p4c800-deluxe raid problem, please help!

[Zander]

Hi all,

My system (p4c800-deluxe) has a raid 0 array (2 sata 120gb drives) It had
winxp installed on it and something went wrong, I could no longer boot it.
(no need to get into details)

To save the data I hooked up an old ide 30gb drive and installed winxp on
it. I'm now up and running. My plan is to copy off the data I need from
the array and later on rebuild the system again.

I installed the promise raid driver from the asus cd and the array shows up
in 'computer management | storage' but it's not 'mounted'. So I cannot see
the array in win explorer.

My only option it seems is to convert the array from 'basic' to dynamic.
But I'm afraid of losing my data. How can I mount the array and assign it a
drive letter?

Thanks,

Zander

 

[Ron Reaugh]

Hi all,

My system (p4c800-deluxe) has a raid 0 array (2 sata 120gb drives) It had
winxp installed on it and something went wrong, I could no longer boot it.
(no need to get into details)

All those details is where the answer lies.

To save the data I hooked up an old ide 30gb drive and installed winxp on
it. I'm now up and running. My plan is to copy off the data I need from
the array and later on rebuild the system again.

I installed the promise raid driver from the asus cd and the array shows up
in 'computer management | storage' but it's not 'mounted'. So I cannot see
the array in win explorer.

My only option it seems is to convert the array from 'basic' to dynamic.

No need. Does it offer the option to create a partition?

 

[Zander]

Hi Ron,

The array has an existing partition with data I want to access. The only
option the disk management tool offers is to 'convert to dynamic'. The
array shows in the table as basic - healthy(active). I think the problem is
the active part. Since winxp is now installed on another driver which shows
as basic healthy(system).

I'm confused.....

 

[m.marien]

Hi Ron,

The array has an existing partition with data I want to access. The only
option the disk management tool offers is to 'convert to dynamic'. The
array shows in the table as basic - healthy(active). I think the problem
is the active part. Since winxp is now installed on another driver which
shows as basic healthy(system).

I'm confused.....

Basic (or dynamic) - do *not* change it to dynamic. A basic disk has a
normal partition table and other o/s can use the drive. Dynamic is a Windows
format and other o/s *cannot* use the drive. It's not the problem here
anyhow. Changing the drive to dynamic may lessen your chances of recovering
the data. It is also a one way procedure. To convert it back to basic
requires a partition and format operation.

Healthy means the drive is good and it is mounted (active). If you cannot
see any data on it, then there is no data on it. When a RAID 0 is broken and
changes are made to the individual drives, the data is most likely lost.
Putting the drives back in the array is no guarantee the data will come
back.

If you give us the details, we can better diagnose the problem, or maybe you
can figure out the problem from this information.

 

[Zander]

Hi,

It seems this whole problem is because I installed norton goback on the
array. Norton goback causes the system to hang BEFORE it boots. This
forced me to reinstall winxp on another drive. Because the new install
doesn't have goback on it the array (whose mbr was modified by goback)
cannot be accessed. If I install goback on my new winxp harddrive with the
array plugged in - it still can't boot.

The gb_prog.exe tool for undoing the changes to the mbr wont work on ntfs
drives afaik. So I'm really stuck. My data is still on the drive just
inaccessible due to the modified MBR. I'm also afraid to experiment now
since I can't afford to lose it.

Thanks,

Zander

 

[Nate]

Off hand, I'm not sure how to help you solve your problem. But I can tell
you this, if your going to use RAID and store critical data on your drives,
better use RAID1. RAID0 is for disk performance and it also cuts your data
reliability in half.

Nate

 

[m.marien]

Hi,

It seems this whole problem is because I installed norton goback on the
array. Norton goback causes the system to hang BEFORE it boots. This
forced me to reinstall winxp on another drive. Because the new install
doesn't have goback on it the array (whose mbr was modified by goback)
cannot be accessed. If I install goback on my new winxp harddrive with
the array plugged in - it still can't boot.

The gb_prog.exe tool for undoing the changes to the mbr wont work on ntfs
drives afaik. So I'm really stuck. My data is still on the drive just
inaccessible due to the modified MBR. I'm also afraid to experiment now
since I can't afford to lose it.

Are there any drivers for the RAID array that should be loaded so XP can see
the drive ?

Changing the MBR shouldn't mess with the data on the drive. However, the
RAID0 array is a special format of the two drives. If the goback program
didn't recognize that and wrote to the MBR of one drive, it may have messed
up the RAID0 array.

The MBR record can be restored with the XP recovery console. Boot from your
XP CD and select the second option - To Repair Windows XP. If the RAID array
needs drivers, press F6 when prompted.

Use FIXBOOT from the console prompt:

C:\WINDOWS>FIXBOOT

Full instruction on the MS site here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...home/using/productdoc/en/bootcons_fixboot.asp

I think the XP repair should find the XP installation if there is one, or
tell you that it can't find it. You can also back out to the repair process
without making any changes. You might want to pull the second drive so that
it doesn't get mixed up as to which drive it should repair.

I would only do this once the second install of XP can see the RAID drive.
Otherwise writing anything to the RAID array will only lessen your chances
of recovering anything.

 

[Zander]

Are there any drivers for the RAID array that should be loaded so XP can
see the drive ?

Changing the MBR shouldn't mess with the data on the drive. However, the
RAID0 array is a special format of the two drives. If the goback program
didn't recognize that and wrote to the MBR of one drive, it may have
messed up the RAID0 array.

The MBR record can be restored with the XP recovery console. Boot from
your XP CD and select the second option - To Repair Windows XP. If the
RAID array needs drivers, press F6 when prompted.

Use FIXBOOT from the console prompt:

C:\WINDOWS>FIXBOOT

Full instruction on the MS site here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...home/using/productdoc/en/bootcons_fixboot.asp

I think the XP repair should find the XP installation if there is one, or
tell you that it can't find it. You can also back out to the repair
process without making any changes. You might want to pull the second
drive so that it doesn't get mixed up as to which drive it should repair.

I would only do this once the second install of XP can see the RAID drive.
Otherwise writing anything to the RAID array will only lessen your chances
of recovering anything.

Hi,

Raid drivers were always loaded. The goback program does hook into the mbr
which does cause winxp to not allow access to any drive whose mbr has been
modified by goback IF goback is not installed on the machine. I
eventually learned that goback responds to an emergency command of
ctrl-alt-g on boot up that will force it to unhook (unmodify) the MBR. This
allowed me to boot the array again, but the downside is that goback is now
non-functional but still installed and it wont allow itself to be
uninstalled.

Thanks for your help!

Zander