RS2WC040 Raid Card - Lost configuration - Restore Possible?

[idata]

I don't know exactly how i lost the configuration but it has something to do with unplugging the SAS cable(PC was off) before an install of Windows 7. Afterwards the virtual drive was still there and working properly but the configuration had been lost. It now shows my 4 x 3TB drives as 8.5TB of unformated space instead of the 7TB+ of data that should be there.

Setup is Raid 5

This is a desktop and not a server.

MBD = Asus Rampage III Extreme

RS2WC040 Firmware v20.10.1-0107 (was the previous version during the install of windows 7)

I placed the old HDD back in the case and i can use Raid Web Console to view everything. I found the save/load/clear configuration and want to know if that configuration file is on the Raid 5 HDD's, (old)Windows 7 HDD or saved on the Raid card itself. I never manually backed it up. I would like to restore it so i don't lose all of the data.

Intel live support suggested i create a span group, create a hotspare and NOT initialize the disc. That this might restore the data.

And anyone know why pressing CTRL + G does nothing but tell you it will go to the RS2WC040 bios but never does? I did find "ESRT2 and RSTe must be configured correctly in the server board BIOS before the Ctrl option displays."

Thanks.

[idata]

Chris,

What happens if you attempt to enter RAID BIOS (Ctrl+G) with no drives connected?

Please specify the original, working RAID array configuration.

When you say you lost the RAID configuration after installing Windows 7, did you configure the array on the hardware controller before any OS was installed, or did you *re*-install the OS and was the array configured in software?

Jason

[idata]

"What happens if you attempt to enter RAID BIOS (Ctrl+G) with no drives connected?"

I cannot do this. This raid card 'does not play well' with my Asus MBD. I had to put it in another Intel based MBD to bring up that utility. I read the docs to see if there was a menu where i could load the last known good configuration but nothing was available. No config was saved automatically in the Raid Web Console(in windows) either.

"Please specify the original, working RAID array configuration."

4 x 3TB Raid 5. About 8.1TB of space with about 795GB left. I filled the rest.

"When you say you lost the RAID configuration after installing Windows 7, did you configure the array on the hardware controller before any OS was installed, or did you *re*-install the OS and was the array configured in software?"

The array was already configured and working properly since about Oct 2011. I unplugged the SAS cable(from the card) prior to the install of Win7 because i was testing a new unattended install on my machine and didn't want to accidently format the Raid.

After reboot i received a message from the controller that the drives were now missing and to press C to open the configuration utility. Which i did. Then it promoted me to press Y to confirm this. What i missed (from it being late and tired) is that pressing Y might clear the current configuration. Which it did.

I told Intel support in a follow up email i received yesterday...

"I should not have been able to clear the current configuration so easily. I should have only been able to do that from with inside the configuration utility."

Intel live support instructed me to take another drive, remove one of the old drives, create a new virtual drive, create a spanned volume and make a hotspare. That it would rebuild all the data. But do not reinitialize the disks. Since i didn't want to blow away the virtual drive i removed 1 drive, spanned and created a hotspare but it didn't work. I also tried to put the raid card into another machine, press Ctrl + G and rebuild. But the rebuild will not work. And there was no saved configuration either.

Right now i am using Bitmart Restorer Ultimate that is scanning the raid and will allow me to extract the files when complete. I have had a 100% success rate in the past with this program when it was called Bitmart Restorer 2000. I will update this again when i have more to report.