Please hold me and tell me my RAID 10 is recoverable!

[ei_guapo]

Yesterday my computer started to slip into a reboot cycle. After some consultation on Tom's Hardware I decided to try removing the heatsink and cpu, cleaning off the old thermal paste, reapplying and reinstalling everything. (Last week I had to take the PC on a road trip and the thought was that the heatsink-cpu connection might have been jostled just enough to cause overheating issues.)

Well it worked... sort of.

My computer is back up and running and stable. However my RAID 10 drive-- the drive that holds my two big freelance projects that are due next week-- is no longer recognized. It still reads as the R drive as before, but now if I click on it I'm told that the drive needs to be formatted.

I built the system, but I'm still pretty green, especially with RAID. What options are there for me to recover my data and remove my heart from my throat???

 

[ei_guapo]

Addendum: It appears that I can no longer run the Intel Rapid Storage Technology program. I imagine that's part of the problem. But I'm not sure how to proceed.

 

[Dereck47]

Addendum: It appears that I can no longer run the Intel Rapid Storage Technology program. I imagine that's part of the problem. But I'm not sure how to proceed.

1.) Shut down your computer
2.) Disconnect your RAID-10 drives
3.) Boot into Windows (DON’T change any of your BIOS settings)
4.) Uninstall your Intel RST drivers
5.) Reboot your computer
6.) Install Intel RST drivers
7.) Reboot your computer
8.) Shut down your computer
9.) Connect your RAID-10 drives
10.) Boot into Windows

See if you are now able to run Intel RST

 

[ei_guapo]

1.) Shut down your computer
2.) Disconnect your RAID-10 drives
3.) Boot into Windows (DON’T change any of your BIOS settings)
4.) Uninstall your Intel RST drivers
5.) Reboot your computer
6.) Install Intel RST drivers
7.) Reboot your computer
8.) Shut down your computer
9.) Connect your RAID-10 drives
10.) Boot into Windows

See if you are now able to run Intel RST

Thanks for your input Dereck47. I'm to step 4 of your procedure, but I'm not sure how to go about it. When I go into programs and choose to uninstall Intel RST, I get a warning that states:

"The Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver that is part of this software may currently be controlling the hard drive that this computer boots from or controlling a hard drive that contains important data. Therefore, you cannot uninstall the driver. However, you can uninstall the non-critical components of the software such as the User Interface, Event Monitor Service, and program shortcuts.

Click Next to continue, or click Cancel to exit the uninstallation program."

How should I proceed?

 

[Dereck47]

Click next to continue. If uninstalling the drivers gives you problems booting into Windows then boot into Windows Safe Mode and then install the RST drivers.

 

[ei_guapo]

Click next to continue. If uninstalling the drivers gives you problems booting into Windows then boot into Windows Safe Mode and then install the RST drivers.

When I try to install Intel RST either in normal Windows or in Safe Mode, I get a warning dialogue that states, "Computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software."

 

[Dereck47]

What's your motherboard model & CPU?

 

[ei_guapo]

What's your motherboard model & CPU?

Mobo: ASUS P6X58D Premium
CPU: Intel i7-950

 

[Dereck47]

Here's a link to Intel's latest (official) RST drivers: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20624&keyword=%22rst%22&lang=eng

Here's a link to the RAID drivers from ASUS's website: http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/P6X58D_Premium/#download

 

[ei_guapo]

Here's a link to Intel's latest (official) RST drivers: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20624&keyword=%22rst%22&lang=eng

Here's a link to the RAID drivers from ASUS's website: http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/P6X58D_Premium/#download

Okay. The situation as it stands now is that I've got Intel RST back and running. However it shows my RAID 10 as failed due to the fact that it thinks two of the drives are missing. So the drives on ports 0 and 1 are being interpreted as non-members and the drives on 2 and 3 are seen as members of the array.

Customer support at Intel threw his hands up in the air and then slipped me this link under the table:

http://communities.intel.com/thread/3599

Basically:

1) Go into the Intel Matrix Storage Manager in BIOS.

2) Mark all the drives in the RAID as "non-Raid." This warns you that all your data will be lost, but really is simply re-writing the partition table, which is ALREADY messed up anyhow...

3) Re-Create the RAID using the SAME settings as the original RAID that you are trying to recover. Disks must be in the same order as before, and the strip size must be the same as before. Note: Having the disks in the wrong order will not destroy your data, it will just mean that step (4) will not work... If (4) doesn't work, you will need to repeat steps 1-3 until you have the disks in the proper order...

4) Once the RAID has been re-created, get TestDisk from http://www.cgsecurity.org/

5) Follow the Step-By-Step directions for TestDisk: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

6) If all goes well, you will simply have to reboot and all will be better!

Does anyone see this as much too risky? Any other suggestions?

 

[ei_guapo]

I used the above method and it worked!

All of my data has been recovered and life begins anew.

Big lesson for me in the fact that RAID redundancy is in no way a safety backup.

Thanks Dereck47 for taking the time to help me out with this.