Intel Raid controller "lost" my array

BleachedFur · April 27, 2019

Ironically one was scheduled for later today.

My motherboard has a kick ass RAID controller, one of Intel's best from the era.

I was toying with the OC settings on my CPU, and I had to force shut down my machine. I'm greeted with:

Crucial BX300 120gb - [non member disk]

Crucial BX300 120GB - [non member disk]

Whoops! Looks like somehow there was too much voltage on the PCIe bus and the RAID controller lost its settings.

I was like...nah...backup is in 2 hours and this shit happens...

So, one google search and 0 forum posts and 0 posts asking for help on reddit later (the gods helps those who help themselves, and all that religious malarkey), I found a video on YouTube describing my exact problem.

I'll say, it did work. That video is truthful. And the software used actually works.

So, in short, I had to create a new RAID array, which rewrites the partition table on the disks. It does not actually flip any bits.

Using the software mentioned int he video, you're able to reconstruct the partition map.

Now, the guy who made the video did his procedure on a NON OS DISK. I have my OS on two Crucial BX300 120GB, which are the cheapest fast 3D NAND drives available. In RAID0, at least in synthetics, they outperform a SATA Samsung 960 Evo.

Anyways, I actually had to install Windows 10 to a spare 500gb 7200RPM spinnydisk, boot that up, then run the software.

After that I had to run Windows repair because the MBR got wasted somehow.

But alas, I'm back up with a fully functional OS and all of my data is intact.

I have my libraries on my tertiary 4TB Seagate RAID0 array, so it's NBD, but some stuff like game saves are stored on the boot drive.

This was my first RAID0 failure in 2 whole years, and it wasn't even a catastrophe like some redditors say it's gonna be **(blah blah, you'll lose all your data, bullshit whine complain RAID0 hater bullshit)**

Lesson learned, and I keep two backups now, one on my 4TB and one on an entirely separate physical disk.