Cloning single RAID 0 (Striped) HD

[savbro]

I'm hoping you can help me out with a hard drive issue I have.

I'm running a Lenovo S20 Workstation Win7 64 with (2) WD 10k RPM drives set up in a RAID0 config. One of the drives is failing on startup, at least according to the boot messages I see when I first power up the PC. I later get a message saying 'no operating system found." The drive spins however, and I can 'see' there is data (the partition) on the drive when we run Acronis True Image on it while plugged in to another PC.

The thought was to clone the drive, and copy it to a new, identical HD that I have sitting here, in hopes that the controller on the HD is what actually failed, and the data is still intact. Acronis will not allow us to do so. We get a message indicating the drive contains no data, or something to that effect. Both drives (working and not working) show the same partition size in ATI, that's what leaves me to believe the data is still on both.

Is there another software out there that can help? Different approach maybe? I'm the end user so I'm not super-technical in this regard. Just trying to salvage the data I lost.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[goombawaho]

If SMART is indicating a drive problem/failure, it's probably NOT the controller and your idea is not going to work.

Can you put the drive in another machine and run the manufacturer's diagnostic test on it to CONFIRM health/death??? That would be a definitive answer before you start thinking about cloning.

 

[savbro]

Actually, I have a screen grab since you just reminded me.

http://s280.photobucket.com/albums/kk180/dynaspeed/?action=view&current=photo-3.jpg

I can in fact put it in another machine. Will the diagnostic test 'see' the drive? I'm not sure how that works in a RAID0 environment.

Thanks for the fast response.

 

[savbro]

I just ran the WD diagnostic in quick mode. It passed.

Any suggestions for the next step?

Thanks

 

[JimInKS]

I have had 2 150G Raptors (WD1500ADFD) die recently in two different computers. One was manufactured in Dec 07 and one in Sep 07. I know 2 is a very small sample, but am wondering if there might be a bad batch of Raptors out there. You don't happen to have one of the same vintage to you?

These would run for a few seconds and then just freeze the system, never long enough to finish a boot. If I slave them to another system they invariably just lock that system up also. Since yours passes the WD quick diagnostic it doesn't really sound like what I have experienced.

If you have data that you really MUST have then I would suggest that you ship the disk off to a drive recovery company. The more you mess with it the more damage you are probably doing to it.

If you aren't willing to pay upwards of $1,000 to get your data back then proceed...

Now, it is also possible that the file system on the drive is hosed and the drive itself is OK. Does the WD diagnostic have a full read scan that you can run to see if the entire disk is readable?

You might also try CloneZilla on it (it's free). I have cloned half of a RAID 1 with CloneZilla (Not really the same thing) successfully.

 

[savbro]

Hi Jim,

These are VelociRaptors manufactured 12/2008. I've never experienced a stall.

I did the full scan and it passed as well. The data on this disk probably isn't worth $1000, but if I could get it back fairly easily, I'm willing to give up a half day on it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[goombawaho]

I don't think time is your problem here. You have HALF of a functioning RAID 0 pair and the that adds up to zero in the RAID scheme of things.

If you can't use a cloning tool (on another PC) to make an identical copy of that drive on a new drive, I don't think YOU have any chance of getting the RAID working again.

The risk is that you buy another drive, it can't be cloned and then you're stuck with that new drive, unless you use it to start a brand new RAID set with the other old (good) drive.

Recovery would be more expensive than a single drive because they would also have to get the RAID revived. $1000 might be a bit high for a single drive but might be in the ball park when you mention RAID.

 

[Freestone]

I've great experience with Runtime Software's GetDataBack but no experience with their RAID Reconstructor program (

http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm)

but it does say "Trial Limitation: You will be able to determine if RAID Reconstructor can reconstruct your array before you need to purchase a license...". Supports RAID 0 or 5

Maybe you want to give it that half day you mentioned.

 

[goombawaho]

The problem here is twofold:

A) smart is tripped on the drive - it is going bad and data may be damaged

B) The RAID 0 is broken and must be reconstructed.

I don't know if non-professionals can recover from that combo.

It would be bad enough if the it was just broken RAID (use a RAID reconstructor).

 

[Freestone]

goom - I assume your post was in response to mine.

The RAID Reconstructor does not attempt to repair the RAID array, but instead it trys to reconstruct it to an image elsewhere. From the link I posted:

http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm[/URL]]"It will not try to "fix" your RAID. It will merely create a copy of your RAID at another location. It will collect sector by sector from each single drive involved and write these sectors in the correct order to the designated destination. This process is also called "de-striping".

I've had GetDataBack recover data in what looked like hopeless conditions so I'd expect no less from this software. Don't get me wrong though, I've also seen GDB recover zilch. It can't hurt to try, in my opinion.

 

[savbro]

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm aware this is a little over my pay grade, but I have to push myself to keep up with this stuff.

Just a quick update: Lenovo sent a new drive and a tech. Installed it, reconfigured the RAID in the bios. Still won't boot correctly after restart. Called Lenovo again. Sent a new MOBO this time. Things were looking good as we began to reinstall Win7 with the new drive and MOBO. After a few restarts, the RAID check fails and indicates the new drive again as being the problem. So I called Lenovo again, this time they are going to replace the cables. Of course it will end up being the cheapest part that fails, and the drives were probably fine the whole time.

We'll find out tomorrow.