Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

I have a Win2k Server machine with a Promise SX6000 running six 200Gb HDDs  
in a RAID5 configuration.
 
We lost a drive, then had a power hit, which of course set the array into  
"Offline"
 
After rebooting and attempting to recover, the PAM software (Promise Array  
Management) showed two of six drives as online, but no longer a member of  
the array, which prevented us from being able to rebuild the array. There  
was no method to add a prior disk back into the array via the PAM interface.
 
After walking through the recovery guides, it was decided that the BIOS  
recovery option was out last resort, so why not give it a try? We did,  
carefully following the steps, and it worked! The array is back online and  
shows a healthy status via the Promise Array BIOS at boot up and in the PAM  
software under Win2k.
 
The problem is - once we boot into Win2k Server, the array is visible, but  
Disk Management shows the space as "Unallocated". Basically, Win2k can see  
the drive, the size is correct (1TB), but it appears to be uninitialized.  
Disk manager wants to write its "Signature" to the drive, but we have not  
tried that as I don't want to risk damaging the data.  I do not have a saved  
copy of the disk configuration for Win2k, which I think would solve my  
problem if I did.
 
The data is visible via Ontrack EzRecovery Professional software by using  
the "Raw recovery" option which scans the array sector-by-sector searching  
for files.  We are backing up what we can via the Ontrack software, but it  
won't be able to recover any files that are fragmented.
 
Question - is there a way to recover/manually create the Win2k disk  
configuration so that we can recover ALL of our data?
 
Any help would be appreciated.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

Hello,
 
People have done this succesfully with DiskPatch:
http://www.diydatarecovery.nl. The hardware array can be treated as a
'normal' disk. It appears the partition table was wiped (resulting in the
unallocated space).
 
--
Joep
 
"Dan" <dans@(SPAM)oz.net> wrote in message
news:4207fb80$0$23559$8b463f8a@news.nationwide.net...
> I have a Win2k Server machine with a Promise SX6000 running six 200Gb HDDs
> in a RAID5 configuration.
>
> We lost a drive, then had a power hit, which of course set the array into
> "Offline"
>
> After rebooting and attempting to recover, the PAM software (Promise Array
> Management) showed two of six drives as online, but no longer a member of
> the array, which prevented us from being able to rebuild the array. There
> was no method to add a prior disk back into the array via the PAM
interface.
>
> After walking through the recovery guides, it was decided that the BIOS
> recovery option was out last resort, so why not give it a try? We did,
> carefully following the steps, and it worked! The array is back online and
> shows a healthy status via the Promise Array BIOS at boot up and in the
PAM
> software under Win2k.
>
> The problem is - once we boot into Win2k Server, the array is visible, but
> Disk Management shows the space as "Unallocated". Basically, Win2k can see
> the drive, the size is correct (1TB), but it appears to be uninitialized.
> Disk manager wants to write its "Signature" to the drive, but we have not
> tried that as I don't want to risk damaging the data.  I do not have a
saved
> copy of the disk configuration for Win2k, which I think would solve my
> problem if I did.
>
> The data is visible via Ontrack EzRecovery Professional software by using
> the "Raw recovery" option which scans the array sector-by-sector searching
> for files.  We are backing up what we can via the Ontrack software, but it
> won't be able to recover any files that are fragmented.
>
> Question - is there a way to recover/manually create the Win2k disk
> configuration so that we can recover ALL of our data?
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
>