Recovering data from old RAID 0 in a new RAID array 1

[TyphonX]

I had an onboard RAID controller, striping 2x200 gig SATA Hard drives. My motherboard was an ASUS P4C800 Deluxe, which had a PROMISE RAID controller. I had the configuration set to stripe (RAID 0)in order to increase disk I/O speed ( what a mistake that was!) and then the RAID Array failed.

I have determined that the hard drives seem to be ok, and that it was the controller that has failed. I purchased another PCI raid controller hoping that I would be able to restore my RAID hassle free; alas, this was not the case. I have since discovered that in order to restore my data, I would need to use the the same model RAID controller, which is no longer an option.

My question is, is it possible to restore my data, perhaps with some recovery software , if I was to set up another RAID (using another RAID controller) with the hard drives? Or something equally simple? I have no inclination to pay an exhorbitant amount to someone to recover my disks.

Thanks you in advance for any and all help.

 

[Nelviticus]

Short answer: no. Longer answer: technically possible, but only if you're lucky enough to find something that happens to implement RAID 0 in exactly the same way as your original controller.

There is no real standard for how to implement RAID, it's just a concept, so hardware vendors do their own thing. An identical Asus motherboard will be able to read your array (assuming it's actually readable) but a different mobo from the same manufacturer might not - sometimes they change things from model to model. If you're lucky they might have used a common implementation on your mobo and another controller might be able to read it but there's no way of knowing without trying and it's pretty unlikely.

I suggest you try to get hold of an identical replacement motherboard either from an on-line vendor or from eBay.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[Freestone]

The makers of GetDataBack make a RAID recovery tool also. I've no experience with it. If you can't discover the correct RAID parameters, they may be able to do it for you...for $299. This price may meet your exhorbitant amount threshold.

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

 

[stduc]

getdataback will recover data from a raid0 quite easily.

All you need to do is buy and install getdataback and then attach the 2 drives - the don't need to be mounted - they don't need to be part of a raid - don't initialize them either.

Simply select the drives by drive no within getdataback and let it do its thing. BUT - you will need enough disk space somewhere to save all the data to - so for example, if you have 2 100MB drives that were a raid0 you will need another empty 100MB drive to permit getdataback to use for data recovery.

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[wahnula]

getdataback will recover data from a raid0 quite easily.

stduc, it sounds like you have actually done this procedure. Is this so? If that's the case, $299 is a cheap price to pay, plus you will own the software for subsequent uses. I am just curious if you have successfully done this in the past. Thanks!

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[stduc]

Yes I had a similar situation & it worked fine. I just mounted the old drives on a couple of spare IDE channels and a new drive that was in fact bigger on another channel and booted from yet another drive. After a bit of faffing with the initial analysis I saved the image in the root of the new drive and it booted! I didn't need anything other than raidreconstructor. It took forever (well overnight and then some) to do the job - but hey - it was only $99

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[Freestone]

The $299 I mentioned is their charge if they need to figure out the RAID parameters, not the price of the RAID Reconstructor software itself.

Let us find the correct RAID parameters for you!
A RaidProbe can be taken if you do not find your RAID's correct parameters. Take advantage of our experience. If your RAID is recoverable, we will find the parameters!
.... This is a manual service which we charge $299 for. You will only be charged if we find the parameters.

I am sorry if I misled anyone here.

 

[CapitalData]

You really don't need a raid reconstructor for RAID0. You can recover 100% of all the files from that stipe by using WinHex. You can even make an image first, rebuild the raid and then write that image back onto a fresh raid array.

Btw, I don't suggest using RAID0. Yes, it's blazing fast, but no - it's not reliable as RAID 5. RAID5 is a costly solution, but it's still way cheaper than loosing your data.

P.S. When controller cards fail, data recovery is possible. It's all about knowledge and proper equipment. In your case you don't need anyone to help you. Use WinHex as I suggested and you should be in business. Good luck.

Best Regards,
Karen
Capita Data Recovery Inc.

http://www.capitaldatarecovery.com

 

[wahnula]

Btw, I don't suggest using RAID0. Yes, it's blazing fast, but no - it's not reliable as RAID 5

Karen,

I could not agree with you more. Anyone using RAID 0 without at least daily backups is setting themselves up for disaster. RAID 5 only adds one drive, so it's not that much more these days, but it is slower. The real alternative to RAID 0 is RAID 1+0 or RAID 10, which is striped AND mirrored. You keep the speed of RAID 0 with the redundancy of RAID 1.

In any case, RAID REDUNDANCY IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR REGULAR BACKUPS!!! Be sure to have a good disaster recovery plan outside the RAID controllers.

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[CapitalData]

Hello Tony,

Yes, I agree with you on that 100%. No matter what RAID configuration you have - it still fails.
We get many clients who come with RAID5 failures. The problem is that people fail to monitor their drives and let's say one drive failed, they ignore to respond right away, and when the second one fails, then there is a disaster as the RAID5 goes down immediately. I agree, RAID 1+0 or RAID 10 is the best (fastest) solution and that's what we have in all our labs. It's a waste of a disk space, but at the same time it's more redundant than RAID5.

My suggestion is to have the best possible power supply you can afford and at the same time buy drives for the RAID array from the same batch, so the drives sync perfectly and work in tandem for years.
Yes, one more important note: I suggest separating drives, so they don't generate too much heat, so they don't fail. At the same time - I suggest installing extra fans to cool down the drives. They work 24/7 and boy they get hot...



Best Regards,
Karen
Capita Data Recovery Inc.

http://www.capitaldatarecovery.com

 

[wahnula]

Another factor not to be ignored is the onboard controller itself. It is almost never as robust as an add-in card. SCSI and SAS drives are more durable than IDE or SATA, and are the only drives that I would recommend for a server build. Otherwise, a SATA add-in card like 3Ware's 9500S (around $400) or Escalade is highly recommended over an onboard controller.

One immense factoid that led to my choosing 3Ware for all my add-in RAID cards is their US-BASED TECH SUPPORT!!! That's right, you call with an issue and get to talk with a native English-speaker that handles your problem. Very important to me and worth every penny of the premium price of their cards.

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[jurgen36]

May be its a waste of drives but I personally use 3 raid5 arrays with 5 drives in each array. On shutdown it transfers all changed files from array 1 to array 2 and array 3, then it boots up from array 2 which becomes array 1 and the old array 1 shifts to number 3. And so on, this way I always have 3 bootable independent arrays on line which have the same files. As controllers I use 3 separate Sil3114 pci cards. So apart from the main board everything else is redundant. It saved my beacon a few month ago as the main board blew up and took 4 drives with it. But no problems just used another board replaced the us drives and rebuild the arrays. Did not even take so much time at all, I only have a total of 2 terrabytes of files. So it paid off for the extra effort. Drives are cheap now and so are the Sil3114 controller cards.
Best regards

Jurgen