Recover Data from RAID

[swancd]

Hi

Have a Dell server with an adaptec sata raid card. There are 2x 80GB attached. Not sure how the RAID is configured (we think it is Spanned). Anyway we are getting errors from the adaptec card when we boot up. We ordered a replacement card but when this was put in we had kernel controller errors, so we think that card is faulty so a replacement is on its way.

In the mean time we have got a brand new HP server which we have loaded with 2x 250GB on a RAID mirror using the onboard RAID controller in the HP server.

Both servers were running SBS 2003.

Basically what we need to do is recover the data (only documents etc. and not the OS partition as there is only 4-5 users to recreate. and we can get access to their old e-mails by backing up their PST files from Outlook on the client machines.

When we plug the two old HDD into the new server they show as 2 drives with all the space being unallocated.

My question is simple:

How can we get the data off the drives? - looks like customer has no backups so thats not an option.

Thanks

[strel]

I almost have no experience with RAIDs but I think you need need the same controller to mount the RAID, or at least one compatible, in case it exists.

[CoffeeFiend]

Been there before too...

You're lucky it's an adaptec controller. We were using one of Dell's PERCs, and to even send a replacement, they wanted to make sure it was the PERC, and they wanted us to run a test first -- a test that happens to wipe the drives Thankfully, we had a backup (tape) from the previous day.

Also, getting the data off of those drives can be "fun". Often, even if you're using the same controller (same name, part number and all), it still doesn't work, as it also needs to have the same firmware on it than the old one (same version). That's the ugly side of fancy RAID cards. Their performance and feature set are great, but the prices and data recovery methods aren't so stellar

Good luck!

[cluberti]

Ouch, that's bad. If you do happen to get a new controller and it doesn't read the data on the drives, you only really have the option of sending the drives to a recovery service (like OnTrack, as an example) to rebuild the data in their labs, one sector at a time. It's not cheap, but it works.

[swancd]

Solved

Got ALL the data back

I used this software: http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm

Would recommend it to others!

[eyeball]

So you purchased that and it worked? how long did it take to complete? and how did you do it?

[swancd]

Yeah,

Had a spare PC running XP which had 2 spare SATA ports. Plugged both server HDD in to them. Booted XP machine and installed RaidRecovery software. Used all default settings in the wizard (as we didn't know what raid setup it was). Then choose the HDD of the XP machine as the destination (make sure enough space!) then it just took 2-3hours to recover.

I was impressed that it managed to keep all the directory structure and file names, in most recovery programs I have used in the past you get file names like recovery001, recovery002 etc.

So got all the data from their server shares this way, then exported their PST files on their workstations to get all their e-mails.

Easy

[eyeball]

That sounds really good I shall bear it in mind if I ever (hope not) find myself in that situation