Help! - BIOS Update - RAID 10 - 2 drives now non raid

[james_blonde007]

Hi all, Can you help?

Today I did a really stupid thing.
I decided to use Asus Bios update tool (the one that runs from windows).
I was not thinking straight and I stupidly assumed that since it was updating the bios from an app running in windows that it would be smart enough to carry my old bios settings into the new bios.
It did not and now my raid config is not properly detected.
Fortunately I can boot to windows because it’s installed on the fifth drive, independent from the raid config.

I have 5x Hard drives in my workstation.
1x SSD 30 gig - Non Raid - contains my Windows 7 install & a few apps only
4x 1.5 TB Sata HD's - Used to all belong to my raid array - Raid 10 - All my data files

After the update the bios had reset to defaults.
I reconfigured it again to RAID but when I do, only two of the raid drives appear in the drive list within the bios.
In the bios level Intel matrix controller it says,

Raid Volumes,
ID - 0
Name - Media Data
Level - Raid 10(Raid0+1)
Strip - 64kb
Size - 2794.8 GB
Status - FAILED
Bootable - NO
Physical Disks:
Port--Name---------Serial - Size - Type/Status
0 - OCZ-Vertex - xxxxxxxx - 29.8GB - Non-raid disk
2 - ST31500341as - xxxxxxxx - 1397.2GB - Non raid disk
3 - ST31500341as - xxxxxxxx - 1397.2GB - Non raid disk
4 - ST31500341as - xxxxxxxx - 1397.2GB - Member disk (0)
5 - ST31500341as - xxxxxxxx - 1397.2GB - Member disk (0)

In Windows 7, I run Intel Matrix Storage Console 8.8.0.1009.
It reports two drives missing from the array but does identify the missing drives as non raid.

Can anyone help?
Although it appears bad, I think that its just a little tweak in the bios or something that is required for all the drives to be correctly identified.

PS I did back up the previous BIOS before i did the update but i do not know if it holds the values i set or if its just the basic bios restore.
MOBO = ASUS PT6 Deluxe V2
BIOS old = 0901
BIOS New = 1108

 

[james_blonde007]

any ideas?

 

[james_blonde007]

Go into the bios configuration and remove the raid config and set it back up the same way as before again?

I've had to do this before when I've updated my BIOS with a RAID setup. I've just set the system up for RAID in the standrd BIOS setup again, then gone into the RAID configuration and set it up in exactly the same way as before. (RAID 0 configuration.)

If you used software RAID in Windows however I can't help you.

Hi Link,

I have indeed configured my bios back to raid etc.
I have also set the two existing members back to non members and then created the raid again with the same details and all 4 drives.

This appears successful in the respect that the raid array now correctly contains all four drives.

Windows identifies the array as not initialised.
I am worried that if i click initialise the data will be wiped.
Any thoughts?
I am attempting some free data recovery software just now to see what it can view on the array before i make the decision to initialise the disk.

If i initialise, is it just assigning a drive letter in Win7 ?

 

[james_blonde007]

Isn't the data already wiped if you've created the RAID again?

Presumably the array now shows up in Windows as a single drive but there's nothing on it.

I don't know.
I don't think so. A cursory glance might suggest so but no formating etc has occured. I have only told the system to make the two members non members, I do not think this wipes the raw data.
That left me with 4 non members. I have then told the raid controller to create an array for the for non members. The array size and name are the same as previous.
This made all of the non members go back to being members and again no formatting occurs. The MFT might be over written but not the raw data.

Finally in windows seven I initialised the drive but chose not to format the drive or assign it a drive letter.

This displays as a single large drive with a status of 'unallocated'

I am hoping that drive recovery software will now be able to locate the raw data but I am guessing it will not be successfull as the stripping breaks the data up across the disks.

If this is unsuccessful I may turn the disks back to non members and see if Linux software raid drivers can detect the MFT and reconstruct the raid.

Any thoughts?

As long as I do not format the drives the theory is that the raw data has not gone anywhere so there must be a solution.

 

[james_blonde007]

Good news!
I have downloaded the demo version of Recover My Files.
It can see the file structure and the files although there is hours of scanning to complete (approx 3 TB's! of data)

I am not certain if the data it is displaying can be recovered yet as I need to wait till the scan ends some time tomorrow.

If it can see the structure and the files it or some other software will be able to recover it.

I am half tempted to allocate a drive letter and hope that windows just sees it all.

I will wait, purchase a 3 TB drive and back it up if recoverable, then set the drive letter and prol discover the data and no requirement for the 3 TB drive.

Any recommendations on a 3 TB drive? Does not seem to be many available? Have they just hit the market?
Are they reliable?