Initializing disk after raid 0 failure

[dashiki]

I came downstairs last night to see that my computer was scanning for disks at the post screen. I found out that I had a disk fall out of my array. after searching the net I found that I could reinitialize the array but only if the drives were not toast. I am now on the computer with the array set as a backup. I can se the disk in drive management but cannot see in the disk. any thoughts?

 

[Lord Evermore]

RAID0 has no redundancy at all. If a drive fails, you lose ALL of your data if you can't get that drive working again. You can't "rebuild" a RAID0 array. Each drive has half of your data on it. So like if you stored the word typewriter, disk0 would have "typew" and disk1 would have "riter". If you lose disk1, you can't use disk0 to recover any data or put in a replacement drive and restore the array.

This also means that there are no valid readable partitions when you view a single drive in the operating system.

If the data wasn't damaged or corrupted at all, you can sometimes reinitialize an array using the RAID controller, but the RAID configuration data is stored on the drives themselves. Really no guarantee you can ever recover an array. That's why everyone with any sense strongly suggests a backup process if you use RAID0 for your main system.

 

[Jiggz]

Try re-initializing first and see if the array will work again. By doing this you can find out for sure if any of the disks in the array is faulty. If it's just a FAT table that got corrupted, re-initialization will fix it. Goodluck.

 

[corkyg]

In a minimalist manner of speaking, when a RAID 0 drive fails while the system is running, and you don't have it backed up somewhere, you are probably looking at a stack of toast. Be prepared to do a complete reinstall of everything - programs and all. Next time, be very wary of RAID 0. Based on your description, Isee little hope of successful reinitialization.

 

[dashiki]

well I have the drive back up and running.

I deleted the array without deleting the information. Then I created a new array without a quick initialize. booted up on another disk and I am copying the info on it to a new disk. No more raid 0 for me. raid 1 at minimum. scandisk checked the disk and windows recognized it so i hope the data is still normal. I'll post more info for anyone else trying to rebuild a raid 0.

 

[corkyg]

Excellent! I call that a close one.