Intel RAID 5 Recovery

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
Forum rules
When asking for technical support:
- Search for posts on the same topic before posting a new question.
- Give clear, specific information in the title of your post.
- Include as many details as you can, MOST POSTS WILL GET ONLY ONE OR TWO ANSWERS.
- Post a follow up with a "Thank you" or "This worked!"
- When you learn something, use that knowledge to HELP ANOTHER USER LATER.
Before posting, please read https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf
Locked
Message
Author
garami
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Mar 2016, 08:51

Intel RAID 5 Recovery

#1 Post by garami »

Dear all,
I would like to ask you for any kind of help in the recovery process of my RAID 5 array. I will try to include as many details as possible:

System configuration:
SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK S - controller set to RAID operation using Intel Rapid Storage Technology

RAID array named "RAID5" with stripe size of 64KB (not sure, maybe 128KB) with 4 2TB drives assigned to this array.

The RAID5 was nearly full of 6 TB of data (media files only, movies, bluray iso images, mkv files).

My ASUS board suggested me a bios update, so I accepted it. Unfortunately, after the update, the controlled was set back to AHCI mode and corrupted the RAID array. Setting back to RAID did not helped. My system was like this at this stage:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ygOE ... sp=sharing

I found a huge topic about basically the same problem, so I followed these steps:
Here's exactly what to do to recover a "lost" RAID-5 volume:

1. Uninstall Intel RST from Windows. This step is critical! If you do not do this, you will lose all your data when you get to step (4)!
2. Reboot into the RAID console, reset all member disks to be non-member
3. Create a new array with the exact same parameters (name, stripe size) as the original one
4. Reboot into Windows, run TestDisk, start "Quick Search"
5. Stop Quick Search immediately after it has started, immediately start the "Deeper Search" - chosen EFI GPT
6. Wait until Deeper Search had found the correct partition (should take under 10 seconds), stop it from scanning
7. Mark the partition as Primary, write partition data to it
8. Reboot into Windows and everything should be hunky dory!


I have made it up to point 7. I ran a deep search which looked like this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ygOE ... sp=sharing
later on:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ygOE ... sp=sharing

The complete deep scan took me about 1 day to complete.

After the scan I received a note:
The harddisk seems too small!
and structure as following:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ygOE ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ygOE ... sp=sharing

The only one that should fit my needs it the fourth selection:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ygOE ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ygOE ... sp=sharing
However, I am not able to access any directories under those two folders. As far as I remember, the RAID contained only two large folders, nothing else.

Other structures from the selection (named as MS DATA):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ygOE ... sp=sharing

MAC HFS - I don´t really know, why these types of partitions are there.

What am I supposed to do as my next step?
I am not sure, if the recreated array´s stip size was either 64 or 128 KB (I have chosen the 64KB size) and according the name, maybe it was "RAID5" or "RAID 5". Should I try deleting the raid array again and recreating it with 128KB stripe size?
I have not made any changes by far, have not written any data to the array nor initialized it.

Thank your for your help and care,
Kind Regards,
Boris.

User avatar
cgrenier
Site Admin
Posts: 5432
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 15:08
Location: Le Perreux Sur Marne, France
Contact:

Re: Intel RAID 5 Recovery

#2 Post by cgrenier »

Do not write anything for the moment.
But yes, you should try with a different strip size

garami
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Mar 2016, 08:51

Re: Intel RAID 5 Recovery

#3 Post by garami »

cgrenier wrote:Do not write anything for the moment.
But yes, you should try with a different strip size
Thank you for your quick reply. OK, so I should reset all member disks to be non-member and recreate the RAID5 array?

garami
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Mar 2016, 08:51

Re: Intel RAID 5 Recovery

#4 Post by garami »

cgrenier wrote:Do not write anything for the moment.
But yes, you should try with a different strip size
I have set up a new configuration of the "RAID5" with a strip size of 128KB. Booted into Windows, selected the array, stopped the quick search and ran a deep scan. I waited about 10 minutes for the deep scan to find anything and 5 partitions showed up immediately. So, I decided to stop it and WOW, selecting the 6 TB partition showed up the whole structure of the original array. Should I despite run the complete deep scan? Or can I use the partition to finish my recovery process? How should I continue from this point?

Thank you a lot again,
Boris.

PsyChoRo
Posts: 4
Joined: 30 Mar 2015, 11:46

Re: Intel RAID 5 Recovery

#5 Post by PsyChoRo »

What did you eventually do, I have somewhat similar situation but in my case I can see only 1 folder and 1 file.
With another partition recovery software i can see the structure and files, albeit some of them are with 0 kb size but others are fine.

garami
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Mar 2016, 08:51

Re: Intel RAID 5 Recovery

#6 Post by garami »

PsyChoRo wrote:What did you eventually do, I have somewhat similar situation but in my case I can see only 1 folder and 1 file.
With another partition recovery software i can see the structure and files, albeit some of them are with 0 kb size but others are fine.
Hi!
After setting up the correct strip size of 128 KB I ran testdisk and wrote the corresponding data. My files are back without any problem.

PsyChoRo
Posts: 4
Joined: 30 Mar 2015, 11:46

Re: Intel RAID 5 Recovery

#7 Post by PsyChoRo »

Did you have to complete the deep search ?

garami
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Mar 2016, 08:51

Re: Intel RAID 5 Recovery

#8 Post by garami »

PsyChoRo wrote:Did you have to complete the deep search ?
No, I stopped it after 15 minutes - after I had seen the correct directory showing up. Than rechecked the folder structure with all my files (about 6 TB of data) and wrote the selected directory.

Locked