Can Data be accessed from a drive when removed from RAID 0?

Palorim12 · Mar 31, 2014

Basically, if I have three drives set up in a RAID 0, and I removed one of the drives from the array and plugged it in externally, would I be able to access any data on it? Or, since it was part of the array, it would look like its empty, like in Disk Management.

The Ginger · Mar 31, 2014

I have personally hooked up a Raid 0 HDD and hooked it up via SATA to USB with no problems.

you can even take a Raid 0 drive and put it into another RAID 0 configuration and it will come up as a seperate drive until you Delete the original RAID and re-sync.

boosted1g · Mar 31, 2014

No you will not be able to see the data.

RAID0 bassically puts byte 1 in drive 1, byte 2 in drive 2, byte 3 in drive 1 and so on and so on. You would have an easier time reading a book missing every other letter then reading the data on the removed raid disk.

The Ginger · Mar 31, 2014

Listen to boosted1g! i had my Raids all mixed up.

TyrOd · Mar 31, 2014

Palorim12 :

It will look like it's empty.
You shouldn't even try to initialize a drive that's been in a RAID0 array, because windows will corrupt the RAID metadata on the drive in some cases.

While in theory any very small file that happens to be within 1 stripe on the drive can be manually 'carved out" through a raw recovery process, you shouldn't expect to get anything generally.

Palorim12 · Mar 31, 2014

The Ginger :

TyrOd :

Thanks! We have a customer that wants to encrypt his 3 SSD raid array via the Bios HDD password feature and he wanted to know if he enables it, does that enable encryption across all three drives, or just one. And we were like "you wouldn't be able to access any of the drives individually anyway, so would it really matter if it just encrypted one or all three?"

mbarnes86 · Mar 31, 2014

Hi

Is this raid 0 with 3 hard drives
I thought raid 0 was stripes with 2 disks
With 3 drives either raid 0 plus 1 ordinary drive or raid 5

Why do you want to remove drive from raid ?
There are raid recovery programs which will tell you a lot about the raid and it's health for free but demand activation ( with payment) before doing any repairs
This has advantage of not paying out a lot of money for a product which does not work with your set of disks & problems

Regards
Mike Barnes

TyrOd · Mar 31, 2014

Palorim12 :

The Ginger :

TyrOd :

Thanks! We have a customer that wants to encrypt his 3 SSD raid array via the Bios HDD password feature and he wanted to know if he enables it, does that enable encryption across all three drives, or just one. And we were like "you wouldn't be able to access any of the drives individually anyway, so would it really matter if it just encrypted one or all three?"

What a terrible idea. I really hope that you get him a good backup solution.

Palorim12 · Mar 31, 2014

mbarnes86 :

All this customer told us is that he has 3 m-sata SSDs in a RAID 0 and he wants to enable encryption through the BIOS and wants to know if doing so will encrypt all 3 drives of the array, or just one. Since we do not support RAID, we have no idea.

TyrOd · Mar 31, 2014

mbarnes86 :

You can put any number of drives in RAID0, it will stripe data across all of them. RAID 0+1 requires 4 drives, at least 2 sets of RAID 0 mirrored to each other.

Palorim12 · Mar 31, 2014

TyrOd :

Do you know if enabling hardware level encryption via the bios would span all 3 drives or just 1? Would it even matter? We do not support RAID, so we have no idea.

TyrOd · Mar 31, 2014

Palorim12 :

TyrOd :

Do you know if enabling hardware level encryption via the bios would span all 3 drives or just 1? Would it even matter? We do not support RAID, so we have no idea.

You were right in your first assessment, because it is a moot point, you won't be able to access the data on a single drive if removed.

To answer your question, yes.
If you're running a hardware RAID encryption through an ATA BIOS password it will encrypt the entire RAID array.

Palorim12 · Mar 31, 2014

TyrOd :

Palorim12 :

TyrOd :

Do you know if enabling hardware level encryption via the bios would span all 3 drives or just 1? Would it even matter? We do not support RAID, so we have no idea.

You were right in your first assessment, because it is a moot point, you won't be able to access the data on a single drive if removed.

To answer your question, yes.
If you're running a hardware RAID encryption through an ATA BIOS password it will encrypt the entire RAID array.

Thanks, selected your answer as the best solution

2Be_or_Not2Be · Mar 31, 2014

The SSDs have to support encryption; it's not something you just set in the BIOS for any old drive. There are number of SSDs drives that DON"T support encryption. BIOS passwords usually only work with SED-capable SSDs.

Now, if you're encrypting from the RAID array side, then you would need a RAID controller that supports encryption as an option. Then it would be the controller handling the encryption, which would work with any SSD.

Palorim12 · Mar 31, 2014

2Be_or_Not2Be :

If you look at my signature, you can see that i work for Samsung....so Samsung SSDs, which are SED.

2Be_or_Not2Be · Apr 1, 2014

Palorim12 :

So, out of curiosity, did you test that scenario - that is, an encrypted array set through BIOS? It's one thing for some stranger on the Internet to say something; it's another thing to test it out & prove it with facts. To me, the answer sounded good, but I never tested it.

Palorim12 · Apr 1, 2014

2Be_or_Not2Be :

Palorim12 :

So, out of curiosity, did you test that scenario - that is, an encrypted array set through BIOS? It's one thing for some stranger on the Internet to say something; it's another thing to test it out & prove it with facts. To me, the answer sounded good, but I never tested it.

Yea, one of my coworkers was put on the job.

2Be_or_Not2Be · Apr 1, 2014

Palorim12 :

That's an interesting setup to test. I know that in a regular RAID-0 setup w/3 drives, basically you wouldn't get much if you pulled one drive out of the array (not unless you are very motivated and have a lot of resources to throw around at trying to read the bits on it).

I'm curious to know if each SSD actually is encrypted when in the array, if they all have to have the same password key, and if you actually can set the password for all through the BIOS. It's interesting to know 'cause things are a little different when drives are in an array; not all commands work when sent to an array (like how TRIM doesn't always work on SSDs in a RAID setup - it mostly depends if the RAID controller allows TRIM pass-through).

Anyway, just idle curiosity - no answer required if too busy.

Palorim12 · Apr 1, 2014

2Be_or_Not2Be :

Palorim12 :

That's an interesting setup to test. I know that in a regular RAID-0 setup w/3 drives, basically you wouldn't get much if you pulled one drive out of the array (not unless you are very motivated and have a lot of resources to throw around at trying to read the bits on it).

I'm curious to know if each SSD actually is encrypted when in the array, if they all have to have the same password key, and if you actually can set the password for all through the BIOS. It's interesting to know 'cause things are a little different when drives are in an array; not all commands work when sent to an array (like how TRIM doesn't always work on SSDs in a RAID setup - it mostly depends if the RAID controller allows TRIM pass-through).

Anyway, just idle curiosity - no answer required if too busy.

"I'm curious to know if each SSD actually is encrypted when in the array, if they all have to have the same password key, and if you actually can set the password for all through the BIOS."

That's basically what our customer wanted to know, but we have a certain amount of time to answer a question when it comes through email or we get in trouble. Since we don't support RAID, I had to find an answer fast before we hit our time limit.

Can Data be accessed from a drive when removed from RAID 0?

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