Question

How to restore a Windows 2003 Server Raid 1 array

Asked by: SCSINC

I have a windows 2003 server that has two drives that were in raid 1. The raid failed and I now have two drives that are setup as simple volume drives, ntfs.
The machine is a SuperMicro thin rack mount server with on-board Adaptec storage. The drives reported a failure when in fact they are fine. Adaptec says there is a know issue with the firmware on the drives and the drive's firmware needs an upgrade.
Each drive has two partitions and one drive is a copy of the other.
I would like to restore the raid aspect but I do not want to have to re-install all the software and OS. This server did hold the roles in the domain, but those roles have been moved to another windows 2003 server. This server is still setup as a Cataloging Server.
The Server is functioning right now with disk drive 0 holds Partition C and E and disk drive 1 holds Partition F & G.
F is a copy of the Windows Boot partition and G is a copy of the E partition.
I want to setup the raid 1 once again. What steps do I need to take and what products should I consider purchasing?

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Asked On
2009-10-19 at 10:05:02ID24824253
Tags

Server 2003

Topics

Windows 2003 Server

,

Microsoft Hardware

,

Server Applications

Participating Experts
1
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500
Comments
1

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Answers

 

by: mpfisterPosted on 2009-10-19 at 23:36:32ID: 25611461

The RAID controller must re.create the RAID 1. I do not know the Adaptec controller, but usually you have to "unassign" the 2nd disk as a regular disk and assign it to the RAID 1. The RAID controller will take care of copying data from disk 0 to 1. A re-install is not neccessary.
Just make sure the data gets copied form the disk holding the most current data to the other one.

If the drive's firmware has a problem, I'd first create the RAID. After that upgrade one drive, if the RAID is still ok, upgarde the other one.
Note that you may have to take the drive to a different computer without RIAD controller to install the firmware upgrade.
Also make sure you use the latest Adpatec driver and RAID controller BIOS.
HTH

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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