Accidentally created RAID 0 on SSD+HDD, data lost on secondary drive

[honza64]

Hello,

as title describes, I have accidentally created RAID 0 on SSD+HDD system in Intel Rapid Storage Technology interface, having C:/ (240 GB - System partition) on SSD and D:/ (932 GB - Almost all data) on HDD. In fact, it's a little bit longer story, but it doesn't matter how it happened now.

As a result, I have lost all my files located in D:/. A picture linked below explains what happened in lucid way.

http://drive.google.com/file/...

I have put up with that. But before reverting that by formatting both drives and doing a clean install, I would like to ensure there's really nothing to do about it. I have tried EaseUS Data Recovery (and few other programs), but It can only see the part of HDD which is now part of RAID and files in there are (not surprisingly) corrupted, as they were mostly rewritten by strips. But what about the rest 692 GB, which are unused and nowhere visible? Shouldn't it be completely untouched? I think something could still be there.

Any suggestions how to retrieve data from this part of drive and is it even worth trying?

Thanks for answers, even though they probably won't be positive.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, honza64!

This seems really unfortunate! However, I'm not sure you'd be able to get anything off of the drive by yourself. I'd advise you to consider consulting a professional data recovery company as they are your best chance at retrieving those files.
You can also try some other methods listed here at your own risk: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html
However, I'd not recommend it. Either way, wish you best of luck with that.

As for configuring the storage afterwards, I'd suggest to take a look at this tutorial about SSD & HDD optimization: http://www.overclock.net/t/1240779/seans-windows-8-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[honza64]

Thanks for the answer.

Will try your suggestions as professional data recovery company would be costly (at least where I live). It wasn't that important, but still would like to try a little bit.

What I am surprised about there was no warning on data loss, it didn't even straightly inform me it was going to create RAID 0. Then D:/ disappeared from Computer and "Data migration" process started, which lasted about an hour. So I thought it was taking data located on D:/ partition into account somehow (like resize the original partition to 692 GB, keeping all data there, and reserve the remaining 240 GB for RAID 0 - there was enough space). When the process was complete, nothing had changed. HDD was still visible nowhere, even though from what I understood from Intel documentation, the remaining should be available for new partition. In addition, it shows only 240 GB partition in Computer, while the other 240 GB are marked as "Unallocated space" in Windows Disk Manager, but in Intel Rapid it shows (and it should be like this) 480 GB RAID 0 array which consists of two drives.

I have no experience with RAID 0, so I worry if the process even proceeded correctly. And what was "Data migration" process doing anyway?

 

[honza64]

Finally, I was able to retrieve most multimedia files and some documents. However, without original structure and file names, so it will take some time to get trough it. But the guide you sent me helped.

Unfortunately, Recuva can't see unallocated parts of drive, so I had to tweak it a little bit. First of all, I broke up RAID string, then made clean Windows installation on SSD and created one partition on HDD to make it visible in Recuva. Avoiding work with HDD, I ran deep scan in Recuva and after few hours I got results.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, honza64!

I'm glad you were able to save some of your data! Unfortunately, this particular RAID array (a.ka.a disk striping) has no redundancy. It's a technique that breaks up a file and spreads it across all the disk drives in the RAID configuration. This basically means that you might not be able to recover the original working structure of your data.
When users choose this particular storage configuration, they are aware of the potential data loss and use it mostly for enhanced performance of their system/programs. However, backups are done on regular basis due to the lack of redundancy. Once the array fails or breaks down, the data is lost and it's very difficult to recover, due to the fact that it's stored on 2 (or more) different storage drives.

Either way, I hope everything works out for the best for you! Make sure you unplug the HDD until you have successfully installed Windows onto the SSD and follow the optimization guide for more details on the configuration!

Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[S Haran]

I think it's possible creating the RAID0 may have just wiped out the partition info for D:

In which case a deep scan with Testdisk should find it.

 

[valterblande]

I made the same mistake. Created a Raid 0 and Raid 1 with a New hard disk so my windows 8.1 went away. I could restore It as before using testdisk to recreate the partition and a windows rescue disk to makes It boot up again.

 

[USAFRet]

I made the same mistake. Created a Raid 0 and Raid 1 with a New hard disk so my windows 8.1 went away. I could restore It as before using testdisk to recreate the partition and a windows rescue disk to makes It boot up again.

4 years later, I hope the OP has moved on with his data.

Please don't dredge up old posts.
Thanks