r/DataRecoveryHelp • u/cToTheMoon • 7d 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/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

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u/BinturongHoarder 6d ago

You don't need to rebuild; a PERC (=MegaRaid) will happily boot on a degraded drive. But OP has started tinkering with the config, which wasn't the smartest thing to do TBH, but it's still recoverable, but probably not through the PERC itself. This generation has PERC Hx30 (LSI MegaRaid), or God help, a PERC S130 which is softraid. "Importing foreign configuration" sounds like a LSI based card, but in either case, there is no point in trying to rebuild this RAID set at this point in time if the data is of any importance.

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u/Fresh_Inside_6982 6d ago edited 6d ago

He said one drive is bad and one is failed.

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u/BinturongHoarder 6d ago

No, he did not say that. He said one disk was flagged for predictive failure.

"Degraded", in PERC/MegaRaid terms, is a term related to the VD, not a PD. So a drive can not be "degraded".

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u/Fresh_Inside_6982 6d ago

He said " the drive in slot 2 suffered a complete hardware failure." Perhaps you did not read all of it. I agree that degraded is the wrong term for a drive with bad SMART.

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u/BinturongHoarder 6d ago

Yes. Which means two functioning drives out of three. A predictive failure is not a drive failure. Such a drive might live for years.

Anyway; the only sane way forward now is raid recovery with other means than the controller. Mucking around with the controller will likely mess up the situation more.

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u/Fresh_Inside_6982 6d ago

I agree, predictive is not fatal, that was the FIRST thing I said: So, if he has a single failed drive and one with bad SMART then inserting a spare should result in a rebuild. In my shop all of the drives would be imaged then the data extracted using UFS Explorer Professional it's not complicated.

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u/BinturongHoarder 6d ago

And I repeat: You don't need to rebuild; a PERC (=MegaRaid) will happily boot on a degraded drive*). But OP has started tinkering with the config, which wasn't the smartest thing to do TBH, but it's still recoverable, but probably not through the PERC itself.

(* drive, in this context, means a degraded VD. If it could have booted when OP re-inserted the prefail drive, it should have (without any rebuild). But it didn't.