RAID5 OCE gone wrong... Windows doesn't detect partition

[jcazes]

Hi everyone.... big first post, so thanks in advance to anyone who actually reads it!

I just expanded my Adaptec array (model 51245) by a drive (just doing one at a time for safety), and after the 6-7 day OCE everything seemed to finish without a hitch (or so the Adaptec Storage Manager told me). At some point during the rebuild my array disappeared from My Computer (running Windows 7 x64). I restarted my computer after the rebuild finished, and the array/drive still didn't show up. I opened up diskmgmt, and the array shows up but tells me it needs to be initialized. Here's a screenshot of the window:

I'm not going to initialize the partition for obvious reasons... as initializing usually wipes a drive/array. Drivers didn't change (and are up to date), and nothing else about the array changed during Adaptec reconfiguration except the addition of a drive. Oddly enough, I had done an OCE before (from 6 to 8 drives). Here are some other details:

I'm using 8 WD5000ABYS drives and just added a WD5002ABYS (RE3 version of the same drives). I have tried both getdataback and R-studio. GetDataBack seems to locate a lot of files (but only about 1TB out of the 3TB) and a lot of partitions (even though there was only one logical GPT partition before), but when I tried to recover them the files were corrupted and did not work (audio, video, etc.). R-studio did the same thing--found lots of files (although not all) and they were corrupted after recovery.

Now, I'm beyond trying to recover the data because I don't know of any other options. My backups are incomplete, but although the data does have a price, it is not near what most companies in the US seem to charge ($2000+!). Does anyone have any recommendations or experience with offshore data recovery? I ask because I think it might be the cheapest way to approach this--my goal is $800. I can provide all recovery storage (3 1TB hard drives) if that is a considerable cost.

Any and all recommendations are welcomed. Thanks!

 

[MaxBurn]

To clarify, you did the expansion which took 6 days and when complete then the array asked to do a rebuild? Did it give you a reason why it wanted to rebuild?

If you are willing to spend the time I think you should start with adaptec support and go through all this with them. They may be able to do something about it and supply a utility to get the info back if they know what went wrong.

Expanding an existing array is rather dangerous, heck anything with partition expand/shrink by itself is pretty dangerous too. I know you know this now but really shouldn't have gone into this without a backup. It may have actually been faster to back up and move all data off rather than do the OCE.

 

[Mercutio]

Runtime Software's Get Data Back and RAID reconstructor might also be helpful yo you.

 

[Stereodude]

Did the Adaptec software log any errors during the process?

 

[LunarMist]

Expanding an existing array is rather dangerous, heck anything with partition expand/shrink by itself is pretty dangerous too. I know you know this now but really shouldn't have gone into this without a backup. It may have actually been faster to back up and move all data off rather than do the OCE.

Yeah, I've hosed several, but never without a backup or two. In 6 days one could build the world.

The ultimate question is the value of the data. I would not send hard drives to some foreign country for data recovery.

 

[jcazes]

Thanks for the posts so far!

To clarify, you did the expansion which took 6 days and when complete then the array asked to do a rebuild? Did it give you a reason why it wanted to rebuild?

There was no rebuild--my mistake for throwing that word in the first paragraph. I mean sometime during the OCE.

If you are willing to spend the time I think you should start with adaptec support and go through all this with them. They may be able to do something about it and supply a utility to get the info back if they know what went wrong.

Expanding an existing array is rather dangerous, heck anything with partition expand/shrink by itself is pretty dangerous too. I know you know this now but really shouldn't have gone into this without a backup. It may have actually been faster to back up and move all data off rather than do the OCE.

Agreed on the Adaptec support route--that was my first option. Unfortunately, it resulted in them telling me the following:

You may want to contact MS to see if they have any other suggestions as from what you describe Windows 7 x64 doesn't seem to recognize a valid digital signature or partition table otherwise it would not be asking you to initialize the drive.  Initializing the drive will likely result in data loss if data loss has not already occurred

And don't worry, I will never again use the OCE feature...

Did the Adaptec software log any errors during the process?

Nope. The Adaptec Storage Manager said it was 100% successful.

The ultimate question is the value of the data. I would not send hard drives to some foreign country for data recovery.

I agree--I'm only even going to CONSIDER it if I can find a recommendation / reference / anecdote from someone.

 

[Bozo]

If I read it right, Windows wants to initialize the array, not the RAID controller.
If my memory is correct, Windows will not trash the data on the disk, just add it too it's inventory. Because of the changes to the RAID array, Windows thinks it is a new drive.

 

[Mercutio]

If I read it right, Windows wants to initialize the array, not the RAID controller.
If my memory is correct, Windows will not trash the data on the disk, just add it too it's inventory. Because of the changes to the RAID array, Windows thinks it is a new drive.

In the state it's in under Disk Management, "initialize" would mean fdisk and format. Maybe you're thinking of importing a foreign volume?

Anyway, my recommendation is that jcazes demo or purchase $100 worth of software from Runtime Software to see if it can recover data from the array. I've used it before and found that it works very well to get files back. I made a long thread about it in ~2004 or 2005.

 

[jcazes]

In the state it's in under Disk Management, "initialize" would mean fdisk and format. Maybe you're thinking of importing a foreign volume?

Anyway, my recommendation is that jcazes demo or purchase $100 worth of software from Runtime Software to see if it can recover data from the array. I've used it before and found that it works very well to get files back. I made a long thread about it in ~2004 or 2005.

I wish it were that simple! As I said in the OP I already tried GetDataBack and R-studio--both of which found a decent percentage of files, but they were all corrupted after I recovered them to another drive. :cursin:

 

[Mercutio]

Get Data Back has a Raid Reconstructor add-on that can vary the interleave of the drives in your array, which solves the corrupted files on recovery issue.

 

[jcazes]

Get Data Back has a Raid Reconstructor add-on that can vary the interleave of the drives in your array, which solves the corrupted files on recovery issue.

I thought I might have tried this program as well, but I'm going to give it another go when I get home this evening... will let you know the results!

 

[Mercutio]

I thought I might have tried this program as well, but I'm going to give it another go when I get home this evening... will let you know the results!

RAID Reconstructor is not just something you run one time. It allows you to change parameters for your recovery. If the first try doesn't work, change some of the settings and try again.

Here's my thread about doing an at-the-time large data recovery with that software.

 

[blakerwry]

I've successfully used recuva in the past to pull data off of corrupted file systems.

I have not used it with a RAID set though.