LinuxQuestions.org - Recover software raid partitions knoppix

Hello all,

I have searched high and low and everywehre in between for a very simple howto that can tell me the steps involved in mounting a software raid array via recovery cd (be it knoppix or anything else with md support).

I think i am almost there:

Here are the partition tables:

root@0[knoppix]# fdisk -l /dev/hde
Disk /dev/hde: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hde1 * 1 6 48163+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hde2 7 5105 40957717+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hde3 5106 7017 15358140 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hde4 7018 9729 21784140 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hde5 7018 7336 2562336 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hde6 7337 7540 1638598+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hde7 7541 7667 1020096 82 Linux swap
/dev/hde8 7668 9729 16562983+ fd Linux raid autodetect
root@0[knoppix]#

root@0[knoppix]# fdisk -l /dev/hdg
Disk /dev/hdg: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdg1 * 1 6 48163+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hdg2 7 5105 40957717+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hdg3 5106 7017 15358140 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hdg4 7018 9729 21784140 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdg5 7018 7336 2562336 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hdg6 7337 7540 1638598+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hdg7 7541 7667 1020096 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdg8 7668 9729 16562983+ fd Linux raid autodetect
root@0[knoppix]#

I want to create
/dev/md0 to be the raid level 1 between /dev/hde1 and /dev/hdg1
/dev/md1 to be the raid level 1 between /dev/hde2 and /dev/hdg2
etc.....

I found a tute that explained how to recover from one disk failing in a multi-disk array. This was kinda helpful but assumed the user was running the system off the other disks in the array.

Another tute told me to use the mdadm tool.

i tried creating devices:

root@0[knoppix]# mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/hd[eg]1
mdadm: /dev/hde1 is too small: 0K
mdadm: /dev/hdg1 is too small: 0K
mdadm: create aborted
root@0[knoppix]#

I tried assembling:

root@0[knoppix]# mdadm --assemble /dev/md0 /dev/hd[eg]1
mdadm: no RAID superblock on /dev/hde1
mdadm: /dev/hde1 has no superblock - assembly aborted
root@0[knoppix]#

I really need to get to the data on these drives. Does anybody know any way (besides purchasing recovery software) that I can mount these partitions?

I cannot boot from them due to a corrupt library that was mirrord across both drives, long story =)

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Are there some knoppix specific boot parameters I can use to tell it abou the raid array?

Thankyou

David.