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I need to recover info on the HDDs

M

moosky

Junior Member
Hello good people of the internet.

My pc has been BSoDing a lot lately, and the last time it happend (2 days ago) the computer just stopped working correctly. I have two HDDs working in RAID0 together, separated to 2 partitions, one for the OS and the other for all the rest.
Now, after the last BSoD the second partition stopped working and Windows says it needs to be formatted. The computer barley works, all I can do on it is access Chrome and browse the internet (I can't even open folders now).
I wanted to upgrade my rig in a month or so, and do a clean install of Win8, So I don't really care to format my pc now, only thing is that I had a lot of things on that unreachable partition that I'd like to recover and backup before I format the HDDs.
Anyone know if it's possible, and how to do that?

specs:
AMD Penome II 955, stock
Gigabyte 790fx GA-MA790FX-UD7P AM3 MoBo
AMD hd 5850
6Gb Patriot memory (3x2Gb)
2x 1Tb Seagate HDDs working in RAID0
Scythe Ninja 2 rev B. CPU cooler
750w Cougar PSU with single +12v rail.
1 optical DVD RW.
CoolerMaster HAF 932 full tower case
Win7 Ultimate OS
 
In theory, a RAID setup should continue to work if one drive fails. You could try unplugging one of your drives, booting to it, and re-connecting the other drive to it. With any luck, it will see the second drive as a slave, and you may be able to copy files from it to an external drive or your first drive (if there's room).

If your machine won't boot properly with one drive removed, you could also try removing one drive at a time and connecting it as a slave to another machine to see if it will recognize your problematic partition on either of them.

This won't make everything work correctly if your program files, other than the OS, are on the second partition, and you may still have to re-install Windows, but at least, you have a shot at saving your critical files.

Good luck. 🙂
 
Essence_of_War said:
Is this a motherboard, windows, or hardware raid?
Click to expand...

I guess it's a mobo RAID, done through the BIOS.

I was planning on backing up all my info, I just didn't expect the system would fail on me just 1 month before its upgrade. (I am planning to upgrade using Black Friday deals, hopefully).
 
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If it's a motherboard RAID, I think it's possible to try booting with a linux live cd, and copying the files from the RAID'd filesystem to an external.

I'd try that. This might work as long as the drives aren't too far gone...

There is a good chance you're SOL though 🙁
 
OK I still need some help:
I searched for a good linux live cd and came up with PuppyLinux, which is said to have good support of recovering data. I put it in a usb flash drive and inserted it to the problematic computer.

Now I reached the Linux interface and I can see 2 usb drives mounted, one the usb with the Linux and the other is my external HDD to which I'm hoping to backup the data. However, I don't see my RAID array mounted and I can't reach it.

I did some digging around with the system and found a window that shows system information, where I found under Storage both my internal HDDs and another disk (I think) of the RAID, So it is there, and Linux does recognize it, but I don't know how to mount it so to access my partitions on it.

If I restart my pc and boot from the HDDs, it loads my half working Windows installation, so I can know for sure the HDDs and the RAID do work properly.

Sorry, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to linux, and have no idea how to do things like that. Is there someone here that does?

Edit: After digging around some more I found out that Linux doesn't recognizes the RAID array, just the 2 HDDs separately, And of course it can't understand any data in them because of that. So, does anyone know how to make it recognize the RAID?
 
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Ok. I don't know puppy linux very well, but I know how I'd take a stab at this in ubuntu if you'd like to try that.

Do the same procedure you did for puppy linux, but get the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

When you load the live cd (Try Ubuntu, as opposed to Install Ubuntu) there is a non-zero chance that Ubuntu will see the RAID-array rather than separate drives. If it does, congratulations, copy your data and get the hell out.

If it does not, you could try this:
1) Open a terminal
2)
sudo apt-get install mdadm
Click to expand...
3)
sudo fdisk -l
Click to expand...

This should get you a list of the attached devices, two of the devices should look like 1 TB drives or something, and they should be like /dev/sdN where N is like 'a,b,c,d' etc. You'll also see your linux live usb, and your external HDD usb. Don't get these confused.

I'm going to assume that the raid'd HDDs are sda and sdb.

At this point we need to figure out the stripe size for the RAID, and which drive was written to first.

As part of the output of fdisk, it should tell you if either of the drives have a valid partition table. If one of them does, and one of them does not, then it's likely that the one with the valid partition table was written to first. I'll assume sda has the one with the partition table, and sdb does not.

If you remember the stripe size, great, if you don't, you'll have to try this next part a bunch of times with different stripe sizes, but usually they're something like 4,8,16,32,64,128k.

So try this at the terminal:

4)
sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --verbose --level=0 --raid-devices=2 --chunk=16 /dev/sda /dev/sdb
Click to expand...
(I started with a stripe of 16, and setting sda as the first drive)

Then try mounting to access:

5)
sudo mkdir /media/effing_raid0
sudo mount.ntfs /dev/md0 /media/effing_raid0
Click to expand...

If that fails, you'll have to try again with different stripes, and potentially with a different drive first:

This will undo:
6)
sudo mdadm --stop /dev/md0 && sudo mdadm --remove /dev/md0
Click to expand...

And then you can re-start at step 4) with a different stripe size, and potentially with a different order for the drives, until step 5) succeeds or you lose patience, or the drives die further.

Good luck.
 
Nice! Out of curiosity, what ended up working? Was Ubunbtu able to see the RAID volume on its own, or did you have to try the more in-depth trickery?
 
If you were able to recover your files, you were beyond lucky this time. If you plan to continue to use your RAID-0 array, it is especially urgent that you develop a good backup regimen that you strictly adhere to.

If you don't do this, the odds are against you being this lucky again.
 
Let me also stress what Steltek said.

You were EXTREMELY lucky.

Work out a back-up plan. Do it now. And stick to it. If you need recommendations on methods or software, I'm sure you'll have no lack of folks willing to offer advice.
 
Essence_of_War - I actually downloaded dmraid from advice I found on google. after activating dmraid the partitions appeared right away, I just had to mount them to different directories and start backing up. (wow now I feel like I know some Linux)

I don't think I was that lucky... I knew the HDDs were still working well, I assumed the problem was with the software (Windows). Now I've formatted the drives and re installed Windows on the same RIAD array with no problem.

Anyway, thanks again for all the advice and help.
 
I suspect you were lucky. Whenever anything happens to a RAID-0 and it's able to be recovered, you're lucky.

Now that you've re-installed, you really should set-up a back-up plan.

Maybe leave that external plugged in and download/try the free SyncBack and set the external up as a syncback location?
 
Or, alternatively, pick up a cheapo internal drive to install just to handle your backups. Either way, SyncBack (or even a full backup solution like Macrium Reflect, which I highly recommend) would work great when scheduled for off-hours backups.

The fact that you had to recover files (i.e. in your own words, "I had a lot of things on that unreachable partition that I'd like to recover") means that you need regular backups. True, it was a software problem this time, but next time it could just as easily be a hardware problem. And when it comes to hardware problems, RAID-0 will provide virtually no capability to recover your data.
 
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