RAID5 Logical Partitions

[Caster Troy]

Hi,
I have a storage connected to a server that was running windows server 2003, this storage has hardware based RAID5 and the total space was divided into 3 logical partitions. The OS crashed due to incompatibility of a software application. Now the windows server 2003 is re-installed but data on the storage is not accessible as the logical partitions are not there. Kindly provide help for this problem.
Thankyou
Javed Khalid

[john_347]

Hi Javed,

What sort of storage system ( ie a shelf, SAN) ?? I take it that the raid was configured via the raid controller ?? when you reloaded the os, is that all you loaded or did you reconfigure the array ??

what does the windows 2003 diskmanger show ?? is it asking you to write a signature to the external storage ??

hope to hear from you soon.

regards

john

[Thomas Bianco]

the way you speak about it makes me think this is an external array. posibly Fibre channle or some Stand Alone array. if this is the case, it may be that the controller driver isn't loaded, and thus it's not appearing.

if your certain the driver is functioning properly there are three posibilites:

first the data is intact, but some configurational change is preventing the raid controller from loading properly. unlikley.

second, the data is damaged nonfatally, and the raid controller cannot import the array in a reduced state. posible.

third, the data or the raid metadata is damaged in such a way as to be considered a failed array. this is most likley.

since this is a hardware based array, windows does not know anything about the data structures. a os reload shouldn't have any effect on the array, as it's internal workings are totally opaque to the OS.

[Caster Troy]

The storage is a 4314 storage enclosure with 10 hard disks and was connected to ml370g3 server using a 642 raid controller. the internal hard disks were connected to the internal port of the controller and the storage to the external. when the os is re-installed using smart start the logical partition information for the storage is gone. is there a way that i can recover these partitions, also note that raid5 with parity was configured. the raid is intact as i have checked it through array configuration utility.
reply soon
thanx