jmwp13
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All data missing on windows 2003 storage server
I have a windows 2003 server with a dynamic disk that is made up of 2 volumes. At some point we had over 4 tb of data and then it was gone. The disk manager show the drive as healthy, but says that it needs to be formated? Is there a way to bring this data back?
What is the make of the Server? And does it have an array? If so it most likely has a RAID and If it is a Dell you can load Open Manager to see the RAID and it has tools that may allow you to rebuild a bad drive...if it is an IBM then load Server Raid Manager... again that is if their is a RAID on the server. And most likley if you lost data then you have to restore it from a backup after the drive is replaced or fixed.
ASKER
I worked with HP for quite awhile. Here is what I got from them. They claim that there is not a hardware problem and it is related to the dynamic disk
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Related to the Dynamic disk , Dynamic disk is just a pointer, any corruption to that pointer and all data is gone.
At least on a hw raid we can rebuild the the boot sector or retag the drives.
If you have multiple drives fall offline, retagging will more than likely not work on dynamic desk.
FROM HP:
Dynamic disks contain a database at the end of the physical disk. Logical Disk Manager (LDM) keeps track of where the current database is located when a drive is first converted to dynamic by recording a pointer to the database in a backup LDM header. When you extend a hardware RAID array, Disk Management reads the backup LDM header, and then moves the LDM database to the new end of the physical disk. When you expand the disk the first time, the relocation succeeds because the stored LDM backup header points to the present location of the LDM database. However, the stored backup header information is not updated to point to the newly relocated database after the relocation succeeds. The next time you expand the disk, the same LDM backup header is read, but this time it is incorrect and instead points to the location of the old LDM database that was previously moved. This causes the relocation of the present database not to work because an erroneous attempt to try to move the old obsolete database is made (which may have already been partially or completely overwritten with user data) to the end of the new physical drive."
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Related to the Dynamic disk , Dynamic disk is just a pointer, any corruption to that pointer and all data is gone.
At least on a hw raid we can rebuild the the boot sector or retag the drives.
If you have multiple drives fall offline, retagging will more than likely not work on dynamic desk.
FROM HP:
Dynamic disks contain a database at the end of the physical disk. Logical Disk Manager (LDM) keeps track of where the current database is located when a drive is first converted to dynamic by recording a pointer to the database in a backup LDM header. When you extend a hardware RAID array, Disk Management reads the backup LDM header, and then moves the LDM database to the new end of the physical disk. When you expand the disk the first time, the relocation succeeds because the stored LDM backup header points to the present location of the LDM database. However, the stored backup header information is not updated to point to the newly relocated database after the relocation succeeds. The next time you expand the disk, the same LDM backup header is read, but this time it is incorrect and instead points to the location of the old LDM database that was previously moved. This causes the relocation of the present database not to work because an erroneous attempt to try to move the old obsolete database is made (which may have already been partially or completely overwritten with user data) to the end of the new physical drive."
Well I have been told that converting it to Basic is much better for your situation, but again with all the data missing then there is nothing that can be done to recover it... I would suggest at least putting a Mirrored Raid (Raid 1) on it when you restage it.
ASKER
So you do not believe that it is possible to recover this data?
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ASKER
After spending hours on the phone with HP, they only solution was to restore from backup.
I am guessing from your message you had no other backup solution in place.