data recovery of a failed RAID5 array...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brad Pears
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Brad Pears

We have a windows 2000 file server with a 3 drive raid5 hardware array...

Over the weekend one of the drives failed on channel 1. The server kept
running ok because the other 2 drives were still running. Then the
unthinkable happened... Before I had a chacne to replace the drive the
power went out and the server went down. Guess what??? It would not boot
when it came back up and when I check the RAID setup utility that you can
access on boot up - it is showing two drives as failed... not jsut the one
it was showing before. It doesn;t take arocket scientist to figure out that
2 or of 3 drives spells disaster. Now, I can't believe that another drive
failed just because it went down, but obviously something happened...

I was able to restore alomost everything from a full backup which took place
over the weekend (thank heavens) but unfortunately there was one very
important directory that for soem reason was not checked off to be backed
up.... This is very important and I wonder if there is some way I can search
these drives and somehow assemble the data??? Are there any good file
recovery utilities someone might recommend that would allow you to recover
data from a failed raid5 array?

Thanks!

Brad
 
A server with no redundent pwr supply or APS
tut tut

You might find the hd manufacturers checking utility might be able to
reserect the disks that 'failed' when the pwr went out
 
Well the server ovbviously has a UPS but the power went out long enough that
the UPS shut the server down.

What is an APS that you are referring to?

Brad
 
"kicking" the two disk back on-line??? Not sure what that is or how to do
it...
The server is a DELL SC600 with 3-disk IDE RAID (PERC)

Thanks Brad


Dave Patrick said:
Did you try kicking the two disks back online?

You might also check here.
http://www.lwgdatarecovery.com/raid.php




--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


Brad Pears said:
We have a windows 2000 file server with a 3 drive raid5 hardware
array...

Over the weekend one of the drives failed on channel 1. The server kept
running ok because the other 2 drives were still running. Then the
unthinkable happened... Before I had a chacne to replace the drive the
power went out and the server went down. Guess what??? It would not boot
when it came back up and when I check the RAID setup utility that you can
access on boot up - it is showing two drives as failed... not jsut the
one it was showing before. It doesn;t take arocket scientist to figure
out that 2 or of 3 drives spells disaster. Now, I can't believe that
another drive failed just because it went down, but obviously something
happened...

I was able to restore alomost everything from a full backup which took
place over the weekend (thank heavens) but unfortunately there was one
very important directory that for soem reason was not checked off to be
backed up.... This is very important and I wonder if there is some way I
can search these drives and somehow assemble the data??? Are there any
good file recovery utilities someone might recommend that would allow you
to recover data from a failed raid5 array?

Thanks!

Brad
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You do this from within raid controller bios. (enter controller bios during
POST, watch for the key strokes)



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 
Typo, UPS :(

Brad Pears said:
Well the server ovbviously has a UPS but the power went out long enough
that the UPS shut the server down.

What is an APS that you are referring to?

Brad
Click to expand...
 
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