Software Raid 1 Difficult Problem

[GreggLester]

First off, sorry for the lengthy and confusing question.

I have posted this everywhere I can find. I have had heaps of responses, but no real progress.

OS: Windows 2000 Server SP3
Software SCSI RAID using Disk Manager

Scenario:
2 drives in raid1 (mirrored array)

Drive 0: Vol C and Vol D (Healthy)
Drive 1: Vol C and Vol D (Bad Blocks) - Mirrored

An over zealous Technician, breaks the Mirrors incorrectly, leaving 1 active volume on each drive - see the following;
Drive 0: Volume C and Volume F
Drive 1: Volume E and Volume D
He then fits a replacement drive (Identical specs to existing drives), into the server as Drive 2 and makes it dynamic.

When I say incorrectly, he (R)clicked the mirror portion on Drive 1 and broke the mirror, instead of selecting the mirrored portion on Drive 0 and breaking the mirror.

In an attempt to resolve his mistake;
Mirrors Volume D to Drive 2.
Breaks Mirror, so that the new drive has volume D
Deletes Vol F.
Removes the failing Drive 1

leaving the following
Drive 0: Vol C and Unallocated
Drive 1: Vol D and Unallocated (new drive)

At this stage it was handed over to me, to resolve.

I am unable to "Add Mirror" to either Vol C or Vol D (greyed out). I want to restore the drives to their original configuration of.
Drive 0: Vol C and Vol D
Drive 1: Vol C and Vol D (mirror)

The unallocated space shows in Disk Management as being of the correct size.

Disk/vol config is as follows.
Volume C:Systemrive 0art 1:5.86GB:NTFS: Simple Vol
Volume Datarive 1art 1:11.08GB:NTFS: Simple Vol
Drive 0: has 11.08GB of unallocated Space
Drive 1: has 5.86GB of unallocated Space

I have tried creating another volume in the unallocated space on Drive 0, Assigning it G: and Full Formatting it NTFS.
In drive mgr this G: 'appears' to be fine.
In drive mgr if I (R)click and select open or explore, I get the message "unable to find the device specified"
In explorer, the drive does not show up at all.

The server is not down, and is running fine, just missing the Raid1

Firing/hanging/neckbreaking already considered, but at this point, I would just settle for a workaround or fix to get things back to their original glory.

 

[TheGrey]

Not sure if i follow you here,to be honest i didn't read it all, but if the data is still intact on drive 0, why don't you just partition the new, clean disk, copy the data over,check that the disk is ok, format the old disk and then add the old disk as a mirror?

 

[GreggLester]

There is data on both Drive 0 and Drive 1
I can't copy the data from drive 1 to drive 0, as I can't make a functional volume in the unallocated space.

 

[TheGrey]

What if you move (backup)all the (new, non-mirrored) data on the new drive (drive1), format it,partition it in disk manager, copy data from drive 0 and from the backup location, and then format and add drive 0 as a mirror?
You could even backup the data from both disks as well, and make a new mirror with 2 clean disks, but that is a lot more work, probably involving installing windows.

 

[GreggLester]

That is a thought, but I am unable to create another volume on either Drive 0 or Drive 1.

Is it possible to throw a large IDE drive into the server, mirror both volumes from the SCSI drives to the new IDE drive,
break the mirrors correctly,
erase both drive 0 and drive 1,
Mirror drive 0 with both volumes from the new IDE drive
Break the mirror correctly again,
then
Setup the mirrors on Drive 1???

 

[TheGrey]

Just to try to be even more confusing:
This is what i would have done, so it is probably wrong:
Copy from drive1 to backup/IDE disk.
Format and partition drive1 using disk manager in windows.
Copy everything from the first partition on drive0 to the first partiton on drive1, probably using Drive Image or Ghost (shareware versions availible, I think), or even a bootdisk with copy utilities. In that case, make sure you get the hidden files over. Now you theoretically should be able to boot of drive1, arrange the data correctly from drive0 and IDE drive to drive1, and then format drive1, make it dynamic and add it as a mirror.
Should work.

 

[GreggLester]

Yep that sounds like the way I am going to have to go.

Thanks for that..