RAID1 array data rebuild problems

[ArrayGamer]

Hey everyone, I'm hoping for some help/suggestions relating to problems with a RAID1 array on my grandparents computer. I should preface this by saying I did not set up the array and I don't know much about RAID setups.

 

The array consists of 2 hard drives. It seems the (presumably) primary drive had an error about 2 years ago and it was no longer updated. In the meantime, they kept using the computer and updated to windows 10 from windows 7. A couple days ago the array stopped being bootable. My grandfather chose the option to recover the failed volume, which had the two year old data on it. The recovery worked but it seems the drive with the old data is the primary drive in the array and so the array boots to the 2 year old copy of their data/system. Neither of the "recovery volume options" - Enabling only recovery or master disk - did anything, they just said there was no backup disk. I would guess this is because they have different data and the array wants to rebuild itself. I can't figure out how or if I can change it to boot off of the other drive in the array. When it loads into windows (7) it starts trying to "rebuild" the updated drive with the old data, and I couldn't figure out how to pause it. It said the rebuild was about 2.2% complete when I decided to turn off the computer so it would stop. 

I'm hoping there is some way to use the up to date drive.

 

Some possibilities:

1) Simply removing the drive with the outdated information, and seeing if it will return to using the updated drive. This might be complicated by the fact that the updated drive may have been overwritten by the 2.2% complete rebuild (This should be about 3gb or so of data). Will the system work normally if I disconnect a drive which is in the RAID array?

2) Using the option to reset disks to non-RAID, but I'm not sure if that will reset the drives, and I am not sure if the situation is changed by the fact that the drives contain different versions of the system. 

3) Maybe there is a way I haven't found to change which drive in the array it boots from.

 

 

TL;DR: One drive in a RAID1 array stopped updating years ago. When the error was corrected the array wants to use the old data to rebuild onto the still functional, up-to-date drive. I am hoping to keep using the up-to-date drive instead of the drive with the old data. It rebuilt ~2% (about 3gb) of the old data onto the new drive before I turned it off.

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/input

[Electronics Wizardy]

How much do you care about this data? If its important take it to a pro.

 

Since some of the data on the drive with new data got overwritten, its gonna be hard to get some of back. 

 

Id personally just nuke it all and start fresh, and restore what you can from file recovery or backups.

 

 

[ArrayGamer]

My grandfather is hoping to use the updated data because he's been doing his taxes on it. My understanding is he's ok with some risk to the newer data but it would be much better if at least one of the two drives data remains.

 

Would it endanger the old data to unplug that drive and see if the up-to-date drive still boots?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, ArrayGamer said:

My grandfather is hoping to use the updated data because he's been doing his taxes on it. My understanding is he's ok with some risk to the newer data but it would be much better if at least one of the two drives data remains.

 

Would it endanger the old data to unplug that drive and see if the up-to-date drive still boots?

THen make a image of both drives. Don't do anything else till that image is done. This will keep you from making it worse.

 

THen get a program that scans the drive and try to recovery data from the newer drives image. Don't try to use the raid anymore. 

 

Get a pro if the data is important.

[ArrayGamer]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

THen make a image of both drives. Don't do anything else till that image is done. This will keep you from making it worse.

When I was in the OS, the drives appear together as one, which is the old data. How do I make an image of the other drive?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, ArrayGamer said:

When I was in the OS, the drives appear together as one, which is the old data. How do I make an image of the other drive?

plug the drive into anouther system, ro disable raid, and copy the data to anouther hard drive.

 

And stop booting from it or using it, that will just make recovery harder.

[ArrayGamer]

13 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

plug the drive into anouther system, ro disable raid, and copy the data to anouther hard drive.

Thank you

[Jarsky]

 

56 minutes ago, ArrayGamer said:

2) Using the option to reset disks to non-RAID, but I'm not sure if that will reset the drives, and I am not sure if the situation is changed by the fact that the drives contain different versions of the system. 

Don't do this. This option will delete the disk. 

For a RAID1 you can use the 'delete raid volume' option. However i'm not sure of the implication of this where 1 drive is degraded. 

 

As suggested above, you really want a backup.

If you have the space on a spare drive, you can run Linux Live and use 'dd' to snapshot the entire disks into an image file, or clone from disk to disk - theres plenty of disk cloning software out there as well if you have spare disks. That is a lot of data though 1TB disks, i can imagine it will take quite some time...

[ArrayGamer]

31 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

As suggested above, you really want a backup.

If you have the space on a spare drive, you can run Linux Live and use 'dd' to snapshot the entire disks into an image file, or clone from disk to disk - theres plenty of disk cloning software out there as well if you have spare disks.

Would it be best to move one drive at a time to another system or to add the other drive with available space to the original computer and use Linux Live on it? 

Also, can I put Linux live on the drive with open space, or should it be on a thumb drive?

Regarding other disk cloning software, I've only got one disk with enough spare space, but it doesn't have an OS on it. So I could only do that if I remove the drives and put them in another computer. Thanks for your help

[Jarsky]

8 minutes ago, ArrayGamer said:

Would it be best to move one drive at a time to another system or to add the other drive with available space to the original computer and use Linux Live on it? 

Be best just to put the other drive with available space int he computer, and boot Linux on that if you're going the Linux Live route. 

Of course if you just want to copy files off, then better to probably go with Windows, and in that case put the disks 1 at a time into your Windows machine

 

8 minutes ago, ArrayGamer said:

Also, can I put Linux live on the drive with open space, or should it be on a thumb drive?

No just a thumb drive, the point in linux "live" is that its a live boot. It just loads and runs in memory. Then use the spare drive as just a place to save the data too.