Windows 2000/NT forum: Data Recovery Options?

I fear we are calling http://www.drivesavers.com

Data is recovered from our backups. Once in awhile you encounter an IT staffer or business that got suckered into "Oh, this is RAID 5 so you don't need to backup often" or some, not at all.

Spinrite seems to be a bad idea if it moves sector contents as, well, you know how RAID works. Spinrite would not be a good idea at all on a RAID drive out of its set.

-> There's also the problem of SCSI termination. Besides that, I find folk today totally unaware of SCSI setups, where the termination goes and such. Finding support or even another person that used such is now rare. Those at Driversavers do know this.
Bob

I've only used HP so I'm not sure about the Dell, but HP has a light for each drive in the "container" and they change color to denote their health. If I remember right, you can fix the array if only 1 drive has gone bad, but not if 2 have gone bad at the same time. If you can find out which drive is bad, you would still need another drive that matched the bad one, replace the drive then rebuild the array. Old SCSI drives are still available - just Google them by their make and model number. I would first also try uninstalling all of the drives and cables, noting where and how they connect, then reinstalling and making sure they all are seated okay. Even re-seat the SCSI card by taking it completely out and reinstalling it. I had an old HP Windows NT server that this happened to and this did the trick for it. Old PCs and servers tend to have card and cable creep where the connection gets partially dislodged, especially if the computer is moved. Also, I know Dell PCs have diagnostic lights on the back of the unit, but I'm not sure about their servers. I do know that you can decipher the color codes by looking at the info files on Dell's website.

Dell has drive lights, all of which were green (I think they turn yellow when the drive is bad). I was able to get it working again within a couple days by subbing in an identical old hard drive (so apparently the hot swap and one other drive were bad?).

I too have had to resurrect these old servers by unplugging / replugging cards and such.