Trying to recover data from failed Wide Ultra 320 SCSI Hard Drive

[Ali]

HI there,

Apart from the Windows Boot issue... few other observations from the screen shot shared.

as per screen shot you have Proliant system bios - d17 (07/22/2004) which does not come with ML350 G2 server. So, I am guessing that you have ML350 G4 server.

If this is ML350 G4 server then system bios version is initial release and there have been lot of fixes/enhancements which have been incorporated with the latest revisions.
for ML350 G4 series servers, the latest bios is Version: 2007.07.16 (A) (24 Jan 2008)
SP38283.exe (4.8 MB)

Smart array 641 Controller firmware is also quite old.

I see that latest firmware - DVD is available
Type: Firmware - DVD
Version: 8.50 (8 May 2009)
firmware-8.50-0.zip (410 MB)
(please see the installation instructions on the download page)

which will include all the latest firmware for ML350 G4 server... so this is good option when it comes to upgrading all the firmware together.

thanks,
Aftab

[Michael A. McKenney]

I would be very careful applying firmware to a RAID array or its server that is not functional. You could add more issues to your server. I have also seen firmware damage server boards and controllers.

[droctogon]

Hey, im burning this start smart disc to a cd, going to check the cd rom drive as well. I have a usb cd rom drive too if that doesnt work.

Will report back my findings.

[droctogon]

Aftab your right it is a G4 series. my apologies.

[Ali]

excellent...

Also prepare firmware CD... to update all the firmware in the server later on.

Once CD drive issue is fixed... we are going to follow the procedure explained for recoverying the operating system first.

Your logical drive Status is OK... so h/w raid is good.

thanks,
Aftab

[Trygve Henriksen]

I would try booting the server with a Linux LiveCD of some sort(Maybe Knoppix?) and see if you can read the file system from that.

If it can, I would get an USB-drive and copy all the files over to that, then do a clean install of the server. (Linux generally doesn't care about NTFS file permissions, so it's usually pretty easy to copy everything)

Doing a repair is something that I would only do if there's 'important data' not found in the files that needs to be rescued. (If this is the sole domain controller, there's lots of important and not very documented programs installed or something like that)

[Michael A. McKenney]

I would follow the solution to boot with a Linux CD and get your data backed up. I have seen firmware do more bad than good lately.

[droctogon]

Hey guys, the start smart cd was recognized and I was able to access the start software. There is an option to deploy server, if I do this and go through the options of resetting up windows will I be removing my important data?

What steps should I be taking to move forward from here...

[Michael A. McKenney]

Do you have backups of the registry and system state? If not, don't reinstall. I would check with the Linux CD to see if the array has data and its intact. Then, put in RAID 1 drives and reinstall Windows to it. Leave the RAID 5 alone for just apps/data.

[droctogon]

I'm exploring that option as well. So right now, the server is able to recognize the SmartStart disc, but will not recognize my win disc.

In order to install Linux(Ubuntu), I would need to get another hard drive and insert it into the other trays, give it a raid 1 config and install the OS on that drive?

Will the Raid 5 drives be recognizable in Linux(Ubuntu)?

[Michael A. McKenney]

Try this, put in the Windows OS CD. Isntall the controller driver at the beginning at F6. Just because it works with Smart Start does not mean it will see the RAID 5 array.
Do a recovery session. Linux CD is not difficult to use either.

[Michael A. McKenney]

The Linux CD method is like a recovery method in Windows CD/DVD. You boot a Linux CD in order to see the partition.

Either way you install the controller drivers. So you could go to HP. Get the Windows 2003 controller drivers and do it from F6 to a single hard drive. This way you don't damage anything in RAID 5. You could then backup your RAID 5 to the single drive. Personally, I would do RAID 1 for the OS and then see on RAID 5 working. RAID 1 OS and paging/swap. RAID 5 for data/apps

[Ali]

Hi There,

Your response....
Hey guys, the start smart cd was recognized and I was able to access the start software. There is an option to deploy server, if I do this and go through the options of resetting up windows will I be removing my important data?

What steps should I be taking to move forward from here...

Answer:
SmartStart CD, we have created to use offline Array Configuration Utility to see the status of logical drive and some advance reporting.

We are trying to recover the operating system which is already installed but not booting..... If you choose to deploy it will erase everything and will start from the scratch.I guess, that's not your prime objective.

Your response....
I'm exploring that option as well. So right now, the server is able to recognize the SmartStart disc, but will not recognize my win disc.

Answer:
As a part of Isolation, CDROM drive is fine but your Operating system CD is not working... so, check whether you are booting from the 1st windows disk... test the CD in any other system to SEE whether its booting..

else, try to get the another windows CD just for recovery purpose.

If you are not able to arrange another windows CD and make the existing CD work... you can't even use the new installation using smartstart Deploy option..

Please note : smartstart just facilitate the installation and provide all the HP drives and CD but it does not have operating system init and you have provide operating system CD during installation.

As suggested by other guys, you may backup your data using live CD option... it will give you access to partitions created within your logical drive and you can backup the data.

However, you still need operating system CD to recovery the existing OS or choose to install new after backup.

Hope this helps,

thanks
Aftab
Im in different time zone so sometime miss your response..

[droctogon]

Several things...

It might have been possible my Win Server 2003 disc was bad and was not being recognized during the boot.

I tested the disc else where and was able to read the disc while in windows but was not able to have any computers boot from the disc.

I burned another copy of win 2003 and it was recognized by the server and started the setup.

The bad news is when I chose repair it did not see any previous installation of windows and saw the rebuilt space as a new partition.

[Michael A. McKenney]

Most likely the RAID 5 partition was damaged and crashed with the bad drive. You should recreate the OS partition as RAID 1. Only use RAID 5 for apps/data. Don't use it for the OS or swap/paging. Microsoft recommends on RAID 1 or RAID 10 for the OS and paging/swap.

[droctogon]

In the windows repair, it says that "Setup did not find any hard disks installed on your computer" and to the configuration. It won't allow me to do anything else besides hit F3 and quit the repair/setup.

[Ali]

Hi there,

are you using the same windows 2003 (same version) disks which were used to deploy this server earlier?

when you start the windows setup.. did you provide smart array controller driver by pressing f6 ?

do you remember no of partitions that you had in windows and when you run the setup and choose repair option how many partitions that you see? do you see unpartitioned space or new partition.. can you include the snapshot please?

if you see multiple partitions including new partition ... do you recognise your data partition (where you have stored the data when windows was up)
if you see you data partition but windows partition (naming convention) is not there but listed as new partition, so you can choose that partition to setup windows without touching your data partion.

thanks
Aftab

[Ali]

hi there,

actually, your windows repair did not start.

You have to provide smart array controller driver during setup as windows does not have smart array controller driver integrated.

thanks
Aftab

[droctogon]

Aftab, I will try that next.

A friend of mine recommended I load up a linux software called GPARTED to see if the disk partitions are visible at all. It shows the disk as 67.83 unallocated space.

[Ali]

Hi there,

probably, your ntfs partition has been corrupted.

that is the last option that we are trying... if it takes the driver and run the repair then we check in windows whether you have your data intact... else reinstallation would be last resort.
try this driver.
cp010820.exe (573 KB)

download and extract it a folder then run it and copy all the drivers files into a floppy disk to provide during windows Setup..

[droctogon]

Aftab,

Can you post the entire url to the download, the hyperlink you provided doesn't seem to work on this forum.

[Michael A. McKenney]

You could try fixntfs and fixboot commands to repair ntfs and boot loaders.

[droctogon]

Nevermind I found the download link.

I extracted the files to floppy disk, (these are hard to find nowadays!) and inserted it into the server during windows setup. I specified the additional controller in the win setup and had it loaded.

I pressed the button for Windows Repair and the winsetup took me to this screen...

[Ali]

hi there,

you have run the recovery console... I was referring to windows Repair.. there is another repair option once you select windows setup then it will probably show your windows partition and ask you to repair.

from this recovery console, you may run
Fixboot and fixmbr commands... refer to microsoft article for more command on recovery console
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326215

thanks
Aftab

[droctogon]

I exited the recovery console to try the repair again, this time I selected to setup a new install of windows instead of repair just to see the partitions and it is showing unpartitioned space.

I am going back to the recovery console and will run those commands you suggested.

Again thanks for all the help so far.