Windows 7 breaks raid array of 4 striped disks

[Olotila]

Hello!

I am really glad I found this site, here seems to be lots of smart people knowing lots about hard disks!

My problem is a broken raid setup.

In short: I enabled IDE in storage controller -> Windows broke my raid array.

I hope to find out how this happened and how this could be prevented in the future. And it also would be nice know how to recover the data from the broken raid.

System details: Motherboard is ASUS P6T SE with ICH10R Intel storage controller (it has three settings for SATA disks: IDE, RAID and AHCI). Raid 0 stripe is built on Samsung Spinpoint F1 disks, 4 of them. Size of the raid setup is about 3,6TB in just one GPT partition. Windows is version 6.1.7600. My main system is on Intel X25-M (Windows 7 Professional 64 bit), secondary system on WD Raptor (Windows XP 32 bit). All my disks are SATA. Everything has worked beautifully for a month. I have the latest bios (0603) and Intel Matrix Storage Manager, also Windows is up to date.

Events that took place before the fault:

I tried to boot to my secondary OS. For that, I set ICH10R storage controller from RAID to IDE. For some reason, Win 7 booted instead (my mistake, I guess). When desktop appeared, a balloon appeared saying “Installing new hardware”. Then it said “New devices are ready to use”, or something like that. It mentioned one of my Samsung disks. Disk management suggested I format the drive (which I did not do).

I rebooted and enabled RAID, but the Intel Matrix Storage Controller said raid “failed”. Picture of current situation:

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/5634/brokenraid.jpg
(how can you get a link to a pic open in another window/tab in this forum?)

After that I disconnected the disks, and nothing has been done to them since.

This has not happened with Windows XP, it let my raid array alone even with IDE enabled. I am guessing Windows 7 somehow “fixes” some of the raid disks? And thus destroys the raid metadata.

This is second time this happens. Previously I built the raid again and undeleted successfully only some of the data. That was very tedious work, took a very long time. I don’t have anything important in that raid setup, but it is annoying to lose even some data.

Questions:

What did Windows do? How did it break my raid? Can the raid setup and data be recovered? If so, how?

What can I do to prevent this from happening in the future? Can I somehow back up the (meta?)data Windows destroyed and recover it easily in the future? Is there some software for that?

[jono-ats]

I'm not familiar with Windows 7 yet, but it sounds like it automatically initialized the disks - something that XP would ask permission to do.

I imagine that RAID recovery software can get your data back. By the way, I don't think RAID 0 is ever a good protocol . . .

What can you do to prevent it? Buy a Mac . . . (I'm not a big fan of the code writers from Redmond).

[drc]

Odd... I've had no issues using windows 7 to deal with foreign RAIDs.

[BlackST]

Ditto. The problem is elsewhere not in the OS (small possibility : misconfiguration or unstable drivers).

Prevention : don't use integrated controllers.

Recovery of data : "tinker" by yourself or get professional help. Or live without data.

Period.

[Olotila]

Thank you for your replies!

jono-ats:
I believe you are right about Windows "initializing" the disk/disks automatically. I wish I could "un-initialize" disks and disable "autoinitializing" all together. And I don't think I want to invest lots more money to this raid-hobby of mine

I was hoping for a software solution, I would gladly pay a reasonable price for software that could recover and protect my raid.

BlackST:
If I did want something else from my raid than speed, I would invest more. Now I really just enjoy the speed when handling files and loading games and apps

No important data is lost, at least nothing I cant live without. It's the work it takes to install stuff back from scratch or from backups.

The problem is obviously in the user , but surely OS plays its part. What else would explain the fact that this same thing happened the same way twice? Only when I booted to win 7, and not with xp?

Since this seems quite frequent a problem, I really would like to have the means to easily recover raid after a mere misconfiguration of boot order.

You guys know of any decent software I could use to "tinker" my raid back to life?

[poehere]

Google on internet there is some raid recovery program. Some cost more than others but you should be able to find one for your needs. Also go to the Windows forum and post your problem with this one and see if they have any suggestions for you using Windows 7 and configuring this RAID on your pc.

[Olotila]

Google on internet there is some raid recovery program. Some cost more than others but you should be able to find one for your needs. Also go to the Windows forum and post your problem with this one and see if they have any suggestions for you using Windows 7 and configuring this RAID on your pc.

I did do the googlething, and found no sufficient/reliable info on this subject. This site was the one I guessed most reliable and knowing. And hence posted my dilemma here. I was (and am) hoping, that somebody in this site knows good software/solution from experience and will share that experience.

I did post also to Windows 7 forum, but the answer I got was quite useless. It was misunderstanding/ignoring at least some of my text and hence beside the point.

I heard there might be a property in SATA drives that can protect parts of the disk from overwriting, is that true? And only some raid controllers use that property?

This is the thing I really want to understand:
If 4 disks are empty but in raid 0, where is the information about them being in raid 0?

[BlackST]

I really wanted to understand what was a problem on my horse, I had two options : 1) attend a university course or use google and carefully discriminate between good info and 99,99% of internet bullshit 2) ask him to visit, tell me what exactly was the problem, and pay for his time and professionality...

Chose option #2 , problem quickly and definitively solved. What a relief !

[poehere]

If you need information on this controller it is by the manufacture who makes it. I had a raid recovery and wanted information on this controller I was working on. I had some strange results from the disks after someone else had this controller before me. The manufacture of this controller was very helpful and agreeded with my finding on this problem I had here. So they are the best people to work with and contact and they always have a ticket center to post your problems too. Sorry but each controller has a different set up and you need to contact the company who made this controller they have the answers you are seeking on this one.

[Olotila]

Thanks, for the tips

BlackST:
Which of these courses will help me understand my horse: http://www.tol.oulu.fi/index.php?id=449 ?
I did try google allready, as I said.
Who can I call to visit?

poehere:
Thanks, I will do that. For some reason I did not think of that I did contact Asus, manufacturer of mobo, but not Intel, manufacturer of storage controller.

Any other place I could ask from? Another site that handles these kind of problems? Forums perhaps? If you can mention competitive forums here

[Olotila]

Thanks, for the tips

BlackST:
Which of these courses will help me understand my "horse": http://www.tol.oulu.fi/index.php?id=449 ?
I did try google allready, as I said, filtered the rubbish and ended up here ...
I have been talking to people who might be able to help me, but none has had the expertise so far.

poehere:
Thanks, I will do that. For some reason I did not think of that I did contact Asus, manufacturer of mobo, but not Intel, manufacturer of storage controller.

Any other place I could ask from? Another site that handles these kind of problems? Forums perhaps? If you can mention competitive forums here

[Olotila]

I found solution, thanks for pointing me to right direction, poehere!

I went to Intel forums and found this thread:
http://communities.intel.com/thread/335 ... 0&tstart=0

I reset the disks, rebuild the RAID and recovered the partition using TestDisk. Simple, easy and quick.