Windows Home Server (WHS) 2011 - Disk 2 showing as "Not Initialized" - Was Working Properly

[jgciamarra]

I noticed that I couldn't access some Shares on my WHS 2011 Server that were working fine for months. Today I looked at the "Disk Management" and realized that Disk 2 was displayed as "Unknown" and "Not Initialized". This is a Western Digital 2TB ATA Device.

FYI - The Drive was not displayed in the "BIOS", but it did show up under "Disk Management".

This Drive was working fine until the last couple of days. Is there a way to bring this Hard Drive back online without losing any of the data?

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot and correct this issue would be greatly appreciated.

 

[13thmonkey]

get a new 2TB disk before you do anything else, your only focus once you have it will be transferring to the new disk. Don't even try and access it (unplug it preferably) in case you only get the one shot.

 

[jgciamarra]

get a new 2TB disk before you do anything else, your only focus once you have it will be transferring to the new disk. Don't even try and access it (unplug it preferably) in case you only get the one shot.

Thank you for your quick response.

What is the best recommended solution to transfer the data to the new disk assuming it works? Can I use a 6 or 8 TB drive as a replacement? I'm assuming yes, but wasn't sure if WHS 2011 supported them.

Also, sorry for this naive question, but "Disk 2" (the one that I'm having problems with) is 1 of 7 disks on my WHS 2011. What is the easiest way to identify the faulty drive?

Thank you.

 

[13thmonkey]

it may not support beyond 2TB. Do you have capacity on the other drives to store anything that is recovered?

 

[13thmonkey]

Are you using any add ins for disk management? wasn't 2011 very poor at pooling disks etc.

 

[jgciamarra]

Are you using any add ins for disk management? wasn't 2011 very poor at pooling disks etc.

No, I'm not using any add is for disk management. Not sure about status at pooling disks.

Once I identify which hard drive is "Disk 2" (your help would be appreciated), should I take it out, put it in my Rocketfish external case and then try to access it and recover it to another 2TB drive I have on the server that is empty?

 

[13thmonkey]

personally i'd leave it where it is, and put the target drive in the caddy.

You can probably get the serial number from device manager? or from the dashboard (it's been a long long while since i've been on WHS).
Or use your fingers and see which drive is coolest/not vibrating?

 

[jgciamarra]

personally i'd leave it where it is, and put the target drive in the caddy.

You can probably get the serial number from device manager? or from the dashboard (it's been a long long while since i've been on WHS).
Or use your fingers and see which drive is coolest/not vibrating?

Sorry for another naive question - If I leave the faulty drive where it is (on the server), how will I be able to access it to copy the content over to the new/good drive? As I've mentioned, I cannot access "Disk 2".

Thank you so much for helping me.

 

[USAFRet]

Can you show us a screencap of your Disk management window?

"Disk 2" might be as simple as looking at the motherboard port, and identifying the relevant port. Then tracing that SATA data cable to the relevant drive.

SATA ports are labeled starting with either 0 or 1.

 

[13thmonkey]

it's why we are here don't worry about it.

My thought at the moment is that re initialising the disk will make it work in disk management, BUT i'm waiting on a second opinion on that, it's not a reformat, the disk should just re-appear.

Putting it in the caddy should also do the same thing making it appear as a new disk to the system and hence it will try and work with it. What i'm trying to do is minimise the risk of writing to the disk or the system working with it when it shouldn't, so very considered baby steps as you may only get one shot at this. You don't have this disk backuped up onto one of the other do you?

Unfortunately it's late where i am, I've pinged the mod group for someone else to pop by that might be a better match for your timezone.

 

[13thmonkey]

Can you show us a screencap of your Disk management window?

"Disk 2" might be as simple as looking at the motherboard port, and identifying the relevant port. Then tracing that SATA data cable to the relevant drive.

SATA ports are labeled starting with either 0 or 1.

Thanks, too late for me now.

 

[jgciamarra]

Can you show us a screencap of your Disk management window?

"Disk 2" might be as simple as looking at the motherboard port, and identifying the relevant port. Then tracing that SATA data cable to the relevant drive.

SATA ports are labeled starting with either 0 or 1.

Sorry, but not sure how to add a screencap? Please advise.

I hope it's as easy as you're suggesting

 

[USAFRet]

Can you show us a screencap of your Disk management window?

"Disk 2" might be as simple as looking at the motherboard port, and identifying the relevant port. Then tracing that SATA data cable to the relevant drive.

SATA ports are labeled starting with either 0 or 1.

Sorry, but not sure how to add a screencap? Please advise.

I hope it's as easy as you're suggesting

Detailed instructions on posting images on Tom's hardware.
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2580030/detailed-instructions-posting-images-tom-hardware.html


Basically, make the image.
Save it to somewhere like imgur.com
Post the link here.

 

[jgciamarra]

Can you show us a screencap of your Disk management window?

"Disk 2" might be as simple as looking at the motherboard port, and identifying the relevant port. Then tracing that SATA data cable to the relevant drive.

SATA ports are labeled starting with either 0 or 1.

Sorry, but not sure how to add a screencap? Please advise.

I hope it's as easy as you're suggesting

Detailed instructions on posting images on Tom's hardware.
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2580030/detailed-instructions-posting-images-tom-hardware.html


Basically, make the image.
Save it to somewhere like imgur.com
Post the link here.

Here is the link to the screencap: https://imgur.com/a/4o4JaI2

 

[USAFRet]

So, your "Disk 2" is the 3rd drive.

On your motherboard, the SATA ports are numbered either 0, 1, 2, 3, 4...OR 1, 2, 3, 4 ...

Look for the relevant port, and follow that cable up to the drive in question, Disk 2.

 

[jgciamarra]

So, your "Disk 2" is the 3rd drive.

On your motherboard, the SATA ports are numbered either 0, 1, 2, 3, 4...OR 1, 2, 3, 4 ...

Look for the relevant port, and follow that cable up to the drive in question, Disk 2.

I'm using the "ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3" Motherboard. According to their manual, the SATA ports are marked as Gray or Blue. However, since my HDD is not displayed in the BIOS - SATA Configuration it's hard to determine the port for "Disk 2".

Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[USAFRet]

So, your "Disk 2" is the 3rd drive.

On your motherboard, the SATA ports are numbered either 0, 1, 2, 3, 4...OR 1, 2, 3, 4 ...

Look for the relevant port, and follow that cable up to the drive in question, Disk 2.

I'm using the "ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3" Motherboard. According to their manual, the SATA ports are marked as Gray or Blue. However, since my HDD is not displayed in the BIOS - SATA Configuration it's hard to determine the port for "Disk 2".

Any ideas? Thank you.

In your user manual: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8Z68-V_PRO_GEN3/E6850_P8Z68-V_PRO_GEN3.pdf

The ports are labeled 1-6

Page 2_2.

So that would be "SATAG_3"

 

[13thmonkey]

Apparently belarc advisor will show serial numbers, then it's a matter of elimination. Might be in device manager to, collect the ones you can, see which one is missing.

 

[jgciamarra]

So, your "Disk 2" is the 3rd drive.

On your motherboard, the SATA ports are numbered either 0, 1, 2, 3, 4...OR 1, 2, 3, 4 ...

Look for the relevant port, and follow that cable up to the drive in question, Disk 2.

I'm using the "ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3" Motherboard. According to their manual, the SATA ports are marked as Gray or Blue. However, since my HDD is not displayed in the BIOS - SATA Configuration it's hard to determine the port for "Disk 2".

Any ideas? Thank you.

In your user manual: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8Z68-V_PRO_GEN3/E6850_P8Z68-V_PRO_GEN3.pdf

The ports are labeled 1-6

Page 2_2.

So that would be "SATAG_3"

Thank you for ALL your help, support and patience with working me through this issue. I discovered that "Disk 2" is experiencing a hardware issue. Now crossing my fingers that I can recover the data. Do you have any recommended solutions that I should use?

Thanks again to you and 13thmonkey for your assistance.

 

[13thmonkey]

It all depends on what is wrong with it, putting it into the caddy might help if it some kind of weird temporary fault, but TBH you are probably into the realms of swapping boards and, frankly, desperate moves like that. At least in the caddy you'll find out if it spins.

However you could be lucky, it could be a bad sata or bad pow cable. You need to gather more symptoms.