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Question

How to identify which RAID disk is which?

Jan 29, 2016 1:32PM PST

Hello,

I have a 2 disc Raid 1 mirror setup which was OK for awhile but now has problems in that my PC does not automatically boot to Windows, on start-up..

On start-up I am offered two options, either:
Windows 7 (when selected it just continually boot-loops, trying to repair without success).
Windows 7 Secondary Plex – (when selected, Windows starts OK).

When I remove either of the drives, Windows will not start. Am assuming because they are mirrored.

I do not know which (if either) is faulty or even which drive is which so I can "unmirror" the healthy one and remove the suspect drive for replacement.

Windows management shows both drives

Disk 0 has a "Healthy" System partition but a "Failed Redundancy" C partition.
Disk 1 has no System partition at all but a "Failed Redundancy" C partition.

I have taken a screen snip but can't show it as I do not have a URL for it.

To further confusticate me, I took a peek at the Event Viewer which shows the “ID 11” fault as being with HardDisk2.

Yet Windows Disk Management shows my drives as being Disk 0 and Disk 1 (not Disk 2).

I'm guesstimating it refers to Disk 1 (in Disk Management) but cannot be sure (which also shatters my assumption that it was the first drive which had a fault through associating "Windows 7" as Disk 0 and "Windows 7 Secondary Plex" as Disk 1, at Start-Up.

Proper confused, so any advice sincerely appreciated!! Please help.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Update
Jan 29, 2016 1:45PM PST

I think I found out how to post the image URL Happy :

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Answer
I don't see a true RAID 1 there.
Jan 29, 2016 2:51PM PST

Disk 1 is missing the boot area. So if disk 0's C drive is corrupt then the scenario will be exactly what you wrote. And since it's in this condition of not a true RAID 1 there is no unmirror command.

In fact if you did break the mirror, you would break it thoroughly.

Try this. get another 500GB HDD and CLONE drive 0 to it. Use CLONEZILLA so no resizing of partitions happens.

Now clone that good C partition on Drive 1 to this target new HDD. If you are lucky, this new drive will boot.

-> Can I ask why such a RAID 1? It's not as if it really saved you here.

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Oh dear......
Jan 29, 2016 3:07PM PST

Hi and thanks for your reply.

In answer to your question, I simply followed instructions given to setup a mirror RAID using two identical drives when I bought a new PC. I can't even remember what instructions, from where, I used.

Which drive do you think HardDisk2 refers to in the Event Viewer?

Are you saying that Windows is booting from the Systempsrtition on Drive 0 but reading and running from the C-Drive of Drive 1, effectively meaning I am stuck with uding both drives until (and if) I am able to get matters sorted?

Nightmare to end all nightmares !!!!! Sad

Thanks again and I would sure appreciate any more assistance you or anyone feels able to offer.

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I see no disk 2 in your picture.
Jan 29, 2016 3:21PM PST

Microsoft has been lax about disk numbering but given the story and what you see I would try to recover using the method and software I noted. Figure 50 bucks for a new 500GB HDD? Is it worth fixing?

Or, are you ready for a wipe out? That is, all PC Windows users know to backup (and backup again) because of issues like this.

So I have an idea how to get out of this jam, but backup is required along with the spare HDD and CLONEZILLA for the clone of DISK 0 and then a partition clone of the good C to the target new HDD's drive C.

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Event Viewer and Remove Mirror
Jan 29, 2016 4:05PM PST

Hello again,

Here is the Event Viewer referring to HardDisk2:


And here is where Disk Management allows me to Remove Mirror although, following your comments, I guess removing the mirror would not really be a very good idea:



Fortunatley, I do have backups of my data but balk at the thought of performing a clean install due to the number of additional programs (to Windows) I will need to reinstall and reconfigure........nightmare.

What if I did remove the mirrors and install Windows 7 onto Drive 1, do you think?

Also, how can I know whether it is the C Drive of Drive 0 as apart from the C Drive on Drive 1 that has become corrupt? Or can't I easily know that?

So many questions and sorry if I seem to becoming a nuisance but am pretty discombobulated by all this....for instance.....how could I even achieve mirroring everything except the System (Boot) partition? I must be a closet genius - lol.

Thanks again, it really is kind of you to afford me the benefit of your wisdom. Happy

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Sorry
Jan 29, 2016 4:16PM PST

But I already shared my idea on how I'd recover.

And I already noted that removing mirrors would only make this worse. That is, I would clone as noted and copy as noted to see if I could create a new good drive 0

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Cloning question, then, please.
Jan 29, 2016 4:30PM PST

You very kindly suggested:

"Try this. get another 500GB HDD and CLONE drive 0 to it. Use CLONEZILLA so no resizing of partitions happens.

Now clone that good C partition on Drive 1 to this target new HDD. If you are lucky, this new drive will boot."


So,

1: Should I clone all of drive 0 (corrupt C drive, the lot) onto the new drive?

2: Is it easy to clone just the good C partition from Drive 1 onto that same new drive, afterwards?

Thanks in advance. Happy

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That's what I would do.
Jan 29, 2016 5:06PM PST

Clonezilla can clone the entire drive as well as partitions. So the idea is to get a new drive 0 but all the good Windows C partition to make a good new drive 0.

No guarantee but it's the quick exit I'd use. Clonezilla was not hard to use and why I stick with it here is due to raid. I don't want to have any resizing going on.

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OK. Nerves quaking, but here goes........
Feb 5, 2016 11:08AM PST

Hi again,

I've obtained another two identical 500GB drives and am proposing to clone from each of the existing mirrored drives, as you suggest (System from the first and data from the second).

But I have a quick query which I hope can be answered:

You said:

"Try this. get another 500GB HDD and CLONE drive 0 to it. Use CLONEZILLA so no resizing of partitions happens.

Now clone that good C partition on Drive 1 to this target new HDD. If you are lucky, this new drive will boot."


Should I clone drive 0 in its entirety and then overwrite the C partition from Drive 1 or just clone the good System partition from Drive 0 and then the data from Drive 1?

Thanks in advance if you are able to advise.

Jib Happy

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Yes.
Feb 5, 2016 11:57AM PST

If you don't clone drive 0 entirely you may have movement of the partition begin or end and fail.

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Nearly there (I hope)
Feb 5, 2016 12:24PM PST

So, do I need to do anything at all to the new drive prior to cloning to it (partitioning, formatting, etc., etc)?

Should I use Disk Management to remove the mirror option from the two drives I propose to clone from or simply boot from a Clonezilla CD and get on with it?

I promise to know how I get on, whatever happens. Happy

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Oops
Feb 5, 2016 12:26PM PST

"Let you" know, that should have read.

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No. I would NOT change Disk Management
Feb 5, 2016 5:49PM PST

The procedure I noted is to try to put it back into working condition. If you alter this in disk management I fear you'll blow up the system and our recovery chance is gone.

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That was fun (not)
Feb 6, 2016 9:58AM PST

Thanks so much for all your help but it appears we may have hit a brick wall in that I cloned all of Drive 0 (with the good System partition) to the new drive then I cloned just the C: partition from Drive 2 (the good Windows one) to the C: partition of the new drive.

When I booted (as usual), I could not see the new drive in File Manager but it did show as Dynamic but "Offline" in Disk Management. I tried the Reactivate option, without success:


I then detached the two x RAID drives and set the new drive to SATA 0 and booted but was informed there was no Operating System and to put a disc in with a valid OS to proceed.

When I reset the drives to their previous hierarchies and booted, the new drive was still not visible in File Manager and now showed as Dynamic but "Invalid" in Disk Manager:


I set it to "Offline" as there seemed little other option and tried again to no avail.

So I downloaded and ran HxD (Hex Editor) and edited the new drive info to 1C0 values = 07 as opposed to 42.

Rebooted and still "Invalid" so I repeated the above to 1D0, 1E0 and 1F0 but when I tried to save the file I was informed the drive I was saving to was right-protected and operation denied.

Should I use Disk Manager to convert Drive 1 to Basic Disk or would that lose all the data (academic, I suppose, as it doesn't work anyway)?

Is there a BIOS setting I should change, perhaps, to enable the drive to Boot normally as opposed to RAID (albeit that the RAID settings are software, not hardware, controlled).

Or should I just give up and perform a factory reset of the PC to include the OS etc., and then add the second new drive and create a Mirror RAID system, do you think?

Pretty disheartened at the moment but appreciative of your help so far.

Jib Sad

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DISKPART update
Feb 6, 2016 10:02AM PST

I forgot to mention that, prior to running HxD, I used the DISKPART command in an elevated DOS window and set the drive to "Online" but when I rebooted, it also was not visible in File Manager and showed as Invalid in Disk Manager.

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Did you use CLONEZILLA for all this?
Feb 6, 2016 10:15AM PST

Something's up here. There are specific reasons I use CLONEZILLA for the first step to clone the boot drive. That clone when paired with the second drive should result in the same condition as before.

The second step was to clone the partition from c on second drive to first drive.

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Clonezilla
Feb 6, 2016 12:15PM PST

Yes, I downloaded and used Clonezilla, just as you advised me to.

There were three Clonezilla options: amd64; i686; i686-pae.

I used i686 as that is the one to use if you are not sure which one to use (according to the on-site instructions).

My PC is a HP ProDesk 600 G1 TWR with a 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-4590 processor running Windows 7 Professional (x64).

I cloned the Drive 0 in its entirety to the new drive (Drive 1) and then cloned the C:Windows partition from Drive 2 to the C: partition of Drive 1.

As I'm cloning a mirror RAID drive can I expect to just boot from it, on it's own as a box-standard (non-RAID) SATA drive?

Or should I be somehow removing the "mirror" from it which I assume to have also been cloned from the original?

I have little experience of RAID systems, afraid to say.

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I would not use DISKPART or change BIOS.
Feb 6, 2016 12:24PM PST

The concept here is to clone drive 0, and overwrite it's c partiton using a tool that won't change partition sizes, locations, etc.

If you change the BIOS or such, we can break it.

Since you have been diskediting and more, my idea may not work now. The idea is to bring it back into operation, not the change how it works.

Also, we must never boot off these HDDs until our work is done. Windows has a nasty habit of marking drives on boot.

So my method would be to pull drive 1, put the blank on that connection, clone drive 0 to 1, move the clone to drive 0, install the old drive 1. At this point it should behave as before. If not I'm looking for BIOS BOOT PROTECTION (to disable.)

And now I'm ready to boot Clonzilla to do the final clone of drive 1 c to drive 0 c.

-> It's quite specific how this must be done. Any deviation and it doesn't work. Then again, this was only done a dozen times over the years. Not a favorite thing of mine to do but sometimes you get a client that wants a last chance try.

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Sounds good
Feb 6, 2016 12:34PM PST

That seems like a good idea although I can assure you I did not deviate from your instructions in the first instance and only resorted to correct the "Offline" and "Invalid" states when cloning according to what you suggested and what I did, had failed to allow me to Boot from the new drive.

After I have cloned all of Drive 0 and Windows from Drive 2 what else, if anything, must I do prior to Booting from the fresh (cloned to) drive? As you are correct in that the Windows must have marked the drive in order to have changed its condition from Offline to that of Invalid.

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If the machine won't behave the same
Feb 6, 2016 12:42PM PST

With the newly cloned drive 0 then something is different about this RAID.

-> I didn't ask but is there any documentation on this RAID?

I'll check it out about recovery systems.

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RAID 1 details
Feb 6, 2016 12:56PM PST

I am recloning, as per your guide (2 posts previous) and will let you know how it progresses.

Meanwhile, here are the instructions I followed when I set up the RAID, initially (only 3 months ago):

RAID 7 Mirror

Please click, above.

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Clonezilla mode
Feb 6, 2016 1:00PM PST

BTW should I initiate Clonezilla in Beginner or Expert mode (I used Beginner, last time).

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Skip Checking
Feb 6, 2016 1:04PM PST

...........And I also selected "Skip checking/repairing source file system"

Clonezilla states "First partition commences at sector 63" is that usual or is it indicative of corrupt early sectors?

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I expect that message on the second drive.
Feb 6, 2016 1:09PM PST

The oddball RAID 1 seems to cause this on the second drive.

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Oddball RAID
Feb 6, 2016 1:18PM PST

Thanks for your perseverance. Should I have not followed those RAID instructions?

I just followed step one (cloned Drive 0 to the new drive and replaced Drive 0 with the new drive, leaving Drive 2 - the "good" Windows partition drive - in place). But when I booted it said "non system disk or disk error, replace and strike any key when ready"

Am I jiggered or do you know of a possible workaround?

Also, what two-disk Mirror RAID protocols should I follow, next time, can you point me to an instructional, please?

Thanks again.

Jib

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(NT) Beginner seems fine so far.
Feb 6, 2016 1:12PM PST
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The recovery there is for failed drive 1 and on.
Feb 6, 2016 1:12PM PST

Too bad it didn't cover recovery on drive 0.

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Posts out of sequence?
Feb 6, 2016 1:38PM PST

That's odd.

I posted a reply at 01:18 yet your two posts circa 01:12 have been listed BELOW my later post ?

Weird. Confused

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Forum oddities. Moving on.
Feb 6, 2016 3:01PM PST

Sorry but my method is failing. I can't guess why. It's something I did more than a handful of times until I convinced clients that RAID 1** doesn't really save you.

Revert to what works and save your files, do over or try what others will offer.

Bob (admits defeat on this round.)

** Edited for typo

Post was last edited on February 6, 2016 3:30 PM PST

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Thanks, but....
Feb 6, 2016 3:27PM PST

It's RAID 1 not 0.

Appreciate your efforts and would be grateful if you could point me to a decent set of instructions re setting up a two-drive Mirror Raid system, if you know of such a thing, please.

Kudos to you for your patience. Happy