How to recover data after accidentally deleting a RAID array
Accidental configuration errors during hardware setup—such as selecting all available disks in a controller utility—can wipe existing RAID structures and leave data stranded without a backup. Restoring the information depends on the specific hardware controller and whether the previous array configuration can be safely recovered.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
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- 1Recreating the original array shape without initializationDid this help you?
- 2Making disk dumps and using file system recovery toolsDid this help you?
- 3Restoring files from backupsDid this help you?
- 4Hiring paid professional data recovery servicesDid this help you?
- 5Using Robocopy to skip affected blocks and log errorsDid this help you?
- 6Creating a shadow copy with VSS and symbolic linksDid this help you?
- 7Using forensic imaging tools like FTK Imager to capture a drive imageDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“When creating RAID5 using Dell Lifecycle Controller --- Hardware configuration --- Configure RAID !, we made a fatal error, checked the "Select all available disks" option to create RAID5, and all the listed disks turned out to be available.”source ↗
“Is there a way to restore RAID1 from SAS disks in this state, while preserving the information?”source ↗
“If I’m dealing with a P800 and a RAID-0 configuration, unfortunately, there is no backup.”source ↗
Where this came up
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