Am I toast? 1

[MDEnce]

Here's my situation. I have an ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe MB and 4 Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB SATA Hard Drives in an on board RAID 1 + 0 array, plus an old Maxtor 320 GB IDE drive that I was using as a boot drive. It had system commander on it, and Vista Home Premium and Win 7 all in 32 & 64 bit flavors, as well as other OS'es. Also have a couple external HD's, but never got a full back up done to them before the problem.
So the Maxtor IDE boot drive dies!
I decide to order an SSD-HD drive to replace the boot drive since I have to reinstall the OS anyway.
In the meantime I swap out one of the 2 SATA optical drives to my wife's new build. So when I go to install Win 7 (64-bit) on the SSD, the BIOS won't boot to the optical drive unless I change all options to Boot to optical. In figuring this out I disconnect the whole array too, and like an idiot, don’t mark which drive was on which channel. I finally get it installed and now no array.
The MoBo has 6 SATA channels, but says channels 5 and 6 can only be used in RAID mode. I think I had the array on channels 1-4, but can’t recall or figure it out, so I find a 2nd old IDE HD and install Win 7 (64-bit) on it and trial and error it until I think I find the right channels, but still no array is seen in Windows.
About then my Bro-in-law (an IT guy) comes to visit, and he plays with it while I’m mowing the lawn, and proclaims that I have a bad HD in the array. I’d previously bought a 5th drive for just such an event, but had used it in my wife's new build, so I had to order another.
When I finally get a replacement drive I go to install it, but can’t seem to figure it out.
The NVIDIA utility in Windows shows 3 disks in a degraded array and the 4th (new) disk as a separate RAID, but windows shows none of them.
This is my first attempt at a RAID array. The reason I did a RAID 1 + 0 was so that I didn’t have to worry as much about losing my data, and if a drive died, I could just replace it and move on. I just can’t figure out how to do that in this situation.
With 3 of the 4 drives still seen, I should be able to tell Win 7 to see the drive (not sure how) and then back it up to the external drive. Then I could try to put the new 4th drive in the existing array, and if I screw it up, at least I’ve still got ALL my data backed-up. I also figure that if I have to move the array to channels 3-6 (so the Optical and SSD/boot can use 1 and 2) that I may have to start from scratch to do so, and that may cause me to lose everything in the array at that point anyway.
Can anyone offer me some basic directions as to how to fix this?
TIA

 

[rclarke250]

Usually the raid configuration screen is a key prompt during
boot. You should be able to go into the array config, and add the dive to the existing array in place of the missing drive. This should all be in the manual.

 

[MDEnce]

rclark250 - thanks for the input.
Unfortunately the manual is woefully deficient when it comes to the RAID portion of the chipset, and if I go into the RAID config from boot up, it wants me to create a new RAID array - can't see how to add the new drive without killing what I have.
However, since Windows can see the array (at least through NVIDIA's utility) I should still be able to assign it a drive letter so I can access the degraded array, and back it up, before I try anything potentially destructive. Just need some advice on how to do that part first.

 

[goombawaho]

Your setup sounds like a house of cards!!!!

 

[Freestone]

Does Disk Management see the RAID array at all? And if so, can you assign it a drive letter from there?

 

[MDEnce]

goombawaho - thanks for the insight

Freestone - Disk Management does see the RAID array but as unallocated, and it wants me to format it to make it accessible in Windows (which would delete all the date on the drives).

 

[Freestone]

Rather than putting more effort into the array software, it may be time to see if any data is recoverable. Runtime Software has good tools for this which will at least tell you if you can recover data. It'll cost to actually have the program recover the data though. They also have a RAID Reconstructor from which "You will be able to determine if RAID Reconstructor can reconstruct your array before you need to purchase a license".

I have no vested interest in Runtime Software. I've used their GetDataBack product quite a few times with great success. Your mileage may vary.

http://www.runtime.org/

 

[goombawaho]

Sure, no problem. Rube Goldberg would be proud of that PC. I'm not picking on you, I'm just thinking, "how in the heck did he ever dream of such a convoluted/complicated setup?

 

[kjv1611]

Just to answer the original question, no, MDEnce, you are not toast. I like toast, myself, with gobs of butter especially... and I really like this one little glass jar container of apple butter I once found at the grocery store. Too expensive, but I guess they know theirs is that good.

Anyway, on your hard drives, I'd definitely go the route suggested, but to expand and lay out what I'd do if it were me, I think, in your situation:

1. Try to recover the data - always first and foremost if it's at all important.
2. Rethink (eluding to goombawaho's statements) your data design, make it simpler:
2.A. Maybe break this into 2 separate RAID 1 configurations, or if you don't mess with RAID much, then skip the RAID altogether, and just use 1 or 2 of the drives as back-up drives.
2.B. You said the old Maxtor drive is your system drive. I'd suggest taking one of the newest drives for your system drive. You'll get better performance and stability than an old Maxtor, I can promise you that. Then you could use the Maxtor to maybe put back-up images of your system if you want. You could use Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost, Terabyte Unlimited Image for Windows, or another of a long list.
3. Live happily ever after.

 

[MDEnce]

OK I was finally able to delete the array that was created when I installed my new drive and add it to the old array. It's re-building now, and hopefully when I get home tonight it will be done.
Before I rebuilt the array I tried the "RAID Reconstructor" that Freestone suggested - but only got a file it wanted to send to somewhere - not an answer as to how/whether the data was recoverable.
In any event the big question is how do I get a fresh install of Win 7 (64-bit) to recognize the old array once it's restored?

If I can do that then the plan will be:
1) back-up the array to ExtHD
2) image IDE boot drive to the SSD-HD and remove al IDE drives from the system.
3) boot up the SSD Drive and make sure it can see the array.
4) keep on truckin'

 

[kjv1611]

If the RAID array is setup inside of Windows, you'd have to do an Upgrade install - which I honestly don't think is a good idea - yeah, it can be done, but a lot of little issues can pop up along the way, from what I've seen with that.

The best way is to backup the existing data elsewhere (if you need it), make sure you've got the Win7 RAID driver(s) for your motherboard somewhere - put them on a USB thumb drive would be the current best way, or USB hard drive, either way... in my opinion.

Then just to be sure everything is just right, I'd wipe everything clean... You could do this for a complete wipe:
1. Kill the current array - delete it in the RAID magagement software for your motherboard.
2. run Active KillDisk form UltimateBootCD first to be sure... on each hard drive...
3. Rebuild the array to your liking.
4. Boot from the Win7 Install DVD
5. IF it needs the RAID driver (it is possible it won't if the motherboard is over a year or two old), then stick your thumb drive in, and browse to the necessary files.
6. Install Windows to your liking...

BTW, if this is for home use, a good program for installing many of the most commonly installed apps (and specifically some of the better/best apps), go to

http://ninite.com

and give it a try. I've tried it a few times, and it's constantly changing... getting faster, and adding more apps.

You technically can't use it for free if you're doing it for a business, but if for home use, it's 100% free. The paid version, I think, is way over priced, myself. Regardless, it seems to be a very good product.