Boot drive failed, software raid, how to access?

[Majestic]

So I have a client who was running Windows 2000 advanced server (yes 2000!) with 2 500 GB sata drives in -I BELIEVE- a Windows Software raid array and the boot was this 40 GB Western digital drive which is clicking and not booting. The machine was an IBM Intellistation M Pro (old)-- basically a makeshift server.

I may simply send this 40 gb boot drive out for data recovery (the boot drive) however I really only need the data off the 2 drives which again I think they were both in a software raid array.

When I mount each drives (seperately at the moment, I will try them both together on my machine when I can free up another sata port), I get INVALID in the list of drives. No clicking or anything and they are fairly recently Seagate 7200.11 500 gb drives.

What would you all recommend if I simply wanted access to the data? I know GetDataBack has some raid tools available? But again never had to do this before.

Thanks in advance!

Majestic

 

[seedubya]

I think that if you install Windows 2K or 2K server on a spare hard drive in the original machine and then boot to that you should be able to read the array or properly called Dynamic Disk.

I never use this kind or setup for this very reason! Real RAID with a real RAID controller or nothing!

 

[14049752]

You'll need to use Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate (or the Vista equivalent) and an internal connector (not a usb adapter) to access the drive.

Basically, a "Home" OS doesn't support dynamic disks (software raid). And if Windows thinks the drive is external, it won't work as a dynamic disk.

If that doesn't work, and after you've cloned the drives or whatever, you could use EasUS Partition Manager to convert to a basic disk without losing data. http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/convert-dynamic-disk-to-basic-disk.htm

 

[lcoughey]

If the client's data is of any value, I'd recommend seeking the assistance of a data recovery pro before you lose their data.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

If it's true software RAID (as in Windows did the RAID)...it's easy....remove that clicking drive, and boot from the remaining still healthy drive. Utilize RAID 1 for what it is!

If it's "fake RAID"...like in home grade onboard SATA controller or a cheap servers without a real hardware RAID controller...you can still boot up from the remaining good drive.

Or if none of the above works..and you just need to get DATA off of it, take the good drive ...slave it to a good rig...browse and pluck what you need.

 

[ThanatosOfOne]

An older version of Gost32 (say version 8 for dos) will copy one of those drives and when you dump it back it wikll be a basic rather than dynamic disk readable by anything. This is assuming it is a mirrored set of course.

 

[Majestic]

You'll need to use Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate (or the Vista equivalent) and an internal connector (not a usb adapter) to access the drive.

Basically, a "Home" OS doesn't support dynamic disks (software raid). And if Windows thinks the drive is external, it won't work as a dynamic disk.

If that doesn't work, and after you've cloned the drives or whatever, you could use EaseUS Partition Manager to convert to a basic disk without losing data. http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/convert-dynamic-disk-to-basic-disk.htm

Looks like this worked. I'm in Windows 7 Pro and I went to Disk Management after plugging in the drives directly to the sata ports on the motherboard. The disks were both seen as foreign (instead of invalid) and I had the option to IMPORT DISKS which I did and which Windows recognized as them being a set then synchronized them. I now have access to the data.

Thanks very much! (and to everybody else too for their recommendations)

 

[Majestic]

If it's true software RAID (as in Windows did the RAID)...it's easy....remove that clicking drive, and boot from the remaining still healthy drive. Utilize RAID 1 for what it is!

If it's "fake RAID"...like in home grade onboard SATA controller or a cheap servers without a real hardware RAID controller...you can still boot up from the remaining good drive.

Or if none of the above works..and you just need to get DATA off of it, take the good drive ...slave it to a good rig...browse and pluck what you need.

Seems the DATA drives were raided but not the boot drive. So now since the environment (although it WAS a domain server but really used as a file server in reality) was only for file sharing I'm going to recommend a Synology NAS in its place at least for the short term (with 2 x 3 TB WD Red mirrored drives).

Majestic