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This server was originally setup with RAID 1 mirrored drives for the C:\ primary partition where the Operating System was installed. And a RAID 5 array with 3 drives for the data partitions.

The C: drive ran for the last year with little or no space and last week both drives in the C: Mirrored Array A00-00 failed. I have now installed 2 new drives, created a new RAID 1 Array A00-00 mirroring the 2 drives and installed the Operating System to this partition. After booting to my newly installed partition and operating system I expected to see my RAID 5 Array and data partitions. But I am not seeing them.

From the controller interface, I can see that the status of the RAID 5 Array A00-01 is "optimal" and the drives are lit green.

I have what appears to be a dell windows driver for the RAID controller but I'm uncertain about using it as I don't want to overwrite controller information. Can someone please help fill out my understanding of what I'm seeing and how best to proceed.

Dell 2800 Poweredge server with PERC RAID controller. Windows server 2003 SBS.

Note: This server is old, the software is old. It's being retired and the data is being moved to a new setup. The data on the partitions is backed up with very small exception so worst case, it is not critical. I would like to recover these partitions simply because it would be better to work with last used data than a backup that might miss a few changed documents.

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    Get a screenshot of the Disk Management console and post it in your question.
    – joeqwerty
    Aug 31, 2013 at 20:00
  • I can't post any images because I don't have a "10 Reputation" on Stack Exchange. Sep 1, 2013 at 20:09
  • The Disk Management shows the mirrored drives. These are two 32GB scsi disks that show as one 32GB drive - C:. The only other drive displayed is the CDRom. The device manager shows no problem with the PERC RAID controller. It shows the PERC driver made by DELL is the installed driver. Sep 1, 2013 at 20:11

1 Answer 1

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All configuration-related data for the RAID is going to normally be saved both on the controller and on all of the hard drives. If you update the firmware and driver for the card, it's also unlikely that configuration data on the card would be affected (though not impossible). Even if it is though, you should be able to import the configuration again.

I would recommend updating the driver and firmware (in that order), then reboot to see if that improves things.

Also, consider using some kind of bootable media (OMSA Live CD from Dell may be a good option) to check if the data is visible from there (rule out the OS as the cause).

If the problem does not seem to be related to the OS, and you can see the RAID1 only regardless of how you boot, you may want to consider recreating the RAID5. Boot to the controller BIOS, take note of the configuration of the RAID5, delete it, and recreate it again (do NOT initialize). This will recreate all of the metadata for that RAID set, and may be enough to get it showing up in the OS again.

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