A friends PC's motherboard has packed it in. He had 2 hard drives in Raid 0 configuration in the PC. Is there a way of getting the data off the drives with out having to set them up in Raid 0 again? Can I connect them both to a PC via USB and reconstruct the striped data from both drives?
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. (Winston Churchill)
RAID and RAID 0 are pretty tough to recover data from unless you were using parity or redundancy (RAID 1, 5, 6, or a combination) and the striping method is usually manufacturer specific. You didn't give a lot of info, but I'll assume it was an onboard controller.
Unfortunately the only way that you can reasonably get at that data would be to buy the exact same motherboad (assuming it was onboard RAID) with the exact same RAID controller and then you would have to hope that the original motherboard failure didn't involve the RAID controller. Sometimes it is possible to read an array using a RAID card by the same manufacturer as the RAID controller on the motherboard, but it isn't guaranteed.
If the original motherboard failure did affect the RAID controller you have no idea what was done to the structure of the drive and the chances of recovery are slim. Even if it didn't you would need to configure the RAID [i:38k6m4wi]exactly[/i:38k6m4wi] as it was before. One mistake and the data would be lost. Heck, most data recovery companies won't even touch a RAID 0 array unless you're willing to pony up some serious cash.
There are some software solutions that some have had success with, but I'll warn you now - don't expect to get 100% of the data back if you go that route and if you do I would not write to the original drives until you were satisfied with the data recovered. Have a look at [url=http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm:38k6m4wi]RAID Reconstructor[/url:38k6m4wi].
Thanks for the tip Dave. The raid was motherboard supported and the motherboard is no longer available to buy unless a working 2 nd hand one can be found. I think the owner is aware of his predicament but though I might be able to find an easy solution for him. I will have a look at Raid Reconstructor. I personally would never use RAID 0. I do use Raid 1 but that is just mirrored hard drives and easy to get data of one drive.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. (Winston Churchill)
found this software:
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery product is specially designed for RAID-related recovery tasks, including recovery of lost and deleted files from most popular file systems and storages. Supported file systems include Microsoft Windows FAT and NTFS, Apple MacOS HFS+/HFSX as well as old HFS; pupular Linux Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, ReiserFS, JFS and XFS; set of UFS variants, including Big and Little Endian UFS1/UFS2 as well as custom Adaptec UFS, traditional Novell NWFS volumes and CD/DVD file systems.
Software supports hard disks, removable storages, disk images, virtual disks of virtual machines, created with virtualization software of major vendors. Embedded RAID tool allows to recover data from failed software or hardware RAID and supports virtual reconstruction of RAID0, RAID3, RAID5, RAID6 and JBOD with flexible RAID configuration that includes RAID reconstruction. It allows virtually to rebuild RAID from real disks, disk images. Besides, it helps to make virtual reconstruction of RAID-on-RAID configuration as well.
http://www.ufsexplorer.com/dow.....ad_pro.php
well here is another paid software for ur problem:
Recovery for NTFS-formatted Windows RAIDs, includes hardware RAIDs and Windows software RAIDs. Supports RAID-0 and RAID-5 configurations
Product Highlights
* Recover NTFS-formatted Windows RAIDs, including hardware RAID and Windows software RAIDs,, within minutes
* Supports RAID-0 and RAID-5 configuration
* No other software needed
* Finds RAID parameters, such as start sector, stripe size, rotation, and drive order automatically
* Easy to use wizard, no user input required, fully automated recovery
* Run from a WinPE boot CD-ROM
Data Recovery Software for Windows RAIDs
RAID Recovery for Windows recovers the entire content of your broken RAID within minutes. You will be able to copy the files and folders over to another disk.
RAID Recovery for Windows works for NTFS-formatted RAID-0 or RAID-5 configurations. It supports both, hardware RAIDs managed by the mother board or a controller card, and software RAIDs managed by Windows (dynamic disk arrays).
Remove the drives from the RAID controller and attach them locally to your machine. Make sure the drives are all recognized by Windows Disk Management. If you are trying to recover a RAID-5, it is Ok to attach one drive less than the total number of drives in that RAID. RAID Recovery for Windows also works with images of your drives.
Install RAID Recovery for Windows to your computer and start the program. In Vista or Windows 7 you need to right-click the program icon and select "Run as Administrator".
A wizard will guide you through the recovery. A couple of minutes later, an Explorer-like window will show all recoverable files and folders. Now you can copy your files over to another disk. You can also view many file types before copying them, e.g. pictures, documents, etc.
RAID Recovery for Windows is easy to use. It automatically finds all parameters needed for the recovery, such as RAID start sector, stripe size, rotation, and drive order. Everybody is now able to recover his own RAID. No data recovery background required. No need to buy any other software.
Supported RAIDs:
* NTFS-formatted RAID-0 and RAID-5 controlled by the motherboard or a RAID controller card (hardware RAID)
* NTFS-formatted RAID-0 and RAID-5 administered by Windows (Windows software RAID)
RAID Recovery for Windows additional features:
* A file viewer, which allows you to see the content of almost any file
* A search function, which enables you to do extensive search for containing text or files
* Run RAID Recovery for Windows from a BartPE boot CD-ROM
http://www.runtime.org/raid-re.....indows.htm
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