RAID 1 Recovery Help

[lancew]

I've got a problem with RAID 1 install and I need help.

A Siig SATA II PCIe Raid SC-SAER12-S2 was installed in a Raid 1 configuration with two WD 500GB HDD in legacy mode on a Intel MOBO small business server running SBS 2003. The system worked well for many months then suddenly was unable to boot. So I added a new HD was added, installed SBS 2003 onto the new hard drive and got it to boot, however the system was unable to detect the Raid 1. I replaced the SC-SAER12-S2 replaced with a new identical controller and brought the drivers up to latest. Device Manager detected the controller and reported the attached HDD, but the RAID could not be mounted in Disk Management. Since it seemed like it might be an OS or Mobo issue, I moved the controller and HDD to different PC with an ASUS Mobo running XP to attempt data recovery.

As it currently stands, SATARAID Array Manager reports both disks as Volume A RGO IDO Channel 0 and 1 465 GB mirrored, 0 MB available.

Disk Management reports the array as Disk 2 basic, 465 On-line 465 Unallocated.

Device Manager reports Sil 3132 SoftRaid 5 controller as working properly, with two WD HDD attached , BIOS 7.4.05, Driver 1.5.18.0 and reports Silmage Volume A SCSI Disk Devise driver 5.1.2535.0.

Explorer still does not acknowledge the array.

How to I mount the array without damaging the data or, alternately, how to I get the data off the array without damaging the data? This is a RAID 1 array, so I would hope that the data is still solid. Please help, and, if you can, please provide specific step-by-step guidance. Damage to the data would be catastrophic. Thank you.

 

[stefo]

raid 1 mirror is low admin because all hdd in array is an exact copy. any hdd will run independently without the other(s).

just plug a good hdd to the standard sata port, set the BIOS to boot from that hdd and it will run.

on the good hdd, what i'll do is use a spare hdd and clone the whole disk over (usually as an validated hdd image) and keep that as a temp backup b4 crisis over.

then access the controller BIOS, choose rebuild RAID-1 array with a new hdd plugin = sector-by-sector copy from existing hdd to a new hdd. this sync both hdds.

sry if i misunderstood u.

here' wat i don't understand

-why do u need to reinstall windows sbs2003?

-Were all the hdds in the array damaged?

-is the OS running on 1 hdd, and the data in the RAID-1 array (say with 2 or more hdd)?

 

[lancew]

The tech I inherited the equipment before set up the OS and the Data on two seperate partitions on the RAID 1 array. For some reason (still unknown) the array failed and would not detect. As a result, the system would not boot. In order to check the drivers, RAID card and HDDs, I installed a spare HDD and reinstalled SBS 2003. I then attempted to access the array. The hardware manager reports the card and drivers as operational and the HDDs seem to be okay but Disk Manager shows them as unitialized and unallocated. I'm concerned that if I allocate the disks either individually or as an array that I loose the data. Same with creating a Raid 1 array at the BIOS level.

At this point, I've restored the data drive using a three-day old back-up of the data (SBS back-up failed two days before the system went down) and have pulled files changed after the back-up off the array using a data recovery program. I've made the system as whole as a I can with restoring the array. I'm think that I should now try to create the Raid 1 array at the BIOS level and see if it restores the partition information and allows me to mount the array. What do you think?

raid 1 mirror is low admin because all hdd in array is an exact copy. any hdd will run independently without the other(s).

just plug a good hdd to the standard sata port, set the BIOS to boot from that hdd and it will run.

on the good hdd, what i'll do is use a spare hdd and clone the whole disk over (usually as an validated hdd image) and keep that as a temp backup b4 crisis over.

then access the controller BIOS, choose rebuild RAID-1 array with a new hdd plugin = sector-by-sector copy from existing hdd to a new hdd. this sync both hdds.

sry if i misunderstood u.

here' wat i don't understand

-why do u need to reinstall windows sbs2003?

-Were all the hdds in the array damaged?

-is the OS running on 1 hdd, and the data in the RAID-1 array (say with 2 or more hdd)?