Damn RAID-0 Array

April 29, 2006 4:26 PM

My RAID-0 died, can I get the data back?

I had an IDE cable and port shit the bed on my PC this morning. Cable fell apart, and I ended up having to pick it out with a pair of pliers from the motherboard. So now the first IDE controller doesn't seem work, and doesn't recognize any drives. When I moved it to the second port, it was recognized as RAID array 0, and seemed ok. But, changing the IDE port caused my GigaRaid controller to freak out and demand that my RAID set-up be redefined. I did that, but didn't clear the boot sector on it for fear of blowing up the data. I booted into Windows, and XP reports it as a big 467gb unpartitioned drive.

So I've replaced the IDE cable, the controller is working ok, and both drives haven't beeen touched since the cable died and I powered the machine off. Is there any way I can get the data contained on the drives back? Is this just a partition problem? Some data recovery software I've run told me I've got Unexpected MFT Records, which seems to be a RAID issue.

posted by SweetJesus to computers & internet (7 comments total)

The tool that is often recommended in the computer forensics community is called RAID Reconstructor. I haven't used it myself, but I have heard it highly recommended.
posted by procrastination at 4:43 PM on April 29, 2006

I've downloaded and attempted to use that, but since my drive is recognized by windows as one "logical" drive, it wouldn't work (needs at least two hard-drive entries)...
posted by SweetJesus at 4:49 PM on April 29, 2006

As is often the case with Raid 0, you might be out of luck if the controller's configuration has changed. I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't hold too much hope.
posted by Jairus at 6:53 PM on April 29, 2006

What happens when you just plug in one drive or plug them into different IDE channels? Does Windows think they're two unformatted drives?
posted by bshort at 7:40 PM on April 29, 2006

similar things have happened to me in the past... i don't use RAID 0 for anything anymore because of it... experience has taught me in the past that if you change the RAID configuration on an onboard controller, then you are probably out of luck... in the future you may consider a RAID 1 or RAID 5 configuration...
posted by MonkNoiz at 11:30 PM on April 29, 2006

You should never trust RAID0 for anything important. Neither should you trust RAID5 for that matter (http://www.baarf.com).

Want some data security? Backups and RAID1.

To specifically answer your questions, while there are RAID specifications, rarely do RAID controller manufacturers comply with them in a way that makes it possible to easily switch controllers and trust that the disks will come back readable and writeable. Good luck, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that.
posted by Kickstart70 at 1:57 PM on April 30, 2006

You've got mail.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:55 PM on April 30, 2006