jwmghf
asked on
Cannot rebuild a raid-1 array? Recovery Possible?
Hey Guys:
My computer is setup with a Raid-1 array. One of the drives dropped off. So I went into the raid utility to rebuild it. I hit the rebuild button and nothing happened. When I looked at the drives in the case, the sata infomation cable slipped off the drive. I turned off the computer, re-attached the cable and rebooted. The computer sees the drives as it's booting up, but, just goes past the raid utility. It won't enter it. Then when it gets to Windows, it says, "Disk Boot Failure. Please insert a system disk...."
All the settings are correct in the Bios. I spoke with Giga-byte IT personell and they said to re-install Windows and use the repair feature to save the files and programs on the drive.
When I try this, Windows says it doesn't see any hard drives connected. Please make sure your cables are attached and try again. Press F3 to finish.
Ideally I would like to be able to re-build the drives. If not, recovering my pictures and a few other items is my goal.
Thanks,
jwmghf
Windows XP Pro, Gigabyte GA-8KNXP rev. 2 mobo, Intel Pentium 3.4 Extreme,
My computer is setup with a Raid-1 array. One of the drives dropped off. So I went into the raid utility to rebuild it. I hit the rebuild button and nothing happened. When I looked at the drives in the case, the sata infomation cable slipped off the drive. I turned off the computer, re-attached the cable and rebooted. The computer sees the drives as it's booting up, but, just goes past the raid utility. It won't enter it. Then when it gets to Windows, it says, "Disk Boot Failure. Please insert a system disk...."
All the settings are correct in the Bios. I spoke with Giga-byte IT personell and they said to re-install Windows and use the repair feature to save the files and programs on the drive.
When I try this, Windows says it doesn't see any hard drives connected. Please make sure your cables are attached and try again. Press F3 to finish.
Ideally I would like to be able to re-build the drives. If not, recovering my pictures and a few other items is my goal.
Thanks,
jwmghf
Windows XP Pro, Gigabyte GA-8KNXP rev. 2 mobo, Intel Pentium 3.4 Extreme,
check in te bios that the drives are both still set up for detcectiona s when teh cable slipped off it could have altered teh bios not to look for them anymore
ASKER
I looked and all the settings are still correct. Thanks.
ASKER
Update:
I got into the raid utility using a different keyboard. Apparently some of the keys weren't working on the other keyboard.
When I try to rebuild the array, it won't do it. Can I delete the raid set and re-create it without losing all the info?
Thanks
I got into the raid utility using a different keyboard. Apparently some of the keys weren't working on the other keyboard.
When I try to rebuild the array, it won't do it. Can I delete the raid set and re-create it without losing all the info?
Thanks
Probably not. but check your manual.
Other options are to take the good drive out and put it either in an external USB case, or another computer as a second drive to see if you can still access your data and OS. If yes, then Image it to DVD or any other good backup method, and then restore after resetting the RAID, and initializing the drives.
I hope this helps !
Other options are to take the good drive out and put it either in an external USB case, or another computer as a second drive to see if you can still access your data and OS. If yes, then Image it to DVD or any other good backup method, and then restore after resetting the RAID, and initializing the drives.
I hope this helps !
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... the good news is you were using a mirrored pair => so it's almost certain that you can get all of your data back as long as you do NOT use the drives in any way that causes disk write activity.
@garycase... cheers for jumping in and stopping further activity thats why i only got the bios settings checked first ;o) I knew i shoudl have logged in from home last night ;o)
Just to reiterate what gary has stated, mirrored pair makes this nice and easy as each drive is comparable i wont complicate this by adding anything extra s i dont think there is anything extra to add gary has it covered :O)
Jay
Just to reiterate what gary has stated, mirrored pair makes this nice and easy as each drive is comparable i wont complicate this by adding anything extra s i dont think there is anything extra to add gary has it covered :O)
Jay
ASKER
Thanks Gary:
I did stop and I am going to install a fresh OS on a hard drive and see what I can. I will post back as soon as I have some news.
I did stop and I am going to install a fresh OS on a hard drive and see what I can. I will post back as soon as I have some news.
cool i dont tend to log in over weekends so ill check back monday as teh weeknd starts ion 45 minutes :O)
ASKER
No problem Slam:
I appreciate your help.
I appreciate your help.