Hi all, I'm trying it all with a strange Windows Server2003 3 Samsung 250GB disks-RAID5 but I'm going mad with it. Two of the disks have all zeros the first 16MB, and then begin with nonsensical (for me) information. The other disk doesn't begin with any known FS, just spare hex info... I found 2 NTFS "partitions" (the typical NTFS partition start) at the same position (far away from sector 0) in two of the disks (same sector, exactly) but I don't know how to mount the RAID really, those NTFS partitions do not start at the beggining of the sector and I just get corrupt data. Any tip? Thankyou.

Do you need the data from this?

If yes, then send it to a pro .. There are a lot of RAID 5 configurations out there.

If you are comfortable with what you are doing, you will get much of the information you need from the NTFS boot sector.

<itch>

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If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don't fully understand the situation. ... Mr Kipling

https://www.mjm.co.uk/

I should add that what you describe is normal, so at the moment there is a reasonable chance of recovery. If you dont know what you are doing, send it to someone that does.

I know of a company in Portugal that can help you, but I know none in Spain.

<itch>

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If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don't fully understand the situation. ... Mr Kipling

https://www.mjm.co.uk/

Recovery Labs are in spain.

I have the solution. It was HP system by a chance ?

Thanks for the replies. First of all, I want to do it myself. The data is not very important, but I don't want to throw it like rubbish, I want to try, want to help others in the same situation, and I know what I am doing. Normal RAID5, as far as I know, will begin with the NTFS string (if NTFS is the FS) and then the NTLDR string, (offset = one sector). Those strings are in first drive if the stripe is 64 kB or more, and it will be splitted between 1st and 2nd hard drive if the stripe size is 32kB. The 3rd drive should show the first parity block as 1st XOR 2nd. That's easy to understand, but I can't find the offset and the stripe size in this case... Why is the partition start string at 100GB or more, duplicated in two disks at the same position? I can't see any other partition information...
Thankyou

This is because of the very nature of RAID5. It is duplicated because one of them is real, the other is the parity and the third disk contains zeroes at that sector...
The 100GB offset is probably because it was a second partition, while the first one might have been damaged (might got the first ~16MB erased as you pointed out)

just thoughts...
pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

If it is what I think I have the solution but can't help you - NDA effective. Sorry. If data is not important reformat everything and rebuild array. And it's not a sin to want all the cake, we are adult enough. But if you want all the cake, you have to work.

If you want the cake...

Either pay a pro baker for the cake or learn to bake it yourself. It might take you several years to perfect a really nice cake.

Well, I'll try to bake it myself. But any help or tip would be welcome. If you are in a company and don't want to share knowledge, OK, but I'm not going to send it anywhere to get the data back so it wouldn't be a loss of money for you, but a good deed
I'll keep on gathering information by now...

Calculate the Disk order, block size, parity rotation and starting sector. Once you find these you should be able to save the data.

simply check one document that size more than 1 KB. check how it distribute among the RAID 5. but the easier thing is if you know File System structure . it will easier for you to work.. GOOD LUCK.....

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Спасибо
СУТИОНО / АПИНГ

Good baking....

Hi Azurlake!!

Have you get any success with this RAID assembly?