Recovery after rebuilding RAID Array

Discussions on using the professional data recovery program R-STUDIO for RAID re-construction, NAS recovery, and recovery of various disk and volume managers: Windows storage spaces, Apple volumes, and Linux Logical Volume Manager.
kol

Recovery after rebuilding RAID Array

Post by kol » Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:37 pm

Dear All,

If anyone can help me with this problem i would be most appreciative.

I had a RAID 0 Array of 2 x 250 GB Drives. These were partitioned 100/400, C:/D: respectively. The array failed, pre xp splash screen, with the bootable "no" error from my HW RAID (Intel) menu. None of the hard drives are physically damaged, this has been checked. It decided that one of the raid arrays was a "non raid disk", and therefore didnt want to boot.

At the time i didnt realise there are various methods of rebuilding RAID arrays, and as i hadent long installed win7 (fresh build) and i had all my data (so i thought) on another 1TB drive, i decided to avoid the lengthy process of restoring an array and went ahead with re-building the RAID 0 array, and installing windows again. It was only when i got to the desktop i realised that all of my pictures where on the 400 (D) of the initial raid array.

So, i've now tried two seperate peices of software to recover these pictures, and have done several scans with different parameters to try and find them. All my previous data recovery has been with non raid set-up and i've found them fairly easy, but no such luck this time. I've tried scanning each of the existing C:/D drives, and i found everything but every file is "empty". I've tried briefly to make a virtual raid array and have selected my existing drives but this is where i simply havent been before, and need some advice. I do not understand how and if it is possible to create a virtual raid array, or if this would even be the right thing to do, to somehow try and rebuild my old array (virtually?) and then save the pictures to an external drive.

At present, i am using R-Studio and wonder if anyone else has experience (or a similar experience) of recovering data from a failed RAID 0 array, after rebuilding the array. Is there a method of re-creating a past RAID 0 Array? Or is it simply a case of my search criteria needing to be more accurate?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've lost ALL of my pictures that i have ever had through about 7 rebuilds of my computer. I have had one succesful scan (With GetDataBack) which found all of the files, however they were "empty" and i couldnt retreive them. I read somewhere that if they are empty, they havent been recovered correctly, which means i'm hoping its just down to me not doing a correct initial scan to recover them.

Thanks,

kol

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Re: Recovery after rebuilding RAID Array

Post by Alt » Fri Nov 13, 2009 6:17 am

Well, yours is the worst case of data recovery. RAID0+data overwritten by installing Windows 7. You should understand that all overwritten files are gone.
Still, some hope exists. I think that your last resort is a search for known file types, that is, for picture files using their file signatures.
You should do the following:
1. Create a virtual RAID0 from your hard drives. Do not pay attention to the fact that your current RAID0 consists of the same hard drives. For more details see R-Studio help -> Data Recovery Using R-Studio -> Volume Sets and RAIDs -> Volume Sets, Stripe Sets, and Mirrors -> To create a Stripe set object (RAID 0). You should specify correct RAID parameters.
2. Scan the virtual RAID. Save scan info ON ANOTHER DISK (maybe on an external USB HDD). Check that Extra Search for Known File Types is selected on the Scan dialog box. Click the Known File Types and select those file types you want to search for.
3. When scan is completed, R-Studio will show you partitions it found. You will see the old one. If you're extremely lucky, you will find some files on it and will be able to recover them. But most hope is on the files in Extra Found Files. They will loose their file names but hopefully not their content. See for more details: R-Studio help -> Data Recovery Using R-Studio -> Advanced Data Recovery -> Disk Scan.
You may preview the files: R-Studio help -> Data Recovery Using R-Studio -> Basic File Recovery -> Previewing Files .
And good luck in data recovery!

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