From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Michael Evans Subject: Re: RAID5 on broken RocketRaid 1640 - data format? Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:15:47 -0800 Message-ID: <4877c76c1001292315y16b4a8eay8e73a9d35727506d@mail.gmail.com> References: <73e903671001291155g761f2dc8rb6e02541525929ba@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Return-path: In-Reply-To: <73e903671001291155g761f2dc8rb6e02541525929ba@mail.gmail.com> Sender: linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org To: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Kristleifur_Da=F0ason?= Cc: linux-raid List-Id: linux-raid.ids On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 11:55 AM, Kristleifur Da=F0ason wrote: > Hi, > > A good pal of mine once had a 4x400GB RAID5 array running on a > RocketRaid 1640 controller. The controller broke, and due to > complexity and his understandable lack of RAID expertise, the drives > are sitting in a drawer. I want to try to help. > > Do you excellent list dwellers know what data format the 1640 uses on > the disks? Is there any Linux RAID tool that can work with the data > off the disks? > > In case it's relevant, the system was running Windows, and there was = a > single NTFS filesystem over the array. I'm pretty sure the array was > created on the BIOS side. > > Many thanks! > -- Kristleifur > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid"= in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at =A0http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > Load the drives in to a computer as spare drives, DO NOT WRITE TO THEM (make sure your OS doesn't try to automount either). Try mdadm --examine on the raw devices and any partitions you can see. If mdadm recognizes the meta-data format there is a very good chance the array can be brought online, try to do that in read-only mode (read the mdadm manual). Examine the result, it may contain partitions or a filesystem that can be mounted via something like ntfs-3g. If you get that far I recommend running a CHECK on the array (Before making it read/write) and validating that there are no errors. If you get errors you /may/ want to make a backup of the entire device. I know that old drives from a 4-port hardware raid card I used one time kept showing meta-data (in the syslog) unknown/not recognized, but I don't believe it was a highpoint 1640. There have also been improvements since then. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" i= n the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html