Raid 5 ( HELP DESPERATE ) non raid drives

[maciekmiszkiel]

I would boot a Linux Live CD and see if dmraid can start the array. Since it's a software RAID array there should be a signature on each disk telling it which array, what type, number, etc for all of the members and dmraid might be able to startup the array so you can copy everything off and recreate it. No guarantees, but it's free and worth a try.

It is not a software Raid solution. If you read through the thread you will see that I'm using Intel Rapid Storage technology. I have a Asus Maximus III Gene board with intel P55 chipset. Thanks for chipping in though.

 

[Nothinman]

It is not a software Raid solution. If you read through the thread you will see that I'm using Intel Rapid Storage technology. I have a Asus Maximus III Gene board with intel P55 chipset. Thanks for chipping in though.

Which is Intel's software RAID solution. There's some assistance in the chipset for booting and such, but most of the work is still done in software.

 

[rsutoratosu]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Matrix_RAID

Intel renamed the Intel Matrix RAID to Intel Rapid Storage Technology and redesigned the graphical user interface to make it simpler

Linux supports Matrix RAID through device mapper (DM-RAID) and MD-RAID.

 

[rsutoratosu]

I hope you get your data back. I never used these motherboard raid, as they're consider software raid. the difference between the motherboard raid and a hardware raid is that intel raid uses your cpu and software to build your raid array where as a hardware raid has dedicated raid controller XOR engine. I only use hardware raid, i can shuffle the disk around in different slots and it will reconfigure automatically, nothing to worry about the cable #s. I have pull drives out to make sure raid will rebuild array without worrying also.

Take a look at this other tool, http://www.diskinternals.com/raid-to-raid/

It let you mount raid array created with intel,nvidia,via to another pc without the "controller" i would read up on it before trying it.

-

EDIT: they have one you can purchase too,
http://www.diskinternals.com/raid-recovery/

 

[Nothinman]

I hope you get your data back. I never used these motherboard raid, as they're consider software raid. the difference between the motherboard raid and a hardware raid is that intel raid uses your cpu and software to build your raid array where as a hardware raid has dedicated raid controller XOR engine. I only use hardware raid, i can shuffle the disk around in different slots and it will reconfigure automatically, nothing to worry about the cable #s. I have pull drives out to make sure raid will rebuild array without worrying also.

Take a look at this other tool, http://www.diskinternals.com/raid-to-raid/

It let you mount raid array created with intel,nvidia,via to another pc without the "controller" i would read up on it before trying it.

-

EDIT: they have one you can purchase too,
http://www.diskinternals.com/raid-recovery/

All of the features, except for the dedicated XOR engine, you list also apply to Linux software RAID and LVM. You don't need hardware RAID for seamless drive shuffling, easy recovery, etc. The dedicated XOR engine might help on a CPU crushed machine, but in general even a laptop CPU can push multiple G/s these days so the bus and drives are going to be the bottleneck.

MS' software RAID solution sucks hard, but that doesn't mean the others do too. I've swapped around my SATA cables just messing around and my Linux machine has booted and found every disk in either software RAID or LVM without an issue.

 

[maciekmiszkiel]

So far Cronjob's solution seems most detailed and understandable to me. The only thing that is holding me back from doing it is the fact that I don't know what happens after I recreate the array. Will the initialization process of the array start instantly in the BIOS utility or will it start when I boot into windows. If it starts will I loose my data or will I still have a chance to restore is with DiskTest ?

 

[maciekmiszkiel]

I would boot a Linux Live CD and see if dmraid can start the array. Since it's a software RAID array there should be a signature on each disk telling it which array, what type, number, etc for all of the members and dmraid might be able to startup the array so you can copy everything off and recreate it. No guarantees, but it's free and worth a try.

Which distro should I use if I decide to go that path ?

 

[Nothinman]

Which distro should I use if I decide to go that path ?

I'd just try something simple like Ubuntu at first, I'm not sure if it comes with dmraid on the CD but if not you can just 'sudo apt-get install dmraid' to install it in the running session.

 

[maciekmiszkiel]

Cr0nJ0b So I followed your instructions today. I have deleted the raid 5 array, recreated it back again with the same settings and drive config. When I ran disktest there were two arrays to choose from. I chose my raid 5 array and I'm running analyze on it. Weirdly te scan process started from 32 or 35 %. Btw you were right as for the initialization process. You have to initialize it yourself. Like you also said I found an unallocated space in disk management.

So far I've been running disktest for 10 min and no partition has been found. Should I worry ?

 

[Purpose]

It's very important that your drives are plugged into the same sata ports as they were when you built the original array. If you didn't get it right this time, simply delete the array again, change the plug configuration, and retry. Eventually testdisk will detect your partition. The quick scan may not find it also. You'll hit the cancel thing, and then do a deep scan. Once you get there, you'll probably see your partition. BE SURE you check the files on the partition to make sure you get the entire thing. Your partition *CAN* show up when the drives are not plugged in properly, but when you inspect the file structure, it'll be short. Simply shut down, delete the array, and start over again. Remember, you're just messing with the metadata when you delete/recreate, not the actual data. You just need the metadata to be the same as original, so that the partition table lines up.

 

[maciekmiszkiel]

So here are the results of my quick search. Notice how I highlighted the bottom part. I'm not sure why does it change when I use up/down arrow key. Am I supposed to run a deep search ?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14167065/TestDisk 2.JPG

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14167065/TestDisk 3.JPG

I'm also not quite sure what does left/right arrow key do. This is what I see when I press it once.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14167065/TestDisk 4.JPG

....so this is what I see before I run deep search

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14167065/TestDisk 5.JPG

...and this is during deep search.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14167065/TestDisk 6.JPG

So after you reviewed my screen shots, do you think I should run the deep search on it. If not what am I supposed to do after quick search. Not sure which keys to press. Need help interpreting those windows.

Thanks

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

Sorry, I thought I got to this, but must have deleted the answer I wrote.

The way I remember TestDisk working was that i selected (Create), then picked the disk. I'm a little surpised that there is only the one disk listed. For me, I see my boot, and other disks like DVD etc. You might have run this from the testdisk boot disk, which is wrong...or at least not what I did. I ran it from inside of windows off my boot disk.

Once you see your 6TB volume, select it with up and down arrows and then hit proceed.

choose EFI parition, which is what you probably used on the old partition, then (Analyze).

For me that brought up a complete list of the basic partitions on the drive, only one was big and it had the right name.

I chose (quick search) and it took a little while 5 minutes or so, but found all the partitions on the drive with one big one that i was interested in.

I then selected the partition that was big and saved it, and rebooted.

FYI, for me there were other issues. like when i rebooted with that partition recovered the system would hang at POST, but that was likely an issue with my motherboard, not the partition. I eventually got a work around for that as well.

 

[maciekmiszkiel]

Cronjob: Last night I managed to run deep search on my array. Partition has been found and I managed to back up most critical data ( Pictures and Documents ). Rewriting the partition table didn't quite work for me.

Either way I owe you guys big time for helping me out with this.

My sabnzb will be running for a week now 24/7 to get all my media back but that's all retrievable.

Thank you again.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

nice to hear!