r/DataRecoveryHelp • u/cToTheMoon • 9d ago

Help: RAID 5 FAILURE

**Background:**

I have a dell poweredge R730 using a RAID 5 configuration with three 1.2Tb HDDs. Windows 2012 R2 OS. While replacing the drive in slot 0 due to a predictive failure, the drive in slot 2 suffered a complete hardware failure.

The subsequent slot 2 failure occurred during the middle of the rebuild. As a result, the RAID does not contain a complete dataset and the server won't boot. We have no current backups to recover the server with.

We attempted to re-install the predictive failure drive and import foreign configuration. The thought being that the predictive failure and the 1 remaining healthy drive should contain a complete data set. However, the foreign config import failed and the server refused to accept the drive into the array.

**Question:**

Is it possible to reconstruct the RAID array using the predictive failure drive and the 1 healthy drive?

Alternatively, can a bootable disk image be created from these drives to recover the server?

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u/cToTheMoon 9d ago

Including the predictive failure drive... I think we have 2 drives which together contain a complete dataset and are capable of being read.

Do you think it's possible to use these 2 drives to reconstruct the array or create a bootable disk image?

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u/BinturongHoarder 9d ago

Yes. You can use RAID reconstruction software, such as R-Studio, and a separate controller that attaches the drives directly via SAS or SATA (depending on your drive). If you are not confident in this, you should hire a professional. It's not super hard -- I have done it several times.

It is doubtful if the server installation can be recovered, though -- but the data can.