Accidentilly deleted Raid 5 config and need data back.
I have a DEll Poweredge 830. It was set up with (3) 80 gig drives in a raid 5 configuration using a 6 port Raid pci controller. It had Windows Server 2003 as OS. The drives were set with 3 partitions forming (fat partition), C drive and D drive.
I was attempting to add (3) 500 gig drives in another raid 5 configuration then move an image of the first raid to the second.
However, during editing my second Raid Configuration, I had the first raid array highlighted and deleted the array and lost all data in the first Raid 5 array.
I put the array back together in the raid bios but how it is completely blank.
Anyway to recover this data? If so, what steps must I take to do so? I have a program called File Scavenger but never uset it on a Raid 5 array.
Thanks,
In Distress
I was attempting to add (3) 500 gig drives in another raid 5 configuration then move an image of the first raid to the second.
However, during editing my second Raid Configuration, I had the first raid array highlighted and deleted the array and lost all data in the first Raid 5 array.
I put the array back together in the raid bios but how it is completely blank.
Anyway to recover this data? If so, what steps must I take to do so? I have a program called File Scavenger but never uset it on a Raid 5 array.
Thanks,
In Distress
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rindi
What I forgot to add above is that you will need to have the disk in a non raid environment to be able to see them with those tools.
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ASKER
Yes, I reinitiated each drive and then re-established the RAID 5 array. So I probably destroyed the partitions. Is there any hope?
ASKER
I thought maybe I could re-establish a new RAID 5 with new drives and reinstall the OS. Then using the original drives, recreate a 2nd RAID 5 array and try and run File Scavenger on the drives. Does this sound reasonable or hopeless?
If you MUST recover this data, then call data recovery services like OnTrack or Drive Savers and see what options they can give you. If it would just be nice to without spending $$$$, then try RAID Reconstructor. There is always hope ... but probably not much hope by doing it yourself.
You could install an OS on another drive/array and see if you can access anything on the the RAID 5, but it's not likely. The problem is, on this controller, every time you create a new RAID array, it does a background initialization of the array (not to be confused with initializing the drive), effectively overwriting the existing RAID structure with the new one. Now, if they match reasonably well, you might be able to get some back, but if not, then ... you won't. I'm not familiar with File Scavenger, so I would recommend rindi's method and RAID Reconstructor if you must try it yourself.
It depends on how you reinitialized the array .. some controllers have effectively a short & long initialize (foreground or background).
The short one is nothing more than a parity rebuild. If you built the drive EXACTLY as before, then you have zero data loss, and everything would be fine. The long one puts zeros on all data blocks at the same time.
So if the data is visible, you did the short one. If it isn't, you did the long one. If you did the long one, then don't bother with raid reconstructor, it is gone in same way as if you wrote all zeros to a non-RAID disk. A data recovery lab would also be a waste of money. Technically it could be recoverable, but only by law enforcement and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of computer time.
The short one is nothing more than a parity rebuild. If you built the drive EXACTLY as before, then you have zero data loss, and everything would be fine. The long one puts zeros on all data blocks at the same time.
So if the data is visible, you did the short one. If it isn't, you did the long one. If you did the long one, then don't bother with raid reconstructor, it is gone in same way as if you wrote all zeros to a non-RAID disk. A data recovery lab would also be a waste of money. Technically it could be recoverable, but only by law enforcement and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of computer time.
ASKER
It only took about 1 second to initialize the 3 drives when I did it but here is where I am.
I took the 3 drives and put them in another machine. Windows 7 (64) wanted to initialize them so it could see them and I did. Now that I could see the drives, I downloaded Raid Recovery for Windows and it saw all the drives and I selected the 3 that are in the original Raid 5 array. Using the default settings, it found the RAID 5 array and told me which order the drives were...
Drive 1: DISK2
Drive 2: DISK0
Drive 3: DISK3
However when I selected finish to move to the next window, the window opened and it is blank.
So I ran File Scavenger 3.0 and told it the proper RAID 5 Drive order and it scanned the drives and recovered all the folders and files but many were corrupt. The main database I needed was recovered and reports the proper size and date etc... but will not open yet.
I am not sure about setting the RAID 5 settings for recovery other than default so I am feeling like I might have some hope here, Any other help anyone can give with these new facts?
I took the 3 drives and put them in another machine. Windows 7 (64) wanted to initialize them so it could see them and I did. Now that I could see the drives, I downloaded Raid Recovery for Windows and it saw all the drives and I selected the 3 that are in the original Raid 5 array. Using the default settings, it found the RAID 5 array and told me which order the drives were...
Drive 1: DISK2
Drive 2: DISK0
Drive 3: DISK3
However when I selected finish to move to the next window, the window opened and it is blank.
So I ran File Scavenger 3.0 and told it the proper RAID 5 Drive order and it scanned the drives and recovered all the folders and files but many were corrupt. The main database I needed was recovered and reports the proper size and date etc... but will not open yet.
I am not sure about setting the RAID 5 settings for recovery other than default so I am feeling like I might have some hope here, Any other help anyone can give with these new facts?
you aren't going to be happy .. but this is what happens when you try a DIY solution, in-place with freeware. a recovery lab would have gotten your data back. highly likely investing a few hundred in runtime.org would have also.
if you did the recovery in place, i.e. instead of cloning on scratch drives ... then the data is gone forever.
a binary editor and XOR parity checker would reveal if your freeware botched the block size, ordering, or both.
if you did the recovery in place, i.e. instead of cloning on scratch drives ... then the data is gone forever.
a binary editor and XOR parity checker would reveal if your freeware botched the block size, ordering, or both.
ASKER
I do not mind spending some money, I am just trying to get my data back and came here for help doing so. The File Scavenger I purchased a Professional License for since it supported RAID 5 recovery. It is non destructive to the data on the drives and I have not written to or modified the three original drives other than try to re-setup the original ARRAY.
I thought youb reconstructed using the raid recovery ... that is where it went wrong. get that incorrecct and file recovery will sometimes 'recover' but you have full data loss. example, if stripe size is incorrectly guessed as a multiple of what it should be.
get a binary editor and manually inspect a large text file at least 2 times the stripe size.
if it is wrong, then you have 100 percent data loss.
get a binary editor and manually inspect a large text file at least 2 times the stripe size.
if it is wrong, then you have 100 percent data loss.