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I have a HP smart array 6400 raid card and a 4 1TB raid 1+0 array, I was informed the power would fail for a shor time this afternoon. So I powered off the array and was surprised to find out that my raid array was lost when power restored. There are not any logical drives and all the 4 1TB disks are here so I can create a new array that includes them.

Before I do anything stupid, I would like to know that if I recreate a 1+0 array, will all my data disappear? Thank you for reading this

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    does your RAID card support re-scanning for recovery? Jul 27, 2012 at 14:45
  • You have RAID 1+0 as in a mirrored pair of stripes? Then in the worst case you can test that by recreating one pair of the mirror.
    – Hennes
    Jul 27, 2012 at 14:49
  • there is a rescan option from the web management, but i only get individual disk ,not any logical drive
    – matrix007
    Jul 27, 2012 at 15:42

4 Answers 4

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I'd assume your data will be gone, always plan for the worst I find.

Odd that you'd lose the array though - were you using HP disks supported by that controller?

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  • not consult HP disks supported yet , the card was bought at least 3 to five years from now, and i think the service period time may elaps.
    – matrix007
    Jul 27, 2012 at 15:36
  • yes it's odd , and i created another raid 0 array with two new 1tb disks for test,and power off ,power on , again and again, the raid array seems fine
    – matrix007
    Jul 27, 2012 at 15:41
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today , after had a full partition backedup, i recreted this 1+0 array, and the system immediately recognise the partition is linux, however , i couldnt mount the logical drive due to some errors , i have to perform a fsck, it took me a long time to finish checking disks, and a plenty of errors had been found, anyway , the resulti is that only about 43GB data were there , all other are gone

when i recreate the array ,there is a option to select stripe size, my predecessor couldnt remember what option he chose when he created this array , i have to leave it as default 128KB, i don't know if this is the cause

anyway, with backup in hand i can format and restore all the data

thank you for reading this

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  • Could you answer my question (and ewwhite's linked one) about what type of disks you have, it's just that HP didn't make 1TB disks for that controller. That could be your problem.
    – Chopper3
    Jul 30, 2012 at 12:17
  • the disks are all SATA
    – matrix007
    Jul 30, 2012 at 13:46
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Wait, this isn't possible. There were never any 1TB capacity SCSI disks available in the market. The HP Smart Array 6400 is a old-school parallel SCSI (Ultra-320) controller that only accommodated 68-pin or SCA hard disks. It did not support IDE drives.

What are you talking about here?

Edit:

So this is an HP StorageWorks MSA20 enclosure connected externally. This enclosure does support SATA disks.

Okay. Usually a full power-off and power on are needed. The BIOS prompts are very important in these situations, as HP Smart Array RAID configuration and metadata are contained on the disks, rather than the controller. Did you see any errors listing the number of logical drives or whether the array's disks were responding or not?

It's rare to lose data in this manner (assuming the disk drives were healthy), so I think you reformatted unnecessarily. If the drives are unhealthy, then you'll likely encounter problems in the future.

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  • true, not SCSI disks, the card is connected with a disks container(i dont know how to call it)which equiped with 12 individual bays, i can install 12 disks in this container, and no SCSI disks , all of them ar SATA
    – matrix007
    Jul 30, 2012 at 13:19
  • Is this an HP StorageWorks MSA20 enclosure?
    – ewwhite
    Jul 30, 2012 at 13:34
  • yes, much like this
    – matrix007
    Jul 30, 2012 at 13:40
  • much like or exactly like?
    – Chopper3
    Jul 30, 2012 at 13:49
  • yes, from the link i think it is this one
    – matrix007
    Jul 30, 2012 at 13:55
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It's been a long time, but back in the days of ProLiant 6400Rs, I remember having an array on a Smart Array 431 just dissappear. Before going for a restore, I tried re-creating the array and the logical drives (EXACTLY the same size as before), and the data was intact. Worth a try before you give up and resort to a restore...

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  • well, if there is nothing better i can do, i will recreate this 1+0 array by the end of next week, and i will post the result to let you know ,thank you for sharing your experience
    – matrix007
    Jul 28, 2012 at 5:07

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