Recovering old data from Server

[maxrebo]

Really hoping this is possible!.

Long story short a we had a (Old old) Sims server which used to be used at a school we amalgamated with and I will soon be needing to get data off.

Only problem is I have recycled the server (but kept the disks)

Is it possible to connect these disks up to another server and copy the data off? (Like you could with a PC)

There old SCSI drives which would have been on an RAID array.

 

Thanks in advance

[3s-gtech]

You'd need the original RAID configuration to do so, and that would need the original RAID controller with the config still on it. If that server has gone, you will be out of luck. The one possibility is that if you used RAID 1, the disks may just be exact copies depending on the controller or if Windows RAID was used. What RAID level was used? What type of connection is on the disks?

[maxrebo]

thanks for help. Its 2 disks so I`m thinking it will be a Raid 1 config. Their SCSI drives.

What would be the best way of connecting these up to check?

[3s-gtech]

You *may* be lucky. You'll need a SCSI controller to connect them to (do you have any other old servers hanging around?), with no RAID config set up on it so the drives pass through. Just put one in to try.

 

If you need to get hold of another server or controller to do this, it's going to get much harder. You can plug them into a desktop PC with a SCSI card and power converter, but that's a faff.

[maxrebo]

You *may* be lucky. You'll need a SCSI controller to connect them to (do you have any other old servers hanging around?), with no RAID config set up on it so the drives pass through. Just put one in to try.

 

If you need to get hold of another server or controller to do this, it's going to get much harder. You can plug them into a desktop PC with a SCSI card and power converter, but that's a faff.

 

Ok thanks, yeah i have a few old servers hanging around. I will give it a try with one of those. So i would connect one of the disks to the server on its own? or additional to the ones already in there?

[3s-gtech]

Either should work, just so long as the server doesn't try to format it as a hot spare or anything. That's why it can pay to do this on a machine without any existing RAID config or disks. If you have a server of the same type with the same RAID controller, it's more likely to work (still, only as a single disk) simply because it may support any particular configuration of that disk.

[maxrebo]

Either should work, just so long as the server doesn't try to format it as a hot spare or anything. That's why it can pay to do this on a machine without any existing RAID config or disks. If you have a server of the same type with the same RAID controller, it's more likely to work (still, only as a single disk) simply because it may support any particular configuration of that disk.

 

Thanks for this info, i will give it a go

[mattpayne]

as above Id be tempted to use a scsii hba and a byte for byte image of the disk before plugging it into anything that may want to write a config to the drive... I used r-studio to recover data from a software parity storage pool which had lost 2 disks! it has the ability to guess RAID setups without the right controller, its cheap and the support I had was excellent, find it at r-studio.com

 

I am not affiliated in any way with them, but I am a happy camper after using them!

[twin--turbo]

Some raid controllers detect a configuration mismatch and will offer "Use raid configuration from disks or from controller" In this cases you can use the DISK option and it should work.

 

I can't remember but it was probably on DELL Perc controllers but as they flipped between LSI MegaRaid And Adaptec ones all the time no idea what it was. It may even have been G5 DL3xx HP's

 

As someone else has said it may be an idea to try and get a bit for bit copy to a file. Linux "dd" command will do that for you.

 

TT