Raid 0 Disk / Partition Recovery

[imy300]

I've had a problem with my HDD that are part of a raid 0 disk.
I have 4 80GB disks in a raid 0 set. After a few system crashes and HDD failures (due to dodgy ide cable) i got my system up and running.
But now one of the raid 0 drives is not being picked up as part of the raid set. It has come up as a normal disk and the the one for the raid set is showing as missing.
The attachement of disk management shows this a bit better. Disk 2 and the missing disk are the same disk.

Is there anyway to re-add disk2 to the raid 0 set ?


Disk Management Screenshot

 

[imy300]

Is there no one out there that can help ?
I know all the data is still there i've used some demo software to find it, but cannot retrieve it coz its striped over the other 3 disks as well.
Can anyone point me in the direction of some software that can do what i need free or paid for.
Thanks

 

[CyberDruid]

If you've created the array with 4 drives in the first place under RAID-0, then ANY drive that gets removed from that array will render the whole array useless i.e. not ale to boot into Windows.

It sounds&looks like to me you've only created the array with just 3 drives on RAID-0.

I am inclined to agree--there is no recoverable RAID data on the lone disk--short of reformatting and recreating the array you are stuck with the current situation. Look at a RAID 0 array as if it were just one big HDD--unlike "Dynamic Disk" ala Windows you can't just add another disk and grow some more space--what your origianlly set up is what you've got--you can't "lose " a disk of the array--because any HDD that drops out will crash the array and all data will then be unrecoverable. If your array is currently functioning then there are no disks missing from the array. Somehow you must have created the array with one less disk than you originally had in mind--as stated before, you cannot just add a disk to an exisiting array, or remove a disk from an exisitng RAID 0 array.

 

[imy300]

If you've created the array with 4 drives in the first place under RAID-0, then ANY drive that gets removed from that array will render the whole array useless i.e. not ale to boot into Windows.

It sounds&looks like to me you've only created the array with just 3 drives on RAID-0.

Wussy, i can see how you have come to that conclusion but i have Raid motherboard (4 x ide connectors) with a PCI Raid (2x ide connectors) card as well, allowing me to have up to 12 HDD connected.

 

[imy300]

If you've created the array with 4 drives in the first place under RAID-0, then ANY drive that gets removed from that array will render the whole array useless i.e. not ale to boot into Windows.

It sounds&looks like to me you've only created the array with just 3 drives on RAID-0.

I am inclined to agree--there is no recoverable RAID data on the lone disk--short of reformatting and recreating the array you are stuck with the current situation. Look at a RAID 0 array as if it were just one big HDD--unlike "Dynamic Disk" ala Windows you can't just add another disk and grow some more space--what your origianlly set up is what you've got--you can't "lose " a disk of the array--because any HDD that drops out will crash the array and all data will then be unrecoverable. If your array is currently functioning then there are no disks missing from the array. Somehow you must have created the array with one less disk than you originally had in mind--as stated before, you cannot just add a disk to an exisiting array, or remove a disk from an exisitng RAID 0 array.

Obviously i didnt make it calear in my orignal psts but the Raid 0 array is not currently functioning as you can see in the screen shot.
Disks 0, 1, 7 and 8 should make up the array.
However disk 8 is the one i had problems with and is now showing as disk 2 (ie disk 2 and 8 are the same drive), that is why disk 8 is showing as missing. It is there !

 

[CyberDruid]

It is still unclear to me whether you are operating in an array or not--Is your OS installed on the array? Or is your OS operating from an independent (non-RAID) disk?

If your OS is operating from the RAID array? If so then my answer remains valid--you will have to Re-Create the array including all the disks you choose to have in it this time and reinstall the OS. Or leave it alone and continue on with whatever disks are in and out of the array.

If your OS is not operating from the array but from a HDD that is seperate from the array you may be able to use a utility including with your MOBO drivers to build the array--but I do not believe you will be able to include the non-array disk.

RAID 0 requires all the disks included in the array to be fornmatted at the time of its creatuion--obviously this will destroy whaterever is on any disk outside of the array that you choose to add.

Does this help?

Please provide some more info if not..

Good luck!

 

[FlyGuy]

From the screenshot it looks like you're using Windows for creating the array...why? Why so many disks? Do all the drives show in the bios or whichever to which they're attached?

If you have part of a raid 0 setup fail you can't re-attach it like in a mirror. You will have to re-create the array by removing it and then set it up again.

 

[imy300]

Flyguy,

Im using XP to create the array as i had the disk on different controallers.
So many disk is becuse i've just added them pver time. I need to get rid of some but havnt got round to it.
All the drives show up in bios or Raid controller.

If you have part of a raid 0 setup fail you can't re-attach it like in a mirror. You will have to re-create the array by removing it and then set it up again.

Can you explain that a bit further please? Not quite sure what or how you mean.

 

[linux_0]

Short of sending me your controller and HDDs or taking them to a real professional data recovery company you are most likely out of luck. Even then there wouldn't be a guarantee your data could be recovered.

There is no way to add the drive back to the array and your data is gone.

RAID 0 is terribly unreliable and is not fault tolerant in any way shape or form.

With 4 drives there is 4 times the likelihood your array will fail.

You should never put important data on a RAID 0 array without a proper backup.

 

[imy300]

Ok thanks for the all the help anyway.

 

[linux_0]

I wish there was something we could do, but there isn't :-(

RAID 0 trades speed for reliability