RAID 0 array failed non bootable ? on data recovery

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hi ,
I have a box running W XP Pro. The board is an Intel DG965WH. 2 SATA drives
configured as RAID 0. Intel Matrix Storage managing RAID. HDD 0 has a
recovery failed and the stripe failed on boot and said non bootable. When
attached I do hear a noise like the armature is trying to move. I do not hear
metal on metal as though the heads are hitting the platter. Is there a way
for me to recover the data on the drives, without sending out for data
recovery. In BIOS Drive configuration It is SATA is configured as RAID andthe
detected SSATA device is the cd only. The boot options list no hard disk
drive. While it boots I can go into the RAID menus and my choices are create,
delete and reset to non raid. If I reset the RAID configuration will I be
able to boot. The drive that failed was in SATA position 0 and the next one
was SATA position 1. I have other SATA boards I could attach the drives to
and see if I can recover the data. I was unable to see neither drives 0 or 1
in my computer when attached by SATA cable.
Thanks
 
I have it in the freezer right now. In case someone might suggest that. I
have turned it upside down and spun it. I tapped on it's sides as well.
 
Magnetoram said:
I have it in the freezer right now. In case someone might suggest that. I
have turned it upside down and spun it. I tapped on it's sides as well.
Click to expand...

The controller inside the hard drive, will not attempt to move the head
assembly, until the platter is spinning at the proper speed. The controller
knows how fast the platter is spinning, so it knows when it is safe to take
the head assembly from the landing area. If you are hearing a sound, that
would be rotation.

Drives can fail for many reasons. Some drive failures, for example, are
caused by the motor controller IC, overheating and frying. There are also
cases of bad design in the controller firmware or method, where a table
overflow can stop the thing from initializing. Failures are not always
platter physical problems, and for either of those two failures, a trip
to the freezer will not change the symptoms. For some drive model numbers,
you can actually find web pages that describe the dominant failure
mechanism.

If the data is valuable, don't do more damage to the drives than is
necessary. Chances are, one of the drives is functional at least, and
only one of them has failed. No sense damaging the good one.

In the BIOS, the array cannot be visible, unless both reserved sectors on
the drives are readable. If the RAID BIOS is able to report "array failed",
that means it was able to read one of the two drives, and it knows there
used to be an array present. If you set the BIOS, so that the RAID BIOS
module is no longer loaded, then *maybe* the drives will be handled as
ordinary drives. In which case, one drive will show up, and the other one
won't. None of this changes the fact, that some data recovery firm is
going to take $1000 from your wallet, to fix this. If one of the drives is
not physically able to start, after one "freezer try", then it is time to
shop for a data recovery. Some of the disk drive manufacturers, have a
web page for data recovery, where they've hooked up with a third party
to do recoveries. At least that way, you won't have to worry about
the reputation of the recovery firm.

<Insert rant about RAID 0, double failure rate, unreliable, need backups etc>

Good luck,
Paul
 
Paul,
Thank you for taking the time to post. I will look at Seagate and see what
they offer or suggest.
Mark
 
This happened to me, although the array was NOT
a system array, just data, and the chipset was the Promise
PDC 20378.

Symptoms: continuous re-trying of disk read evidenced by
cyclical noise from one of the two drives in the array. XP would
eventually boot, as it lives on a single SATA drive. Drive
normally associated with RAID array no longer appeared in
Explorer or Disk Manager. Promise RAID BIOS reports
Drive 0 on the array "not responding". Found out which drive
it was by listening to it with screwdriver touching drive and
pressed against my forehead.

Had the same options you did - create and delete. After determining
that I had most of the data on the array backed up already on a
DVD, I chose Delete. The msgs. from the Promise BIOS during
this operation helpfully stated that no DATA on the drives would be
lost, only the ARRAY info would be wiped.

So I immediately recreated the array. When I did this, I was given
an option to just CREATE or CREATE and INITIALIZE. Choosing
CREATE does NOT touch the data so that's what I did.

After that, I was able to see the data
again. At which point I backed up EVERYTHING on the array,
pulled the drives, replaced them and restored the data. One of the
drives was going south and I wasn't going to give it another chance.

Same thing might work for you.
 
Thanks For The Post

V Green said:
This happened to me, although the array was NOT
a system array, just data, and the chipset was the Promise
PDC 20378.

Symptoms: continuous re-trying of disk read evidenced by
cyclical noise from one of the two drives in the array. XP would
eventually boot, as it lives on a single SATA drive. Drive
normally associated with RAID array no longer appeared in
Explorer or Disk Manager. Promise RAID BIOS reports
Drive 0 on the array "not responding". Found out which drive
it was by listening to it with screwdriver touching drive and
pressed against my forehead.

Had the same options you did - create and delete. After determining
that I had most of the data on the array backed up already on a
DVD, I chose Delete. The msgs. from the Promise BIOS during
this operation helpfully stated that no DATA on the drives would be
lost, only the ARRAY info would be wiped.

So I immediately recreated the array. When I did this, I was given
an option to just CREATE or CREATE and INITIALIZE. Choosing
CREATE does NOT touch the data so that's what I did.

After that, I was able to see the data
again. At which point I backed up EVERYTHING on the array,
pulled the drives, replaced them and restored the data. One of the
drives was going south and I wasn't going to give it another chance.

Same thing might work for you.
Click to expand...
 
Back
Top