Recreating Raid setup after Win 7 reinstall

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Mar 12, 2014
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Hi

System Spec:
Gigabyte GA Z77 D3H
Intel i5
Samsung 840 Evo SSD
2 x Seagate Baracuda 3000 GB hard drives.

I have replaced my SSD drive and loaded a fresh install of windows 7 home premium 64 bit.

I disconnected my two Seagate drives (originally configured as Raid 1 (mirrored) before installing Windows onto the new SSD.

My question is, how do I restore the original Raid 1 config on my two Seagate drives without compromising the existing data on them.

I have not physically reconnected them yet. Windows is running on the new SSD.

thanks!

 
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2Be_or_Not2Be

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Aug 23, 2013
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Caveat Emptor: View all advice from the Internet with great caution. Also, any data loss can't be held against random posters if you decide to take action based upon said advice.

I can't tell if you created the RAID mirror in Windows or if you did it through a RAID setup on your mobo. However, I think that in both cases, you should be okay since it's a simple mirrored pair. So reconnect one of the drives into your system, and then check out the contents in Windows. Just make sure not to format it or convert the disk to any different type (i.e. Convert a Basic to a Dynamic Disk). After confirming the contents are as expected, add the 2nd drive and re-create the mirror.
 
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Mar 12, 2014
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Hi Many thanks for your answer

I originally created the raid mirror in Bios. However, I have reconnected one drive but cannot see the drive in windows explorer in order to check the contents etc.

The Bios recognises the connected drive as a 3TB drive ok.
In windows "disk management" it comes up as Disk 1 (Disk 0 (C) is the SSD and obviously recognised by windows) however it just says "2794.39 GB Unallocated" with no drive letter assigned.

Any thoughts as to how I can assign a drive letter and thus be able to see the original contents from within windows explorer. The data within is rather critical :)
 
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Mar 12, 2014
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Ive managed to assign a drive letter to one of the 3TB disks - however it is now formatted in "raw" format and as such windows cannot read the data.

My plan is to recover the data using a suitable recovery tool to an external storage source. I then intend to reformat each 3TB drive to NTFS, such that they are write/readable in Windows; Configure Raid 1 (mirror) in Bios and transfer the data back from the external source.

If anyone has a better suggestion as to how this could be done ie not having to recover the data externally, then I'd be glad to here it!

Cheers :)
 
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2Be_or_Not2Be

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I'm more familiar with dedicated RAID controllers, but perhaps the same will apply to your BIOS RAID setup. In a dedicated RAID controller, you can create an array of your two disks and set it up as a mirrored pair (RAID-1). However, the important part - do NOT initialize the new array, but keep the existing configuration. That allows it to retain all of the data on it.

The other way you could try is set up the two-drive RAID-1 array back up as the primary drive (like it was before you added the SSD), and then break the RAID-1 array back into two separate drives. So get back to your previous config, and then after you confirm it boots & works (you can access the data on the array), then break the array back into individuals drives. You probably will do that in your BIOS RAID setup or just by removing one drive from the array. Then confirm that you can access the data on the individual drive. Finally, re-install your SSD and then access the individual drive again.
 
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