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Jonathan Duane

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Can i retrieve data

Hi guys,

I had a server that suffered a power outage and when it came it back on the fan just stays at 100% and it doesnt boot, i would like to get some data from this server, its a HP ML310 G%, the disks i imagine are absolutely fine, its just booting up the server.

I have a G$ would i be able to put the disks into that or even swap out motherboard?
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Kimputer

Let us know the storage adapter used for the current server, and for the old server. Try to be as exact as possible.
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ASKER

so ihave noticed that the G4 has a raid card and then the G5 has a standard storage controller thats plugged into the sata ports, there doesnt appear to be sata ports on the G4
Neither of those servers have Smart Array controllers, the G4 has 8 port SAS/SATA HBA with RAID and the G5 has SC40Ge SAS HBA. I don't think the two are compatible with each other. Both only do RAID 0 and 1 so assuming you had RAID 1 you can just plug one of the disks into a PC. There may be metadata at the begining of the disk though and that offsets the partition table and data so it does not start at the first sector but any data recovery oftware will search the disk for the proper beginning of the data. Try https://www.runtime.org/captain-nemo.htm on it. Bear in mind that if you were using RAID 0 rather than RAID 1 then this should not be attempted.
Sadly you need to find a VERY SIMILAR (if not, totally similar) G5 to get your system booting again. That's because putting it in the G4 will not work, Windows won't be able to handle the RAID controller (it could with imaging apps though).
@handyholder so i could plug the storage controller thats in the G5 with the disks in it into a pc and boot with something like Knoppix and try and retrieve the data?
I'd try to avoid using the controller, if they are SATA rather than SAS disks you can plug them straight into a PC motherboard normally.

If you do have to use the controller then find out which one it is and disable RAID on it before connecting the disks. You could just plug the board and disks into the other server instead of a PC, it probably won't boot due to lack of drivers as Kimputer says but Knoppic CD would still be able to recover data if it has the drivers for the card.
they are definitely SAS disks..
sas.jpg
You'll need the board then, I would still disable RAID on it in BIOS (assuming RAID1) , that way you have two disks to play with so twice the chance of recovery.
3 disks :)

so disable raid in the pc i plug it into??
Disable RAID on the card when you plug it into the PC, if the PC has its own RAID don't touch that. You can of course use the other server as the PC but it mat be harder to boot Knoppix or similar on that rather than a vanilla PC.
as in disable raid on the controller, is there a switch for that?
If I remember correctly you can turn it on and off during POST.
but the machine wont even boot into the bios ? so how can i do it ?
The other machine boots doesn't it?
the G4 yes...so plug the drives into that one and then turn off raid? then put the drives back into the controller and boot from a normal PC using Knoppix ?
Hi guys, still not sure what best approach is here
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