Recovering data from broken RAID

[markman]

Help needed!

 

Last Friday as we were setting up new servers to replace our aging compaq monster our pupils lost all their work. Just disappeared!

 

The server appeared fine but we rebooted to find 2 of our 4 disks in a raid 5 configuration had died. No doubt one had gone at some time previously and the server hadn't bothered to let us know.

 

Anybody know of a way of retrieving any data from the remaining ones? I have retrived most from back up but some appears to be missing.

[ChrisH]

If more than one has gone you have had it afaik.

[markman]

Thats what I thought. Just seeing if there was some miracle cure

[mattx]

http://www.easyrecovery.co.uk/RAID5_Recovery.html

 

Worth a ring......

[john]

your FCUK'd mate, RAID5 is only good with 1 lossage.

[Grommit]

Help needed!

 

Last Friday as we were setting up new servers to replace our aging compaq monster our pupils lost all their work. Just disappeared!

 

The server appeared fine but we rebooted to find 2 of our 4 disks in a raid 5 configuration had died. No doubt one had gone at some time previously and the server hadn't bothered to let us know.

 

Anybody know of a way of retrieving any data from the remaining ones? I have retrived most from back up but some appears to be missing.

 

The best way to retrieve their work is from the Backup Server/Tape and replace the RAID Disks

[Butuz]

The only option is to pay a professional data recovery company lots of cash to recover the data off all 4 of the disks.

 

If you don't want to do that you do not really have any other option.

 

Andrew

[bensewell]

Same happened to us when we moved from our old server. We were running on 2 of three raid disks (1 broken). Then another one broke and the RAID card lost its configuration when we started to do the final backup. One BSOD then the dredded.... No operating system found!

 

No backups so totally fcuked.

 

We paid easy recovery £1000 to get the data off but because one of the disks was broke i had lots of Cyclic Redundancy Check errors. Easy recovery put our data on about 9 DVD's in Zip format. They could have but it onto a hard drive for us if we sent it them.

 

It was a complete disaster and waste of time because of the CLC errors we couldnt restore any of the mailboxes from our old exchange server.

 

Just be carefull before signing any money over, make sure its totally guarenteed before giving them any payment.

 

Good Luck!

[Zorro_Slot]

Raid is a massive pain in the a**e. I've had it fail on me twice and couldnt get th damn thing to rebuild itself. Same happened to my brother.

 

Note to Self: Raid is poo.

[webman]

I've found the more complex a RAID set up is, the more things there are to go wrong. A simple RAID mirror and plenty of backups does the job nicely.

 

I speak from past experience of data loss. I used CBL Data Recovery in the past, who sent the recovered data back to me on a harddrive (they supplied) and I just returned it to them once I had got everything off it that I needed. I also believe they won't charge you unless they can get any data back for you.

[baxter]

Some RAID tips...

 

RAID 5 can only tolerate 1 broken disk, unless your RAID system can support 'Hot Spares'.

 

Our 2TB RAID has 8 disks. 7 are configured in a standard RAID5, the 8th drive configured as a 'Hot Spare'. So if a drive dies, it uses the "hot spare".

 

This configuration essentially gives your RAID two lives instead of one, at the expense of losing the capacity of 2 drives.

 

Most RAIDs devices also allow you to download the RAID config in either a text or XML file, and also in most cases to the RAID array itself..

 

Finally, RAID is no reason not to do backups, it's just another layer of redundancy...

[Midget]

You CAN recover from RAID from a RAID5 with >2 failed disks. I should know I do it at least 2 times a week, I could give you our price range if you are really interested.

 

oh and easy recovery WILL charge you well above that "£699.99" special offer.

[limbo]

Raid is a massive pain in the a**e. I've had it fail on me twice and couldnt get th damn thing to rebuild itself. Same happened to my brother.

 

Note to Self: Raid is poo.

 

And for the last two weeks I have been raving about Raid - always used it but never had to rely on it until a HDD went in our CMIS / SQL server. Just phoned HP and bought a new one to drop in.

 

It was absolutely no work what-so-ever and it averted what could have been a devastating scenario which at best would have taken a few days to rebuild the server and recover the data from a backup. As it was none of the users were even aware there was a problem.

 

I have questioned the need in the past, but now I would never buy a server without it - but it does have a specific brief, to guard against the failure of a single HDD. It does not mean you can forget about keeping an eye on your server.

 

As for this specific problem, just before I started here they had a server fail and used a company called Vogon to get it all back - they still talk about how Vogon saved them (the irony of which makes me chuckle!)

 

I belive they are still active and could be worth looking up (might be orbiting the earth in spaceships that float effortlessly in a way that bricks don't)