[mikemil]

Hey guys, got a very serious problem I need help with. I will start from the beginning so you know everything

I built my computer about 7-8 months ago, using a Gigabyte X48-DQ6 motherboard. I used the motherboards onboard raid to create a raid 5 array with 5 750gb seagate hard drives.
I have always had problems with stuttering in windows (Vista Ultimate 64).
Recently I thought it was the power supply, so I swapped my Enermax 650w for 1000w Silverstone. I work in a computer shop building/repairing computers. I then found out it was the dvd drives I had. I think it may be because of a conflict with the raid, but I'm not 100%. I just decided to disconnect the burners and only plug them back in when I needed them. I stuck with new PSU though.
Now, usually before I go to work, I put the computer into sleep mode so I can quickly get back onto it when I get back. When I got back tonight, I moved the mouse like usual to have the computer power up again, but got nothing on the screen. I decided on a restart. The raid came up, and it showed that one hard drive was not being detected, and the raid's status had changed to 'degraded'. I thought I would try and get into windows to see if I could work out what was going on. After a couple of restarts another hard drive started to not be detected.
I am desperate to get the data from these hard drives, and best case senario, get the raid back up again. But I really dont know what to do.

If anyone has ANY ideas, please post them, as I am really desperate.

Thanks in advance.

PS, if this is in the wrong section, please move it.

[JohnWill]

Please don't say that you have no data backup. RAID of any level is NOT backup!

You will have to figure how to get the RAID array working, because you're not going to get the data from the drives piecemeal.


Remember: Data you don't have at least two copies of is data you don't care about.

[mikemil]

Okay, I thought the point of RAID was a sort of auto backup.
Anyway, I have got it going again, and its rebuilding now with a new hard drive.
It's 5 x seagate 750gb. Any idea how long it will take to rebuild? It's been 21 hours so far...

EDIT: 27 hours, and counting...

[JohnWill]

It might take a long time.

The FIRST thing I'd do, even before the rebuild is complete, is to make a REAL backup on some other media!

The sole purpose of RAID is to provide a level of hardware redundancy, it was never intended to be a backup. When a virus wipes out the disk contents, it's gone, RAID or no RAID. If an errant application, or simply a O/S crash takes out the MFT, data is gone, RAID or no RAID.

Again, read my lips: RAID is not backup.

[mikemil]

I understand that, but for 2tb+, its going to be very expensive to find a backup solution. Tapes cost a hell of a lot. I just cant afford that right now. I have a good anti-virus, and the OS is not part of the raid.

[JohnWill]

Well, it's your data. A "good AV" is hardly proper protection. You have two terabytes of data and you can't afford a pair of $75 terabyte drives and a dual-drive enclosure to protect it? You've already found out how easy it would be to lose it all, are you itching to see that again?

Whatever floats your boat, but you'd never catch me running bareback like that.

[mikemil]

I'm not from America, Drives are nowhere near $75 lol. More like $199. Spent all my money on the new computer.

[JohnWill]

Well, the same comment applies. I'd MUCH rather have a non-RAID main storage and use the extra drive(S) as backup than trust all my data to a single storage subsystem. My opinion is that anyone with that much data should have a budget for a backup solution!