Recover Raid 1 data

[byterider]

I had an old computer setup that I had a system disk and 2x750GB HDs in a RAID 1 configuration. The motherboard died and I recently moved everything to the new system (again, the drives are fine, but the mobo died)

When I boot up the computer, the system seems to recognize the drives (shows up on the boot page and Windows disk manager shows them, but cannot access them), but nothing I've done allows me to access them (I did use Sysinternals Raid Recovery program and it can see data on the drives, etc)

The mobo that died was a MCI P965 Platinum motherboard (was using the ICH8R matrix array for Raid 1) and the new mobo is a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R (Intel ICH10R).

A couple of other things:
- Both drives show up a non-raid drives if I start up the matrix manager from the BIOS
- Both drives show up in Windows XP using Intel's Matrix manager App
- Neither drive is accessible from Windows
- I can run the recover option for the matrix manager using one drive as the master and the other as a slave, but I backed off that option when it said it would delete the data on the drives (it might have only meant the slave, but I'm not taking chances) - I was just going to purchase another drive of equal or larger size and then give it a shot

Some assumptions I'm making based on information given or gleemed from the forums
- Using Raid 1, you should just be able to plug the drive in and access it (this is a bit of a logical leap), unlike Raid 0, which must be in a raid array to read
- From what I've read, there should be no problem moving the disks from ICH8R to ICH10R.

Any help appreciated,

Thanks.

 

[treefrog07]

You will have to enable the drives to RAID 1 in the BIOS. Since you don't want to lose the data, get another of the make/model HDDs in your existing RAID, add one of the exisiting and the new HDD to your computer - put the original RAID HDD in the "0" SATA port, and the new (unformatted) HDD in port "1."
-- Start the computer, enter BIOS, set both HDDs to a RAID1 volume,
-- Re-start, enter BIOS to set the boot drive to the RAID1 volume you just created.
-- Re-start, POST, boot to Windows,
-- open Intel matrix storage manager (advanced view).
-- Rebuild the volume from the HDD on port 0 to the HDD on port 1.

 

[byterider]

I started down that route before, but when I got the warning that "all data on the drives will be lost" type of message, I stopped.

Assuming I misinterpreted the message, If it is JUST the target drive, shouldn't I be able to put both drives back in, recover, and it will just copy the master onto the slave (they are clones of each other right now .. all it would do is copy itself over itself).

Is this right?

 

[treefrog07]

Yes, it should work that way, and I have recovered and backed-up a RAID1 that way myself.

I was suggesting adding a new HDD to prevent data loss. If you use one of the existing HDDs and add a new HDD to the new RAID1 volume, and it FAILs, you still have the RAID1 array on the remaining existing HDD. You could then clone that HDD to the new RAID1 array, ensuring that you do not lose the programs, settings, and data on your existing RAID1 HDDs.

 

[byterider]

Yes, it should work that way, and I have recovered and backed-up a RAID1 that way myself.

I was suggesting adding a new HDD to prevent data loss. If you use one of the existing HDDs and add a new HDD to the new RAID1 volume, and it FAILs, you still have the RAID1 array on the remaining existing HDD. You could then clone that HDD to the new RAID1 array, ensuring that you do not lose the programs, settings, and data on your existing RAID1 HDDs.

Well, I just got back from travel and tried the method ... Short answer is that something isn't working.

I went into the Matrix array menu in the BIOS and added in the master and slave drives in recovery mode for a Raid-1. Everything seemed to be working well, but when I went into Windows to do the recovery, the drives are not recognized by the operating system (they are there on the bootup screens, but not in the OS). The Matrix Arrary Mgr (MAM) in Windows would show that the ports for the ICH10R which were in use were there (ports 2-5), but the SATA ports that the raid drives were plugged into were just missing from the menu. I tried various configurations from BIOS for the ICH10R (Raid, ACHI, IDE) and nothing worked .. drives were still invisible to the OS.

I finally got it back to the point where the OS would recognize the drives (put the SATA channels in IDE mode), formatted out one of the drives as a regular NFTS drive, and am using Sysinternals RAID2RAID to copy all the information over.

 

[treefrog07]

I'm sorry it didn't work for you. If I remember correctly, I did not adjust any of the BIOS settings, the BIOS displayed MISSING drive in the volume. After POST, the system booted into Windows, and I opened Intel Matrix Storage Manager (to advanced view), and rebuilt the volume from the original HDD. I've done this a couple of times, once to replace a bad HDD, and another to backup the volume.

 

[byterider]

*Sigh* .. still having problems. After RAID2RAID spent about 1/2 a day reconstructing the array, it won't mount the image, so I'm back to square one.

I'm a bit confused with what's going on in the system. It seems that if I don't put it into "Raid Mode" (leave the SATA drives in IDE mode in the BIOS), then the Matrix Manager won't load in the OS because the "raid drivers aren't present" .. but if I "Manage" My Computer, then I can see the drives there.

If I put the SATA drives into "Raid" in the BIOS, then the Matrix Manager loads up, but the OS doesn't see the drives.

Catch-22 .. can't recover the array in the OS if I don't have the Matrix Manager, but if I do have it, I can't see the drives.

*double sigh* ... At work now, but when I get home I'll start trying absolutely every combination of settings for the SATA drives and see what happens.

 

[treefrog07]

Reviewing and commenting on your earlier post:

.........A couple of other things:
- Both drives show up a non-raid drives if I start up the matrix manager from the BIOS OK. You will have to change the HDD settings in the new BIOS to read SATA as RAID, not ACHI or IDE, then save the settings and restart to see what happens.
- Both drives show up in Windows XP using Intel's Matrix manager App Good.
- Neither drive is accessible from Windows Both should accessible to Intel Matrix Storage Manager in WinXP, even though they are on a new board with a different BIOS. Can you install the current version of Intel Matrix Storage Manager, or the one on your board's CD?
- I can run the recover option for the matrix manager (which matrix manager? Intel Matrix Storage Manager, or your BIOS RAID settings?) using one drive as the master and the other as a slave, but I backed off that option when it said it would delete the data on the drives (it might have only meant the slave (I think this is true, but cannot confirm it on your board, it does work on my DFI-X48 boards), but I'm not taking chances) - I was just going to purchase another drive of equal or larger size and then give it a shot This may the way to go at this point.

Some assumptions I'm making based on information given or gleemed from the forums
- Using Raid 1, you should just be able to plug the drive in and access it (Yes, this is what should happen with Intel Matrix Storage Manager) (this is a bit of a logical leap), unlike Raid 0, which must be in a raid array to read
- From what I've read, there should be no problem moving the disks from ICH8R to ICH10R. Also true.

Any help appreciated,

Thanks.

see above

 

[byterider]

Ok ... finally starting to get somewhere .. and do I really feel like an idiot. I did a stupid newbie mistake. I was using the original boot hard drive without issue, and neglected to see if the Intel Matrix Manager software was up-to-date (it wasn't ... downloaded and installed the latest).

I put the SATA ports into RAID mode and with the new software, it recognized the drive in the Matrix Manager software. I rebuilt the array in windows and now have one problem ... I can't access the drive through the OS. I used Sysinternals Raid Recovery program to confirm the data on the drives was still present and that I didn't do something stupid that erased it (all is well in data land) ... but I c,an't seem to get Windows to access the RAID drives now.

I completed a verify & repair overnight on the drive in an attempt to fix this issue, but no luck. Right now the drive exists in two worlds ... From the view of the OS, it can see the drive (by going into disk management), but the drive appears to be an unformatted drive. From the view of the Matrix Manager, the drives appear as a functioning Raid 1 array which is completely normal.

I'm now going bald from pulling my hair out.

 

[treefrog07]

-- The system and RAID 1 HDDs were working fine on your old board, so the system HDD has the RAID driver installed.
-- Intel MSM let you rebuild the volume after you installed the latest version, and you had conducted several operations with RAID2RAID.
-- XP does not see the re-built RAID volume as having data, it says the volume is not formatted, but you know the volume contains data.

Have you tried partitioning software to see the volume's status? If not, download and install Partition Wizard, its free for home use and runs on 32 and 64-bit windows. Run it to see if it shows the RAID volume as having data, is healthy, and set to Active. I may be wrong, but it is possible the volume was re-set to inactive or had some other change occur in the transfer between boards or with the other operations you ran. If the volume is not Active, Partition Wizard will let you set it Active, do so, re-boot and see if XP sees the volume after that.

Warning: If you haven't you disk partitioning software before, it is very powerful and many changes you can make cannot be undone. Setting the volume to Active and reading the volume's data will not cause any damage. Most changes you can make will require your computer to restart. When I use it, I usually do not make multiple changes at one time, I usually make one change a time.

I quit pulling my hair after I realized it wasn't growing back like it did when I was younger.

 

[MasterCATZ]

I have been looking every where for Sysinternals Raid Recovery , where can I download it from ??.. all I can find is DiskInternals Version

having an hard Time Fininding Winternals and internals software before M$ got to them