4l said:
ay guys, i ordered it, just waiting for it to arrive... Ive got little faith tho.. I deleted n recreated the raid array and reinstalled windows, and still getting same results. I unplugged the 3tb n tried using its sata cable/power on the 1 tb and still no go. Tried hotswapping, windows didnt detect anything when i plugged it in. What are my chances here?
Click to expand...
Doesn't sound good.

I'm sure the dock will be handy for other things but I wouldn't try any recovery program thru it.

Let's just see what happens but did the HHD motor ever turn on? If not and the data is valuable, I'd be looking for the pros.
 
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