A somewhat complex problem

jozbun · 08-27-2008, 12:05 PM

Good day!

I'm having a bit of a problem. that's fairly elaborate. First I'll state that I have experience in Desktop, Server, and Networking support. This is a little beyond my skills, and has resisted everything I have tried to date :(

First for those of you who do not want heavy detail:

Alienware Are51 M57 laptop "let the smoke out" out of warranty.
Laptop had 2 160 GB WD SATA HDDs on a RAID card (Upgraded from 2 40GB HDDs about 2 years ago)
The OS (C) drive was originally set up by the Alienware Manuf Imaging CD.
The Data (E) drive was set up using Drive Manager from within WinXP Media Edition. At no point do I recall setting any RAID properties.
After the Laptop went bust I bought a new Desktop I also bought a SATA to USB kit to recover the data from my Laptop drives.
The 2 Laptop Drives are not showing up as I expected when attached to the USB device
(FYI I have validated that the device works properly with some of my other older drives laying around)
One Drive: shows in Drive Manager, however shows as "Unknown", and "Unreadable".
The other drive comes up under drive manager as having unallocated space of the proper size.
I attached the drives to a SIIG Raid Card in my desktop with similar results.

So to me it looks like the Alienware RAID controller did something that is preventing the data from being read. Does anyone have any suggestions, or ideas for things I can try? Drivesavers is quoting me 1700-2K to recover, and frankly the data on there that I don't already have backed up isn't worth that.

Thanks

jozbun · 08-28-2008, 08:45 AM

Not sure if this is against the rules, but I figured I'd bump this to see if anyone might take a stab.

**FreoHeaveho** · 08-28-2008, 12:28 PM

Correct sata drivers installed?

jozbun · 08-29-2008, 06:22 AM

Yeah. I can see other SATA drives without an issue.

**blah789** · 08-29-2008, 10:56 AM

I have nearly no experience with RAID, but I'll give it a shot anyway.
I don't think you'd be able to read the RAID using USB (maybe you could using software RAID? I really wouldn't know). I think you would need a hardware RAID controller.
I don't think just having the drivers is enough. I think at bootup time, you're supposed to press certain keys (on my motherboard it used to be F4 or Ctrl-S - it had a built-in Silicon Image 3112A), and then go into a menu that sets up the RAID as a RAID 0 array. That setup could also be available in the BIOS menu (just a speculation). If your card came with a manual, check if it says anything about setting up the RAID - like do you need to install anything PRIOR to adding the drives, or is there a jumper setting that enables RAID 0 vs. RAID 1 for example.

08-27-2008, 12:05 PM	#1 (permalink)
jozbun Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP Pro All latest Updates	A somewhat complex problem Good day! I'm having a bit of a problem. that's fairly elaborate. First I'll state that I have experience in Desktop, Server, and Networking support. This is a little beyond my skills, and has resisted everything I have tried to date :( First for those of you who do not want heavy detail: Alienware Are51 M57 laptop "let the smoke out" out of warranty. Laptop had 2 160 GB WD SATA HDDs on a RAID card (Upgraded from 2 40GB HDDs about 2 years ago) The OS (C) drive was originally set up by the Alienware Manuf Imaging CD. The Data (E) drive was set up using Drive Manager from within WinXP Media Edition. At no point do I recall setting any RAID properties. After the Laptop went bust I bought a new Desktop I also bought a SATA to USB kit to recover the data from my Laptop drives. The 2 Laptop Drives are not showing up as I expected when attached to the USB device (FYI I have validated that the device works properly with some of my other older drives laying around) One Drive: shows in Drive Manager, however shows as "Unknown", and "Unreadable". The other drive comes up under drive manager as having unallocated space of the proper size. I attached the drives to a SIIG Raid Card in my desktop with similar results. So to me it looks like the Alienware RAID controller did something that is preventing the data from being read. Does anyone have any suggestions, or ideas for things I can try? Drivesavers is quoting me 1700-2K to recover, and frankly the data on there that I don't already have backed up isn't worth that. Thanks

08-28-2008, 08:45 AM	#2 (permalink)
jozbun Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP Pro All latest Updates	Re: A somewhat complex problem Not sure if this is against the rules, but I figured I'd bump this to see if anyone might take a stab.

08-28-2008, 12:28 PM	#3 (permalink)
FreoHeaveho TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 3,213 OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64 SP2, Windows XP Professional SP3, Mac OSX Leopard My System	Re: A somewhat complex problem Correct sata drivers installed? __________________ PC Wizard-VGA 2009 Charts-Power Supply Info-Multi/Single Rail PSU?-Speedfan-Driver Sweeper

08-29-2008, 06:22 AM	#4 (permalink)
jozbun Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP Pro All latest Updates	Re: A somewhat complex problem Yeah. I can see other SATA drives without an issue.

08-29-2008, 10:56 AM	#5 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,235 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: A somewhat complex problem I have nearly no experience with RAID, but I'll give it a shot anyway. I don't think you'd be able to read the RAID using USB (maybe you could using software RAID? I really wouldn't know). I think you would need a hardware RAID controller. I don't think just having the drivers is enough. I think at bootup time, you're supposed to press certain keys (on my motherboard it used to be F4 or Ctrl-S - it had a built-in Silicon Image 3112A), and then go into a menu that sets up the RAID as a RAID 0 array. That setup could also be available in the BIOS menu (just a speculation). If your card came with a manual, check if it says anything about setting up the RAID - like do you need to install anything PRIOR to adding the drives, or is there a jumper setting that enables RAID 0 vs. RAID 1 for example.