RAID-6 Data Recovery Software?

[zed]

Hi All,

I have a 12 Disk RAID-6 Array, NTFS - i usually use X-Ways, RAID Reconstrucor, UFS Explorer R-Studio or File Scavenger to rebuild RAID-0, RAID-5 or Spanned sets of disks.

Do you know any program which can rebuild a RAID-6 Array? 1st case of it's kind for me.

I have the enclosure and RAID controller but the raid controller has lost it's configuration and when reconfigured it cannot rebuild/repair so i was planning on imaging the disks and rebuilding using a tool like mentioned above.

Can anybody suggest a method? All the disks are available, the block size and disk order are known - just need a program to re-stripe the data.

Thanks for any help.

[sempre]

Hi Zed!

Please

more details on the problem;

for example it is a logical problem?

in more than one hdd? or it is physical problem?

I wait to be able to help you!

[zed]

Sorry for not providing enough information. I now have the disks in my hands and have examined them for over 2 days now. This is the sitution:

1 Drive Failed in a RAID6 Array, my client noted the disk which failed, the raid array was forced offline, this should not have been the case as it's RAID6 and it shold still work even if 2 drives were dead. IT was confirmed there were no other dead drives or previously failed (and unnoticed).

A new disk was put in the place of the faulty drive, the Raid controller automatically rebuilt the raid array and said it was rebuilt OK. The logical volume was not visible in Windows, it cannot see it at all. It is assumed the raid controller cannot mount the volume into Windows or the partition may have become corrupt. My goal is to use a tool like File Scavenger, Raid Reconstructor, R-Studio, UFS Exlorer or another tool like X-Ways to rebuild the raid array so i can see the files and save them onto an external hard drive. I only have the 10 disks, no controller or server/enclosure which the disks were removed from (it was very heavy and could not be shipped to me).

I have 10 x 500 GB SATA Hard disks.
They came from a External Drive Enclosure (using a Fiber connection).
The drives were labeled as disk 1-10 based on the drive tray/bay label. So the order is known.
The Sys Admin told me the block size used was 128 sectors (64KB).
The disk contains 1 NTFS partition, data only. No OS.
The starting sector is unknown.

I have been able to connect 8 drives to my PC, 4 via the motherboards onboard SATA controller and 4 using SATA USB Adapters, my PC cannot read the last 2 disks (disk 9 & 10) as it appears the computer simply cannot allocate any more resources to allow more usb connections or sata connections. So i have disks 1-8 connected, not disk 9-10. RAID-6 allows for 2 drives to fail and keep working so i assume it should be able to rebuild with the 8 of 0 disks anyway.

I have the following software available but they do not seem to work with RAID-6:
X-Ways Forensics, File Scavenger, RAID Reconstructor (with Captain Nemo and GetDataBack NTFS Licences), UFS Explorer and R-Studio. All current latest versions.

Can you suggest any way to rebuild this array, i do not have the controller or the enclosure (this unit came from overseas and it was very large and heavy so the enclosure and controller could not be shipped with the drives, i only have the drives).

Is there any method you would suggest ? (e.g consider it as a RAID-5 but with 1 spare drive).
This is my 1st RAID6 Case, any suggestions or tips on a software, tool, method would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks!

[Doomer]

There are no software to recover RAID6
Another thing - RAID6 ECC algorithm is still vendor specific for different controllers
It's going to be pain in the ass for you to recover data

If you really need the data back I can suggest you a DR company which developed their own software to recover RAID6 and they could recover data from RAID6 but it will be expensive. If you are ready for this - PM me

[zed]

PM Sent to Doomer, if anybody has any suggestions - i'm desperate, let me know what you suggest.

I have a lot of practice in rebuilding raid0, raid5, spanned and raid10 drives ..none so far with raid6.
;(

[zed]

I thought i would share some info - the new version of UFS explorer now supports RAID-6 rebuilding. Just upgraded this week and found this bonus feature.