Solved How do I break failed software RAID1(mirror) in Windows 7?

[Nick2]

I want to break a software RAID1(mirror) in Windows 7, without losing the data on any of the two HDDs.

One of them has developed some weak sectors and I want to compare the data on both of them.

As you can see in the attached image, it says Errors under Disk1, and Online under Disk2. The problem is that according to SMART, Disk1 is healthy, and Disk2 contains some weak sectors(Pending Sectors).

My question is, how do I break the array, in order to be able to see the second drive as a different partition in Windows 7, without losing the data that is written on it?

 

[DeaconFrost]

I'm not sure if you can or not. If you know one of the drives is okay, why not just copy or back up your data from that drive? Then you an format and test both drives to be sure of their condition.

 

[Nick2]

because it's an odd situation. Disk2 was the slave one, and Disk1 was the master.
Now Disk1 has that error status and Disk2 the online status, even though Disk2 caused the failed redundancy issue, due to those weak sectors.

I want to be sure that at least one of the HDDs has the whole data.

 

[gregrocker]

This is why RAID is not optimal except for users needing huge storage for editing video files, etc.

It is not even redundant since if you lose one HD you lose both.

The second HD could instead be used as backup for a Win7 System image: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

You can browse in to see if any data is visible to copy it out externally: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console or using Paragon rescue disk recover data

 

[Jacee]

Go into BIOS > advanced > peripheral config > secondarary Sata controller > disable.

 

[Nick2]

but I want to see them both, but as different partitions.

I have this option called "remove mirror". Does it remove the partition also?

 

[Nick2]

I've found the answer.

I had to:
- put offline the mirror disk
- remove the mirror(without putting the mirror disk offline, this option is disabled)
- put the disk online again and import it as foreign disk

This way guarantees that you won't lose the data from the mirror.

 

[gregrocker]

Thanks for reporting back.