RAID

Fordor · 02-20-2008, 11:43 PM

Hello,

I recently got a server and it had a Linux bootable os installed on it and it was using software raid. I, however accidentally installed a hardware raid through the BIOS onto it and all data was lost. Is there a way to recover the partition? It is completely deleted now.

Thanks...I am panicking already. If there is a way, I need to know.

Fordor · 02-21-2008, 01:46 AM

I managed to restore the files using testdisk...almost had a heart attack there...

If you get into a situation similar to this you can always use testdisk and it can fix the broken partition table and the partition will be mountable from another computer, so data can be restored.

ziegen · 03-29-2008, 01:36 AM

I was wondering if this could be done. You have a RAID controller with 4 hard disks working as a RAID. You only have access to one of the hard drives, the others are gone. Can you get any readable data off?

Fordor · 03-29-2008, 01:58 AM

No, it doesn't work like that. If you have 4 drives in a raid 10 for instance, no single drive holds all the information. I had raid 1, therefore I was able to recover.

With RAID5 I think that is not even possible, as it also uses up space for parity check data, so if you take out 1 drive you will recover even less info, than with radi 10.

ziegen · 03-29-2008, 10:12 AM

But you might get some data, just not all the data... right? Bits and pieces maybe a whole file etc.

archtoad6 · 04-25-2008, 07:55 AM

If you lose 1 disk in a RAID 5 array, you lose no data IF you replace the bad disk AND rebuild the array before you lose another.

W/ RAID 10 (1+0) you can lose half of the disks as long as "no mirror loses both its drives". See the Wikipedia RAID article, especially "4 Nested levels".

fyz123 · 04-25-2008, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fordor

I managed to restore the files using testdisk...almost had a heart attack there...

If you get into a situation similar to this you can always use testdisk and it can fix the broken partition table and the partition will be mountable from another computer, so data can be restored.

Thx, this helps me.