Iomega External HDD 2TB: Rebuilding Raid

[Tekk]

Hello everybody

I'm having a huge problem with an external Iomega HDD. It's a 2TB volume that spans through 2 1TB disks... I'm thinking its RAID 0.
So far, I think the problem may be related to the usb interface. I connected both hard drives to a Dell PowerEdge server I have, since it has several SATA connections, and both drives showed up, although one un-initialized and the other exibiting the infamous "must format" message.
Since it was configured with RAID 0 with the controller board inside the external HDD, I believe I'm not seeing the contents because they're no longer in that configuration when connected directly through SATA. So basically my question is, how can I rebuild the RAID in Windows to correctly show the volume? Is it possible without aditional software, or do I have to use a specific tool?

The information in theses harddrives is critical and I must do everything to recover it, last resort being sending the drives to a lab for data recovery...

Thanks in advance and sorry for my english!

[labtech]

1) do NOT format the drives or do anything crazy
2) can't do this using Windows utility
3) should not work directly with the drives but rather clones/images of the original drives
4) need other software such as RStudio or similar that supports RAID
5) you will need another media to extract data to

Before you do anything, come up with a solid plan before you start tampering with the drives given you choose to risk the data via DIY.

[Tekk]

Labtech, thank you so much for the tips!
All I've done so far was to connect the drives via SATA. Haven't done anything to them yet, just downloaded RStudio demo and created a virtual Raid with both drives. It's currently scanning (6 hour wait!). I'm starting to believe the only way to recover the contents will be to send the damn thing to a specialist... I'm way too uncomfortable with this since I know any change commited to the drives will probably ruin them...

[labtech]

You are welcome.

If you choose to send to a specialist, before any other issues occur, should not be very expensive. Few hundred $s. Maybe not even that.

Best wishes

[Vulcan]

@Tekk,

All I've done so far was to connect the drives via SATA. Haven't done anything to them yet, just downloaded RStudio demo and created a virtual Raid with both drives.

FYI that is not the next step which was recommended to you - note the order of the steps included cloning the drives first, which you have not done (according to your comments).

It's currently scanning (6 hour wait!).

In addition to the risks of you unintentionally writing to the disks, if there is anything wrong with either drive (you haven't given enough detail for me to be clear on this point), then you could be "analysing the disk(s) to death" i.e. using the last time when the disk is readable before needing repair, in a way that will not actually recover data from the disk quickly. This is another reason why cloning the disks was recommended to be done first. It's your choice and there are always (many) risks with DIY recovery attempts, but even if you have decided to try DIY, if the data is "critical" as you said, I would not be following the plan you are doing, which has skipped the cloning step...

[Tekk]

@Vulcan

Yes, in fact I did not clone the disks, as I do not have enough space in other media to do so. My plan would be to perform a scan with in RStudios virtual raid with both drives and hopefully recover the folders I most need and leave the rest to the pros. I just hope that there's nothing wrong with the disks themselves so I'm not overstressing them (or analysing them to death). I could not hear any unusual sounds when I connected them via sata to the server, but when in the iomega controller at least one drive sounded like it wouldn't "boot", something like whhiiirrr-clank!... whhiiirrr-clank!... just like when one connects a 2,5" USB powered external drive and there's not enough power to it...

I just wish I had a spare 2TB drive so I could just clone the volume and be more relaxed about the whole thing

[Vulcan]

OK - I just wanted to be sure you (and other readers) realised that, for relatively little money to buy some more media (compared to the value of "critical" data), you could reduce some of your risks by cloning the drives first. As a by-product, that process would also give some information about the health of the drives.

Good luck anyway