Data recovery on RAID auto rebuild on wrong HDD

[mihar]

Hi guys, need some advice. I have win 7 running on RAID 1 using 2 Seagate 750GB hdds...

My motherboard is an ASUS P5 series with an onboard Intel Raid chip...

So apparently one of the drives went dead and since it's RAID 1 no problem right? Just replace the disk and it will auto rebuild... Problem is, this thing happened just as i was about to step out of my house for a week long vacation... I thought i'd get a new drive when i got back and shutdown the pc to save on power while i was away...

Fast forward a week, so i boot up the computer and the Intel Raid boot sequence shows that i have a degraded drive... No biggie... I thought i'd boot it up first and replace the degraded drive later... What i didn't notice was that Intel Raid controller had designated another one of my existing drives as a spare and marked it for auto rebuild in Windows...

So, upon booting into Windows, Intel Rapid Storage starts rebuilding on the wrong drive... So now i have 1.5TB HDD data that has been wrongly auto rebuilt... I've sinced replaced the degraded drive and the array is back to normal but my data drive is mush... I tried using Active Undelete and it's able to scan the files and recover but the files are corrupted...

Anyone have any suggestions on what software i could use to try to recover the data?

 

[Mike Connor]

This MAY work, it has worked a number of times on failed RAID systems, and also failed a couple of times;

Recuva - Features

<http://www.piriform.com/recuva/features>

This also MAY work;

It has worked a number of times on failed RAID systems and only failed once;

You want the download from the first column with "UNLIMITED" data recovery;

Free Partition Recovery Software - Recover Deleted FAT/NTFS/Ext2/Ext3 Partition.

<http://www.easeus.com/partition-recovery/>

These work, but cost money!

http://www.diskinternals.com/press/virtual_disks_data_recovery.shtml

<http://www.diskinternals.com/press/virtual_disks_data_recovery.shtml>

http://www.diskinternals.com/

http://www.diskinternals.com/raid-recovery/


Once you have a virtual disc of the drive Don't do any operations on the drive itself; ( there is some freeware for this, you will have to search Google for it I don't have a link offhand), you can then try all sorts of things without endangering your data any further.

Also see here;

http://www.e-evidence.info/other.html

<http://www.e-evidence.info/other.html>


http://liveview.sourceforge.net/

<http://liveview.sourceforge.net/>

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Mike Connor]

You can make an image of the disc using this ( Free home version);

Free Download EASEUS Todo Backup Freeware and Trial version. Complete Backup and Restore Software for Windows & Linux.

<http://www.todo-backup.com/download/>

Then mount the image and try your recovery. This is a lot faster than trying it on a physical disc, and does not endanger your data.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[mihar]

Thanks for the advice Mike!...

Do you have any experience using Active branded programs from LSoft? I already have those so i'll try them first... But what i want to know is is there a difference in using say an Undelete program versus a File Recovery Program versus a Partition recovery program?

As i mentioned, i tried using Active Undelete and it was successful to a certain extent but any files recovered were corrupted...

I'm gonna try Active File Recover and Active Partition Recovery next and see if they work...

But i'll be creating an image like you suggested and work from that...

 

[Mike Connor]

Thanks for the advice Mike!...

Do you have any experience using Active branded programs from LSoft? I already have those so i'll try them first... But what i want to know is is there a difference in using say an Undelete program versus a File Recovery Program versus a Partition recovery program?

As i mentioned, i tried using Active Undelete and it was successful to a certain extent but any files recovered were corrupted...

I'm gonna try Active File Recover and Active Partition Recovery next and see if they work...

But i'll be creating an image like you suggested and work from that...

I've used lots of things over the years, some work well and (relatively) fast, some are very slow but reliable, and some just don't work!

There are considerable differences in the various recovery methods, and some are destructive! Undeleting files on the actual disc can overwrite and corrupt the files that are there, not recommended! It would take far too long to go into all the ins and outs of the methods and programs. Just make an image and keep trying until you succeed.


I have not used any of these; LSoft Technologies Inc. creates Data Security, Backup, Recovery Solutions

The main thing to do in such a case is to create a disc image immediately, and then, once you mount it, you can try anything you like on it.

That is actually the standard forensic recovery technique.

Good luck with it, and do please let us know how you get on.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Mike Connor]

PS. Just in case it wasn't obvious! Make an image, and then make a copy of that image and mount it. Carry out all operations on the copy!

If something doesn't work, just delete the image and make another copy.

Regards....Mike Connor