Here's what I did:

My server (Dell PowerEdge T420 with a RAID-5 array of 7 disks) was working fine. I decided to do "some tests" and proceeded to remove and insert back the disks (4 of em, one by one) from the front bay with the server on.

When I turn on the server it doesn't load the OS and shows a message regarding the removed disks which says they have a "foreign configuration", and gives the option of either clear or import said configuration. I searched on the internet and decided to clear the foreign configuration.

The status of the RAID-5 is Failed. The 3 non-removed disks display status "Online" while the removed ones display "ready" status.

Now, the question is: since there wasn't physical damage donde to the disks, can data still be recovered?


PD: So far, the options I've found are to delete the current RAID virtual disk and create a new one with the exact same parameters of the former. The other is to do a retag.

Hi, as it is now data can be recovered, but not by your self.
Take the drives to data recovery company, they can get the information for you...it's going to be pricey as there are 7 drives.
DON'T mess with the drives anymore...leave them as is.

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Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Yeah, pricey indeed (I already asked for some quotations)... So, recreating the array by myself with the exact values of the original doesn't guarantee data integrity?

If you need the data, don't carry out any further operations and contact a professional. Let us know where you are and we can recommend someone reputable.

If you don't need the data, scratch it and move on.

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Data Recovery Ireland

Recreating the array is never an option. Any DIY attempt would require making a copy of the array.

agreed.

If you want to attempt any DIY, you must clone all your disk first.

DIY has its pros and cons, your data your choice

good luck

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Data Recovery Pakistan

My gut feeling is, if you don't know enough about RAIDs to pull and re-insert drives like that, you definitely are going to be over your head trying to recover the data yourself. Assuming that the drives are 2TB or smaller, it should be a relatively simple and inexpensive recovery by a professional lab. I'd expect a reasonable price to be somewhere between $2000 and $3000 USD.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Please don't try any DIY...for your own sake.

If you care about the data then there is no "Can I try *this* or perhaps *this*?" The answer is no. Don't risk it.

It sounds like the server doesn't recognise those drives as part of the array any more. RAID 5 can only suffer 1 drive failure and you've simulated 4 drive failures so the array has gone down.

Turn off the server, get the array looked at by a pro.

Well, this indeed isn't the best thing to do on a production server.

No, there's nothing to do by means of the controller, besides making the situation worse.

I obviously didn't see the system, but believe that folder structure is likely to be damaged.
If necessary, we should be able to help recovering this RAID remotely. Please check your PM.

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• Remote RAID, NAS, SAN, VMware, DVR (CCTV), flash and tape recovery. Data recovery support.