Raid 5 Array lost assignment

[elnoyl]

I had a successful raid 5 array setup. It was assigned to g and while i was installing ps3 media server and then java it lost it's drive assignment. It shows up under disk management but asks me to initialize it. I really don't want to do that because it will format and i will lose the data on the volume. What else can i do to get my array to show up in windows with my data intact?

 

[pooch]

This is where you need your back ups!! and I think you have already lost your files

The only thing I can think of is to open the PC remove the SATA cables from the drives noting which cable goes to which drive!! boot the computer, shut it down again reconnect the drives and start the PC again. If you are very lucky windows may pick the drive up again.
Do not make any changes to the BIOS!!

 

[elnoyl]

why would windows just lose the drive assignment, if the drives and the hardware raid controller are both good when i was installing java?

 

[pooch]

I really do not know sorry but the installing Java may also be a coincidence it things like this that make diagnosing problems so difficult.

 

[elnoyl]

I got the array back up and running and loaded data on it and have that data backed up elsewhere also. The array lost assignment in windows again and showed up that it needed to be initialized again. Obviously there is some sort of problem causing it not to be seen in windows and then have to be reinitialized and formatted to be used again. What steps do i need to take to diagnose this problem? In raidxpert everything shows up as functional but it did have some unknown errors occur that didn't tell me any info about the error. What steps do i need to take to diagnose this?