Corrupt raid 5, how do I restore?

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OTWarrior via HWKB.com

I have 3 hard disks in a raid 5 and yesterday, one of the disk "failed". So I
selected the option to repair the raid on the drive (which has worked before),

and after about 2 hours, it blue screened my computer.

now it will not boot up, as the WHOLE raid has failed.

Is there a way of recreating the raid without losing my data?

the Bios/Dos utility for the Raid allows me to:
1) create a raid (not enough space)
2) delete a raid (dont want to delete it)
3) reformat drives to non -raid (this sounds promising if it keeps my data)

Please could someone advise me on what to do? as I have a 250gb hard disk on
that computer, and I would hate to have to install all of my games again
(especially WOW with all the patches ;)

if I were to convert it to a non-raid, would that still enable me to view my
data?

if I replace the hard drive that failed before, would that help? and how
would I "input" it into the raid?
 
OTWarrior said:
I have 3 hard disks in a raid 5 and yesterday, one of the disk "failed". So I
selected the option to repair the raid on the drive (which has worked before),

and after about 2 hours, it blue screened my computer.

now it will not boot up, as the WHOLE raid has failed.

Is there a way of recreating the raid without losing my data?

the Bios/Dos utility for the Raid allows me to:
1) create a raid (not enough space)
2) delete a raid (dont want to delete it)
3) reformat drives to non -raid (this sounds promising if it keeps my data)

Please could someone advise me on what to do? as I have a 250gb hard disk on
that computer, and I would hate to have to install all of my games again
(especially WOW with all the patches ;)

if I were to convert it to a non-raid, would that still enable me to view my
data?

if I replace the hard drive that failed before, would that help? and how
would I "input" it into the raid?
Click to expand...

Replace broken drive with a new one.

Enter the RAID BIOS and tell the BIOS that the new drive is a spare
for the array. Then rebuild the array again.

Since you didn't mention the motherboard or the chipset being used,
it is pretty hard to say much more than that.

Reformat drive to non-raid is fine -- if you already have a backup
copy of the data. Some integrated motherboard RAIDs have better
migration functions than others. And at some point, it is a better
option to just restore from backup.

I think your safest bet right now, is to rebuild the array, using
a new disk for the failed one.

Note - if you get another blue screen, it could mean you have a
single bad or unreadable sector on the remaining two disks. Anything
that prevents the rebuild (reading two disks, calculate XOR, write
out to the third disk), effectively changes the array status from
"degraded" to "failed". When a disk fails on a RAID 5, the
other disks must be in pristine condition, in order for the
rebuild to succeed. Cheap RAID software/firmware may not be clever enough
to deal intelligently with a bad or hard to read sector.

Which is why you should have backups. Restore from backup is a great
option, if all else fails.

Paul
 
That sounds like a good solution, and I did just find:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/core/fndc_rec_xouf.mspx?mfr=true


which does say the same thing as you did. If I replace one of the drives and
try option 1, hopefully that should get it all back.

Unfortunately, I did not backup as this is my Gaming PC, and I didn't think
it would be an issue as Raid is meant to be more stable (lol).

I will give what you said a go when I get in tonight, and thank you for the
well informed advice :)
 
You are out of luck.. Your choice of Reformat to non-Raid" will delete your
data also. I'm afraid it's time to face reformatting all the drives and
doing a fresh install of the OS and programs and then restoring their data
from your BACKUPS.
 
DaveW said:
You are out of luck.. Your choice of Reformat to non-Raid" will delete your
data also. I'm afraid it's time to face reformatting all the drives and
doing a fresh install of the OS and programs and then restoring their data
from your BACKUPS.
Click to expand...

BACKUPS in capital letters....helpful COMMENT, considering I did not do
backups as this is my GAMING PC, and nothing important is on there to backup,
anything that is important is on my other pc AND backed up elsewhere. I did
mention this ABOVE. (I can also use the Caps Lock button)

however, I deleted the Raid, and now running in non raid format. However, I
have only
been able to format one drive.

It has been a while since I have had to rebuild a pc, so how would I format
the other drives? I cannot seem to get to the command system, the only boot
options I have are "boot from Hard disk" or "boot from cd" (this is when I
press F8 when the ram is being counted) and there isn't an option to format
in the BIOS or when in Windows (as it cannot see the drives, as they are not
formatted).

What do I need to do to reformat the other disks?
 
BACKUPS in capital letters....helpful COMMENT, considering I did not do
backups as this is my GAMING PC, and nothing important is on there to backup,
anything that is important is on my other pc AND backed up elsewhere. I did
mention this ABOVE. (I can also use the Caps Lock button)

however, I deleted the Raid, and now running in non raid format. However, I
have only
been able to format one drive.

It has been a while since I have had to rebuild a pc, so how would I format
the other drives? I cannot seem to get to the command system, the only boot
options I have are "boot from Hard disk" or "boot from cd" (this is when I
press F8 when the ram is being counted) and there isn't an option to format
in the BIOS or when in Windows (as it cannot see the drives, as they are not
formatted).

What do I need to do to reformat the other disks?
Click to expand...

See if the volumes appear in Window's Disk Management. If
they do, they can be formatted there. If they do not, check
the RAID bios menu, cabling/connectors.
 
kony said:
See if the volumes appear in Window's Disk Management. If
they do, they can be formatted there. If they do not, check
the RAID bios menu, cabling/connectors.
Click to expand...

After looking at the windows disk magament (as you said), I realised what
happened, and simply booted from the windows xp cd, and in the setup
partitioned the other disks, then quick formatted them in windows. Worked
like a charm :D
 
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