Data Recovery from Software RAID 0

[ARTIMEDIA]

Hi everyone, sorry but although it's my first post, this is a long one to make sure all info is there.

I have the following problem: I had a software RAID 0 array of 2 disks where I had lots of professional video work being edited. I had backups of most everything except one recent work, which is very important.

What I mean by software RAID 0, is the option to convert 2 drives in one dynamic disk, by striping, using Windows (7 in this case) disk management utility. These were two 600GB WD Velociraptor hard drives. The system was on a separate identical 600GB WD Velociraptor drive.

Now for some stupid reason, when I was restoring a System Image Backup, it decided to install it in one of the RAID drives. I'm saying "it" decided because I did nothing different than the many times I had restored system images before on the same system. I usually just did "next, next, next..." - but maybe something disconfigured in the Bios and it didn't detect the System Drive and decided to install it in one of the RAID ones - a 120GB partition was created in the 600GB drive. The rest still shows as unnalocated (RAW files from the array?).

I have tried tons of recovery softwares: EaseUS, iCare Data Recovery, R-Studio, TestDisk, DMDE, ReclaiMe... You name it, I've tried it. EaseUS was the only one that seems to see the 2 Drives as a single dynamic disk, but recovery returns a bunch of truncated video files. I don't know if this is because EaseUS is recovering files from each disk separately or if it's because of the partial formatting of one of the disks. The other softwares where I tried rebuilding the array, like DMDE or R-Studio, returned checksum errors or "WinError 55 - Network resource not available" at some point. It left me wondered if on top of everything I also had a mechanical problem in that formatted drive. Data Lifeguard Diagnostics detected several unreadable sectors... But I suspect that's "soft" bad sectors... Not actually physical damage.

For that reason, my plan was trying to undo the formatting before I tried rebuilding the array. But quite frankly... I don't even know if such an "undoing" thing is possible. This is my dilemma:

1. If I try to recover the files from each disk separately, the files will make no sense on their own (they are half-files).

2. If I try to rebuild the array before recovering the files, it returns me errors because one of the drives has been formatted and that half of the array is not complete. EaseUS sees the 2 drives as one dynamic disk but recovers truncated files.

4. I'd like to return the partially formatted drive to its original state to try and rebuild the array, but don't even know if that's possible.

5. I now created two separate images of each drive of the array hoping I manage to rebuild the array from them, in case the DMDE RAID recovering problem was due to mechanical failure. But I fear it will still return errors because I haven't "unformatted" the drive.

6. If I finally find a way of undoing the formatting, will it work with the images I created? Or does it need to be done in the actual physical drive? I'm asking this because now that I created the images, I really want to try and erase everything in these drives and see if they're healthy, to re-use them.

7. Any other advice on how to recover my data?

Thanks in advance!

[fzabkar]

Could we see the Partitions windows for each of your clones in DMDE?

ISTM that data recovery software may have an easier task if we could determine exactly where and how much of your drive was overwritten, and then fill the affected area with zeros.

[ARTIMEDIA]

I see. Thanks for the reply!

I will post soon here the Partitions windows for each of my .dsk images, in DMDE.

[lcoughey]

Here is a thread on Data Medics forum pertaining to this case - https://www.data-medics.com/forum/recov ... t1818.html

[ARTIMEDIA]

Here is a thread on Data Medics forum pertaining to this case - https://www.data-medics.com/forum/recov ... t1818.html

Thank you for sharing this Icoughey and thank you once again for your input at Data Medics!
Yes, at Data Medics I've been having the most fast and impressive amount of support and valuable feedback so far, from all the forums where I've tried to reach out for help. I've also posted in Seven Forums and TestDisk forums. But so far, here at HDD Gurus and Data Medics in particular, was where I got the most support.

[rogfanther]

Maybe a long shot, but have you seen in the cameras and other equipment used to shoot the video if the original files are still there ? Even if it not gets you all of your files, finding some of them there could help you a little, no ?

[ARTIMEDIA]

Thank you for your input, Rogfanther. No unfortunately I use always the same 2 SSD cards to record and I've re-used them many times already.

Currently I'm finishing a graduation Report but in a day or two, I'll go back at my .dsk images that I created separately from each drive and will try to recover with DMDE and/or R-Studio. I'll post results here. Btw: I can now confirm that the drive I have accidentally overwritten with the Windows Install, was also mechanically dying. It just died on me shortly after I saved the .dsk. Hopefully the .dsk is not totally corrupted.