Question : Problem: RAID 5 array has 'disapeared'

We have a server with a data drive consisting of 6 discs ion a RAID 5 configuration with a hotswap on the sixth disk. The RAID has failed and we are now unable to view the contents of the discs from windows. The RAID controller is an ADAPTEC 2020SA after speaking to the Adaptec support team and them recomending reinitializing the array as before we are still unable to read the data. This is a new server and is waiting for a tape drive to be installed for removable backups to be taken off site. (We thought the RAID would not fail this badly) So to get the data off in this state we have used some data recovery software. This has worked fine for most of the files. However we would obviously like to save the data. We can see the disk in disk management as an un-initialized disk, but are on the cautious side for initializing the disk as we want the data to remain in tact.

Any ideas?

Answer : Problem: RAID 5 array has 'disapeared'

On some systems you can initialize the disks w/o formatting them afterwards. Tried this on a Dell computer with some SCSI Raid adapter - actually I think it was an Adaptec, but not sure.

Try to see the documentation and see if you will first be asked to initialize and then format. THen you can skip format and you should be able to boot.

Some systems can reload the config from the disks. This is a good way too.

/Christian

Good luck!