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I have a box running SBS 2003 with one hard drive for the os and another three in a raid 5 configuration [edit: using the build in SBS raid system]

The os hard drive seems to have died, even trying chkdsk and repairing isn't working & it just blue screens on boot.

I would like to transfer off the data from the raid drive, if I did a re-install on a spare HD with SBS 2003 would it be able to detect that there was a raid system in place on these hard drives and make it accessible or is there a way to tell it? Or is there another way to save the data?

Thanks in advance,

Stuart

stukerr
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1 Answers1

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As long as you can load the correct drivers for the RAID controller from the OS you use to boot your server, you will be able to access the data on your RAID-5 array.

I say Reinstate Monica
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  • Thanks for the answer, I probably should have mentioned I'm using SBS's built in raid functionality - does that change anything? – stukerr Oct 16 '14 at 10:30
  • Do you perhaps mean that you are using Windows' dynamic disks in A RAID configuration? The answer is still yes, although you'll have to import the disk configuration. I suggest that you completely disconnect your RAID drives from the computer, build your new OS drive, *then* connect the raid drives. This approach minimizes any risk of damage to the drives while installing Windows. – I say Reinstate Monica Oct 16 '14 at 10:38
  • Yep that sounds like what is going on, just wasn't 100% on the terminology (especially as I can't get in to see how it is described!). Will definitely do the disconnect thing - where would I import the disk configuration from? – stukerr Oct 16 '14 at 10:58
  • The Disk Management console. From the Run dialog box type the command `diskmgmt.msc` – I say Reinstate Monica Oct 16 '14 at 11:41
  • I've found that - I was just wondering where in there I would import the existing raid structure from? I can't seem to see any import, and i'm a bit paranoid about accidentally creating a fresh array on top of the existing one and loosing all my data! thanks – stukerr Oct 16 '14 at 12:12
  • See if this helps: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753750.aspx. You should be able to import the array without any data loss, but of course this is something best done with a backup available in case of problems. If you don't have any backups, today is the perfect day to decide from this point forward to make regular backups of any data you value. – I say Reinstate Monica Oct 16 '14 at 12:56
  • Actually just tried it out on a VM and saw the import when I reinstalled SBS, so many thanks for the help. It did come up with a warning about data loss, but the test data I had on there seemed ok. – stukerr Oct 16 '14 at 13:12
  • And yes - very right about the backups! – stukerr Oct 16 '14 at 13:13