I have a RAID 0 configuration on my computer with 2 hard disks & now when i
switch my computer on, it firstly takes ages to change from the Intel Pentium
4 logo at bootup and then loads in the RAID configuration and is showing that
one of the hard disks is "missing". I had not touched the internal cabling at
all. Any idea what could be the problem or why it suddenly stopped working.

Hard drives can fail for a huge number of reasons. RAID 0 is not a good
choice because it does not offer security that RAID 1 or RAID 5 offers. Hope
you have a backup of your files.


On 25/11/2005 manu08 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>I have a RAID 0 configuration on my computer with 2 hard disks & now when i
>switch my computer on, it firstly takes ages to change from the Intel Pentium
>4 logo at bootup and then loads in the RAID configuration and is showing that
>one of the hard disks is "missing". I had not touched the internal cabling at
>all. Any idea what could be the problem or why it suddenly stopped working.

--
---

Y.

manu08 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have a RAID 0 configuration on my computer with 2 hard disks & now when i
>switch my computer on, it firstly takes ages to change from the Intel Pentium
>4 logo at bootup and then loads in the RAID configuration and is showing that
>one of the hard disks is "missing". I had not touched the internal cabling at
>all. Any idea what could be the problem or why it suddenly stopped working.

I suspect a possible hardware failure.

Go into the BIOS setup and use the "automatically detect hard drives"
function. Does it show both drives?

Also go to the hard drive manufacturer's web site and download their
diagnostic utility and run it to check out the drives.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 11:21:03 -0800, manu08
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have a RAID 0 configuration on my computer with 2 hard disks & now when i
>switch my computer on, it firstly takes ages to change from the Intel Pentium
>4 logo at bootup and then loads in the RAID configuration and is showing that
>one of the hard disks is "missing". I had not touched the internal cabling at
>all. Any idea what could be the problem or why it suddenly stopped working.

Ask in an appropriate hardware group. This all happens long before
the OS begins to load, so has nothing to do with XP.

Ok then where do you reckon I get help from ?
I do not have a backup of my files, that is the biggest problem. That one
hard disk is not detected in BIOS either & since it is not detected the
Seatools Diagnostic Software is of no use cause the software can only test a
hard disk that is detected. I already tried the diagnostic software. If that
hard drive has failed/crashed will there be any way at all i could back up my
files, or any chance of getting it repaired without data loss ?

Thanks for the help.

"NobodyMan" wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 11:21:03 -0800, manu08
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I have a RAID 0 configuration on my computer with 2 hard disks & now when i
> >switch my computer on, it firstly takes ages to change from the Intel Pentium
> >4 logo at bootup and then loads in the RAID configuration and is showing that
> >one of the hard disks is "missing". I had not touched the internal cabling at
> >all. Any idea what could be the problem or why it suddenly stopped working.
>
> Ask in an appropriate hardware group. This all happens long before
> the OS begins to load, so has nothing to do with XP.
>
>

manu08 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Ok then where do you reckon I get help from ?
>I do not have a backup of my files, that is the biggest problem. That one
>hard disk is not detected in BIOS either & since it is not detected the
>Seatools Diagnostic Software is of no use cause the software can only test a
>hard disk that is detected. I already tried the diagnostic software. If that
>hard drive has failed/crashed will there be any way at all i could back up my
>files, or any chance of getting it repaired without data loss ?
>

If the drive is not being detected by the computer's BIOS then that is
not a very hopeful sign.

You may have to send the drive(s) to a data recovery service in order
to get your data back, and their charges usually start in the hundreds
of dollars range and go up from there.

Try the drive in another computer with no other disk drives connected.
Set the drive jumper to Master and connect it to the primary IDE
controller (I am assuming IDE drives here, you didn't specify.) and
then see if the BIOS will detect it.

There is a possibility, however slight, that the problem is with the
RAID cpntroller and not with the drive, and connecting the drive to
another computer will answer this question.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

Ok well the IDE connection thing is of no use cause these are SATA drives. I
think most probably the drive is broken cause when I switch the computer on I
can hear the drive trying to spin but not being able to. I live in Sri Lanka
& well there are no data recovery services here so that is out of the
picture. Could I possibly boot from a network & then be able to backup at
least some of my data if not all of it ? I do not know how to boot the
computer from a network though.

Thanks for the help
Manu

"Ron Martell" wrote:

> manu08 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >Ok then where do you reckon I get help from ?
> >I do not have a backup of my files, that is the biggest problem. That one
> >hard disk is not detected in BIOS either & since it is not detected the
> >Seatools Diagnostic Software is of no use cause the software can only test a
> >hard disk that is detected. I already tried the diagnostic software. If that
> >hard drive has failed/crashed will there be any way at all i could back up my
> >files, or any chance of getting it repaired without data loss ?
> >
>
> If the drive is not being detected by the computer's BIOS then that is
> not a very hopeful sign.
>
> You may have to send the drive(s) to a data recovery service in order
> to get your data back, and their charges usually start in the hundreds
> of dollars range and go up from there.
>
> Try the drive in another computer with no other disk drives connected.
> Set the drive jumper to Master and connect it to the primary IDE
> controller (I am assuming IDE drives here, you didn't specify.) and
> then see if the BIOS will detect it.
>
> There is a possibility, however slight, that the problem is with the
> RAID cpntroller and not with the drive, and connecting the drive to
> another computer will answer this question.
>
> Good luck
>
> Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
> --
> Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
> On-Line Help Computer Service
> http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
>

manu08 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Ok well the IDE connection thing is of no use cause these are SATA drives. I
>think most probably the drive is broken cause when I switch the computer on I
>can hear the drive trying to spin but not being able to. I live in Sri Lanka
>& well there are no data recovery services here so that is out of the
>picture. Could I possibly boot from a network & then be able to backup at
>least some of my data if not all of it ? I do not know how to boot the
>computer from a network though.
>
>Thanks for the help
>Manu
>

Because you were using RAID 0 this means that your data was totally
dispersed between the two drives.

The probability of recovering anything useful from the one remaining
drive is pretty well zero.

If you want to try you can create a bootable CD using Bart's PE
Builder from http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Or you can make one using Knoppix which is a Linux version that runs
from a CD. www.knoppix.net

With these you can see if there is anything usable on the disk.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca