RAID 0 Recovery?

Looking for a program or some know-how to recovery data from hardware RAID 0.
The RAID had Windows 64bit installed on it.
I was trying to install a second hardware RAID and after it was created the first one would no longer boot. I removed the second one I had just created with still no luck.
My motherboard is a ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe.
Looking for any suggestion of any programs that might help or if I'm totally thnking this thing wrong and this will still work let me know.
Thanks for everyones responses in advance.

UrrrrrrGGGGhhhhhhhhhh!

Aden old chap, that does not sound good..........sorry mate, there is not much around for 64 bit Windows at the moment.

Very difficult from where I am now (I am trying to get them to move from coal to oil burning computers :D )

RAID ZERO should be less legal than file swapping IMO..............you are totally exposed, and over more than one drive :eek:

Please give me the hardware details and I will ask around............sorry it is the best that I can offer just now it is about 05.15 here and my lazy friends are still in their Chinese Beds (WanKing Chariots?) ;)

I generally use RAID 1 or sometimes RAID 5..............

Please give me a chance to check, but at this point it looks like a rebuild?

Well rebuild is still an option. However there is a bunch of pictures on there I'll have to rescan.
but anyway....
The two drives in question are 74gb Rapters the board is an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual 4800+ 2.42 Ghz
4 GB of Corsair TwinX RAM
NVIDIA BFG GeForce 7800GTX

I'm booted onto a differnt harddrive now and Disk Management shows the drives like a RAID 0 but as unallocated space.
Thanks again.

OK mate, right now I have 05.40Hrs, I will ask around and try to respond by 19.00Hrs my time

Cheers :)

no rush
if i didn't have to spread mygreenies around you have all of them

Just to clarify.. Did you use the hardware RAID functionality or the software RAID (called striping in XP)?

If you use the hardware RAID, any OS loaded would see the RAID0 array as 1 single disk..

To restore it you should go into the RAID hardware's BIOS and recheck those settings.. Also recheck the order of the physical disks.. Make sure they're still connected to the same interface and in the same physical order..

NB Rebuilding is not an option with RAID0... Only with RAID1 or 5..

SirDice is on target,

for some reason I assumed a software RAID.........not sure where I got that from :confused:

is it?...............and it is called "striping" since NT 4.0 AFAIK

:)

Other RAIDS have "mirroring" like this box has RAID1 and mirrors onto a couple of 80's...........the XP box to my left does RAID1 mirroring onto a pair of 120's

It is the way I like to build them for SOHO users.................."real business" (and don't you dare talk to my customers :D ) uses RAID5 as a rule?

Yes it is a hardware RAID using the utility built into my Asus motherboard.
Currently I'm in class but will try switching them around to make sure i didn't mix them up.
Almost sure i didn't.
Had some advice here at school to boot up in recovery console and run chdsk and/or fixmbr.
Shot in the dark but i'll be trying that as well tonight.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by nihil
"real business" (and don't you dare talk to my customers :D ) uses RAID5 as a rule?

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At my previous job we used to put at least 5 SCSI disks in a machine with hardware RAID. Configured the first 2 disks as RAID1 to contain the OS and the programs needed. Data and logging went to the other 3 disks that were configured as a RAID5.. And just to make sure it also got backed up :D

Go to Raid Reconstructor Software

They offer a RAID 5 and RAID 0 recovery software.
The software works but is not too fast.
(you might have to email the site to check on 64bit compatibility)

Although if you have tried booting the disks in a different manner you probably have altered the disks data structure and no longer will they be recognized as a unit. Any changes at all can permanetly break the array.

The rule is:
When encountering a RAID level problem where the array is damaged, the best thing you can do is: As little as possible until you have the solution planned out.

It's similar to hard drive recovery. You usually get only one window of opportunity at which point you must be prepared to take it.

Hope this helps.

[Edit: Remembered this, that if you exactly mimic the order and cabling of your drives, that simply going back into the RAID CMOS and choosing the correct "boot" drive might get this show back on the road. It may have been the 2nd RAID setup taking the boot precedence and of course, the boot marker.
Also you need to ensure the RAID firmware sees both drives as a valid single array.
And, always, always label your RAID drives with size, array and relationship (as in 80GB Array#1 Master Drive, 80GB Array #2 Slave Drive, etc). I always do this to avoid confusion. ]

No luck with chkdsk or fixmbr in recovery console. Chkdsk wouldn't even run.

ZT3000 - will the RAID Reconstructor Software trial work or will i need to buy it?

Also i've attach a pic of what i'm seeing. The Raid still shows up in the mobo's utility.

but in this next pic you'll see that windows still shows it as unallocated...

ZT3000 - so i don't think RAID reconstructor is going to work. It wants two seperate drives but the raid is still seen as one.

*note* In the picture, I've installed a second harddrive to boot to. That is the disk 0 with 114GB.
The drive in question is the Disk 1

Hi,

I finally got some feedback. No one has tried a RAID 0 recovery with 64 bit Windows. This product was suggested:

http://www.active-undelete.com/faq-raids-types.htm

From what I was told, it would be an idea to Google for "RAID recovery" download some of the demos and run them. They should tell you what the particular tool can recover, so if you find one that will do the job, buy that software.

There are quite a few companies that offer RAID recovery services but they are very expensive, like all data recovery services :(

Aden,

Sorry, I didn't get back to you earlier. I had a late night working and a somewhat busy morning thus far.

I don't know that the RAID reconstructor software WON'T work on RAID0 that is recognized as one drive. I do know it will work if you delete the array connection (which does not delete the data contained on each drive if it's a RAID1, not exactly sure about RAID0).

With that said, I think your problem concerns a different situation. Bear with me.

First off, Running chkdsk and Fixmbr was a wrong answer from your school.
I know they had good intentions but ......
NEVER alter a RAID array without deciding what the problem is and how to correct it. Attempting crapshots in the dark cause problems, they don't call it 'crap'shots for nothing.

Secondly, I hope you ONLY used the WinXP 64bit CD when using recovery console and any other command line software. Do NOT use the WinXP 32bit CD.

At this point I cannot tell what the source of the problem WAS, since you tried too many things but soon enough I can tell you what the problem suggests.

Let's assume the RAID0 array is functional according to the RAID firmware, as evidenced by your screenshots. So we assume you have a good array.
I need you to check the logical drive info of the array by going into the RAID CMOS setup. We need to check if the first drive (master) is still the boot drive (in other words, does it still have a bootup marker/identifier), which should be listed on the right hand side of screen as "boot" or "bootable".

You've run FixMBR which seemed to do nothing but may have adversely affected the partition table, as it rewrites the partition table and a small amount of boot sector code.

So at this point, after you have checked the status above, I want you to attempt a bootup of the array and tell me where it's hanging up and what messages are showing if any. If it hangs up without error messages, I need to know how many seconds after the RAID CMOS message (in white letters on black background) DISAPPEARS that it hangs up at. That way I can estimate what it's doing when hanging up.

Thanks.

[Edit: Don't worry about the 64bit stuff. As far as I know, the file system is still NTFS 5.0/5.1 for 64bit systems which is what XP and Win2003 lay down. NTFS is a 64bit file system already and it's overall size is limited to 2TB by Windows XP 32bit. As long as we don't mess with files we should be okay.]