RAID 0 - What to do when one hard-disk crashes?
A coworker just came to me with a question that I have never run into. He has a RAID-0 configuration with two hard-disks. One of the disks has apparently failed and the system will not boot. Are there tools available that will allow you to recover from this situation?
zephyr_hex (Megan)
if the drive has truly failed, all data is lost .... unless your friend wants to pay $$ for specialized data recovery.
Ditto
RAID 0 is a bad idea if you value your data.
RAID 0 is a bad idea if you value your data.
ASKER
That's pretty much what I told him. But apparently the PC came configured with RAID-0 (for performance issues) when it was purchased. He mentioned some sort of "RAID utilities" that he's read about that would allow you to somehow recover the data. Anyone heard of such?
If one disk has failed, then its Data Recovery for you .. The problem is that the data is striped in blocks of (probably) 64kb .. First block on drive a, second on drive b, third on drive a .. etc..
Mike
Mike
sure, if you want to pay $500. you are better off going with a specialist who won't charge you if no data is recovered.
http://esd.element5.com/product.html?cart=1&productid=300005767&languageid=1&stylefrom=540416&backlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.recoveryourdata.com¤cies=USD
http://esd.element5.com/product.html?cart=1&productid=300005767&languageid=1&stylefrom=540416&backlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.recoveryourdata.com¤cies=USD
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ASKER
Yes, RAID Reconstructor is the utility he was referring to. He says he booted from the RAID Reconstructor CD, but it did not recognize the failed drive. But are you suggesting that he boots from another, separate disk? If so, I'll have him try it and then run RAID Reconstructor.
He's going to need a drive to copy data to anyway if it works, and he needs an OS with a driver that recognizes his RAID controller.
Various "Raid Utilities" may be useful to aid in swapping failed drives (and putting them back into the raid array) *if* you are using raid-1 (mirroring), or raid-5 (striping, with parity).... with raid-0, all you have are two drives stuck together in a "stripe set" to enhance performance. Raid-0 has ZERO toleriance for a failed drive; no raid utility disk will help you.....
As mentioned above, the only way to recover the data on the disk will be via a data recovery service- which is uh.. *cough*.. expensive. Your least expensive way to recovery will be via whatever backup(s) you have on hand.
As mentioned above, the only way to recover the data on the disk will be via a data recovery service- which is uh.. *cough*.. expensive. Your least expensive way to recovery will be via whatever backup(s) you have on hand.