Please HELP: 3 disk RAID 0 array issue

doctor lo

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Hello everyone,

I´m having some issues with my RAID 0 array and I was wondering if someone has faced a similar situation or could give some advice.

I´ve been running a 3 disk array for a while using 3 WD caviar black 640 gb drives. Today the computer was starting when the power at home went out... and after restarting I found that my drives on windows had disappeared (my boot drive is not part of the array).

Apparently the information about my array is still there, and the drives seem to be working, but one of them seems not to be recognized as part of the array any more. After restarting on RAID mode to access Intel Matrix Storage Manager I find the following, which I believe sums up the situation quite well:

IMG_20140119_223547.jpg



So the information about the array is there (the 2 raid 0 partitions), but if you look at the devices information below only 2 of them are recognized as part of the array, which is of course why it fails.


Has anyone any idea of how to fix this or how to force the 3rd drive to be recognized as part of the array again as it seems to be working fine ?


Thanks for your time and regards,




 
Solution
I have never had this same thing happen to me before but I have had to rejoin disks to a array before. I think that if you re-create the array with the three drives it should be re-detected by the system. just ensure you do not overwrite anything except for the array settings in the BIOS/UEFI. their is also the possibility that when you recreate the array you will still loose your data. RAID 0 on 3 disks is inherently risky.
I have never had this same thing happen to me before but I have had to rejoin disks to a array before. I think that if you re-create the array with the three drives it should be re-detected by the system. just ensure you do not overwrite anything except for the array settings in the BIOS/UEFI. their is also the possibility that when you recreate the array you will still loose your data. RAID 0 on 3 disks is inherently risky.
 
Solution

doctor lo

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Navalweaponsofficer, thanks for your help! I actually didn´t get any notifications from this thread (even though I´d swear I was subrscribed) so I thought I wasn´t getting any help around here…. As I hadn´t found much on tomshardware´s forums about this topic neither I kept looking for answers and I found a solution, which is indeed based on what you suggest: rebuilding the array.

So, I found this thread:

http://www.overclock.net/t/478557/howto-recover-intel-raid-non-member-disk-error

Which is essentially a step-by-step guide on how to recover from this failure. IMPORTANT: That first guide (on the main page), applies to people who had the system on the array, for people who have their system on a different drive (like me) please follow these updated instructions, otherwise you may loose your data !!


Originally Posted by Zero4549

Solved it a few hours ago. Was able to repair the array after carefully reading the whole guide thread over several times and making some wild-guess modifications to the procedure based on the issues people were having.

What I did, new/modified steps in green:
1) Booted into windows and uninstalled Intel Matrix / Intel Rapid Storage software!
2) Rebooted, Reset to non-raid (did not delete)
3) Build new raid identical to previous one.
4) Booted into windows and used TestDisk to analyze.
5) Quick Search with Testdisk returned no readable files/
6) Deeper search revealed the original RAID 10 partition after about 10 seconds (it continued for what would have been several hours afterwards, discovering error after error after error until I stopped it).
7) RAID 10 partition showed correct files, marked it as primary partition, wrote partition data to disk using testdisk
8) Rebooted
9) Re-established links within windows (and re-installed chrome... for whatever reason that and only that got corrupted in the process... and it wasn't even on the raid to begin with! I was on C! As soon as I reinstalled it, all the bookmarks, extensions, and settings were in place automatically. Whatever)

Note that my raid was my "d" drive and not my "c". I believe this is the key! The majority of users following this guide have had their RAID as their C drive and as such when they followed this guide, the intel software was not readable until the process was finished. For several users the method did not work due to intel software attempting to re-initialize the new raid therefore overwriting old data - these users logically had a separate C drive where the intel software was free to work while attempting this fix.

In other words, if your raid is NOT your C drive, you must first uninstall intel software to prevent erroneous re-initialization.

Anyway, thanks for your input mmiszkiel. +rep for responding helpfully even if it was a wee bit late


And that’s exactly how I recently recovered my broken array. Further useful considerations:

---> AHCI and RAID mode: In order to rebuild the array from the Intel application on startup (on ROM), you must be on RAID mode. Please note that if you are using a SSD as your main drive you may be using AHCI, change this setting on your BIOS.

---> How to use testdisk while running in RAID mode or if you cannot get your main drive working properly: I used gparted live CD flawlessly, totally recommended (which is at the same time another way to avoid that intel software on windows to re-initializes you array)

http://gparted.org/


Is not a painful process after all. If you are very concerned about data loss as I was you may even use TestDisk to copy all the data from your lost arrays to another drive… then write the partitions and reinstall matrix software on windows without worrying about it re-initializing the array.


Best luck,
 

doctor lo

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Yes, I know a 3 drive array 0 its risky... I regularly back all the information on the array to 2 other locations, but of course loosing all of it was inconvenient, and would have also meant loosing a couple weeks of information (as it had been a while since the last back-up).

Even after this issue I will keep the array: it is useful for loading and editing big collections of photographs. You get performance and good price as Im just reusing old caviar black drives. I also get a great performance from a short-partition where I essentially place games.

But yes, it is essential to have a regular backup with this kind of setup, and be aware of the inherent risks.


Thanks again,