Unable to rebuild raid 5

[idata]

Report is below with details:

I have a raid 5 volume with 4 disks. Since they are Green drives, the drives normally have issues and I have to mark it as normal and then rebuild. Anyways, recently, I lost one drive and now I'm unable to rebuild. It keeps saying the drive is missing, no matter what. Therefore, I am unable to rebuild.

I bought a brand new drive and replaced it (exact same drive), but it just won't rebuild, no matter what I do. I am posting this from my secondary PC. My primary PC is ICH10R if that makes any difference.

All 5 drives are there and working just fine, but for some reason it won't read them properly and says it's "failed". It refuses to rebuild and just stays in the "failed" state with a missing drive. I've tried marking the drives as spare and available. As you can imagine, I have some extremely important and sentimental files on this RAID. Any help is GREATLY appreciated. I had a backup solution that died a few months ago

System Report

System Information

OS name: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional OS version: 6.1.7600 7600System name: Sameer-PCSystem manufacturer: System manufacturerSystem model: Maximus FormulaProcessor: GenuineIntel Intel64 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11 2.394 GHzBIOS: American Megatrends Inc., 1403

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

Kit installed: 10.6.0.1002User interface version: 10.6.0.1002Language: English (United States)Intel RAID controller: Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID ControllerNumber of SATA ports: 6RAID option ROM version: 8.7.0.1007Driver version: 10.6.0.1002ISDI version: 10.6.0.1002

Device Information

Name: Array_0000Size: 7.3 TBAvailable space: 0 GBDisk data cache: EnabledNumber of volumes: 1Volume member: GrandCentralNumber of disks: 4Array disk: WD-WCAVY3811045Array disk: WD-WCAVY3641783Array disk: WD-WCAVY3728931Array disk: D-WCAVY3806666:0

Name: GrandCentral

Status: FailedType: RAID 5Size: 5.5 TBData stripe size: 64 KBWrite-back cache: DisabledSystem volume: NoInitialized: Yes Verification errors found: 0Blocks with media errors: 0Physical sector size: 512 BytesLogical sector size: 512 BytesParent array: Array_0000Number of disks: 4Array disk: WD-WCAVY3811045Array disk: WD-WCAVY3641783Array disk: WD-WCAVY3728931Array disk: D-WCAVY3806666:0

Disk on port 0

Port location: InternalStatus: NormalType: Hard diskUsage: AvailableSize: 1.8 TBSerial number: WD-WCAVY3806666Model: WDC WD20EARS-00S8B1Firmware: 80.00A80System disk: NoPassword protected: NoDisk data cache: EnabledNative command queuing: Yes SATA transfer rate: 3 Gb/sPhysical sector size: 512 BytesLogical sector size: 512 Bytes

Disk on port 1

Port location: InternalStatus: NormalType: Hard diskUsage: Array diskSize: 1.8 TBSerial number: WD-WCAVY3811045Model: WDC WD20EARS-00S8B1Firmware: 80.00A80System disk: NoPassword protected: NoDisk data cache: EnabledNative command queuing: Yes SATA transfer rate: 3 Gb/sPhysical sector size: 512 BytesLogical sector size: 512 Bytes

Disk on port 2

Port location: InternalStatus: NormalType: Hard diskUsage: Array diskSize: 1.8 TBSerial number: WD-WCAVY3641783Model: WDC WD20EARS-00S8B1Firmware: 80.00A80System disk: NoPassword protected: NoDisk data cache: EnabledNative command queuing: Yes SATA transfer rate: 3 Gb/sPhysical sector size: 512 BytesLogical sector size: 512 Bytes

Disk on port 3

Port location: InternalStatus: NormalType: Hard diskUsage: Array diskSize: 1.8 TBSerial number: WD-WCAVY3728931Model: WDC WD20EARS-00S8B1Firmware: 80.00A80System disk: NoPassword protected: NoDisk data cache: EnabledNative command queuing: Yes SATA transfer rate: 3 Gb/sPhysical sector size: 512 BytesLogical sector size: 512 Bytes

Disk on port 4

Port location: InternalStatus: NormalType: Hard diskUsage: AvailableSize: 1.8 TBSerial number: WD-WCAZAA974710Model: WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0Firmware: 51.0AB51System disk: NoPassword protected: NoDisk data cache: EnabledNative command queuing: Yes SATA tran...

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Hi there!

A RAID 5 with "failed" status means that you need recreate your RAID structure by creating RAID from scratch. Unfortunately, the RAID BIOS does not offer recover options.

If you need to safe your data, you will need to contact a data recovery company.

Thanks

Allan.

[idata]

How about a degraded RAID 5? How can that be recovered?

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Hi Bob,

Same thing for a RAID 5 volume. The RAID cannot be recovered if this is under failed mode.