AsRock N68C-S RAID1 configuration lost - How can I access the data?

[mickamato]

Hello,

I have a serious problem with a RAID 1 hardware array, and I've been looking for a solution for months, unsuccessfully

I had a 2-disk RAID1 array plugged to an Asrock N68C-S motherboard (which natively supports RAID); one day, I don't know why, the RAID configuration was lost and the two disks now show up as individual disks, and they are individually unreadable/unmountable by the operating system (Ubuntu 11.10).

All I should have to do is define a new array using the two disks, on the same motherboard, but that would erase both disks!

The only way I figured out to avoid losing the data is the following:
- Define a new array using 2 empty disks;
- Replace one empty disk with one of the actual data disks;
- Rebuild the RAID, assuming I can choose which disk is the right source

Do you think it could work? Or I should try installing Windows and try recovering the disk from there using some commercial software? By the way, the filesystem is ext4, not sure if windows can even read it

Thanks a lot to anyone who may help!
Mick

 

[nhasian]

so if the drives were mirrored you should be able to boot off of either one of them. the data should be accessible on either drive. Try moving one of the drives to SATA0 on the motherboard, you may need to change the bios to disable raid. it should boot fine. if it doesnt boot, then boot from an ubuntu liveCD and see if there is any partitions or data on the drive.

 

[mickamato]

nope, in this experience I learned hardware RAID does not produce polite and bootable disks because of some information stored in the mbr, which varies from controller to controller; hence, I need the same motherboard to be able to read those disks, and they must be set to RAID to be readable.

In other words, I can see each disk form the OS, but I cannot mount/access them because they are seen as "unknown partitions", and this is because they are not "legal" disks. I should put them back in RAID configuration through the same motherboard to be able to read them