[URGENT]My HDD cannot be accessed after unplugging Optane! Please Help!

[Linus_Jack]

So here is what happened. I bought a 2TB NVMe for my laptop. I unplugged the previous NVMe from the laptop and wanted to clone data, but I needed two M.2 slots (I didn’t buy an M.2 external adapter), so I Looking at my desktop computer, there are exactly two M.2 slots on the motherboard, one of which is plugged into an Optane and connected to a 6TB HDD. I didn't think much about it at the time, I just wanted to finish the work quickly, and I could take my laptop to the college the next day. After the transfer was completed, I plugged my Optane back into the previous M.2 and didn't turn it on. After I got home, I turned it on and found that my 6TB hard drive was missing (but it can be seen in Bios). And Bios is not in AHCI mode, but in Intel RST mode. "Your System is not Intel Optane Memory Ready", No compatible disks for intel optane memory is displayed in the Intel Optane Memory software. I consulted the help manual of Intel Optane, and the solution given by Intel is just a simple sentence "We recommend to using third-party software to recover data on the associated disk.", and 6TB of data is not that easy to recovery, I will need the data in the near future (because my college project is in it). You guys have any ideas?

 

P.S. Operating System is not installed on that 6TB HDD.

[Eighjan]

The Optane drive was being used as a booster drive for the HDD, from the sound of things... both need to be read at the same time to be cloned.

 

My suggestion would be to network the machine with the 6TB drive in - in it's original configuration - to a PC & dump the data to a separate drive, then reformat the RST array.

[Linus_Jack]

2 minutes ago, Eighjan said:

The Optane drive was being used as a booster drive for the HDD, from the sound of things... both need to be read at the same time to be cloned.

I may have forgotten to mention that the cloned hard drives are two NVMe SSDs, both of which belong to the laptop, and have nothing to do with the desktop. I unplugged the Optane from the desktop and plugged in those two NMVe SSD's for data transfer. After the transfer was completed, I unplugged those two SSDs and plugged the Optane back on again, and that 6TB HDD that linked to my Optane just gone

[Eighjan]

3 minutes ago, Linus_Jack said:

I may have forgotten to mention that the cloned hard drives are two NVMe SSDs, both of which belong to the laptop, and have nothing to do with the desktop. I unplugged the Optane from the desktop and plugged in those two NMVe SSD's for data transfer. After the transfer was completed, I unplugged those two SSDs and plugged the Optane back on again, and that 6TB HDD that linked to my Optane just gone

Did you COPY the data on the 6TB drive(s) or MOVE it...?

Either way, by connecting them to a different machine, you may have 'broken' the RST array.

[Linus_Jack]

Just now, Eighjan said:

Did you COPY the data on the 6TB drive(s) or MOVE it...? 

No, because I can't find the 6TB HDD in the Explorer, but I can see the 6TB HDD model in Bios. Intel officially said that the HDD will be offline, so I don't know if my data is still there, I am kindda worried

[Linus_Jack]

13 minutes ago, Eighjan said:

My suggestion would be to network the machine with the 6TB drive in - in it's original configuration - to a PC & dump the data to a separate drive, then reformat the RST array.

Wait, so you mean I can just take my HDD to another desktop, plug it in, then I can dump the data from that desktop?

[Eighjan]

6 minutes ago, Linus_Jack said:

No, because I can't find the 6TB HDD in the Explorer, but I can see the 6TB HDD model in Bios. Intel officially said that the HDD will be offline, so I don't know if my data is still there, I am kindda worried

OK; you added data to the 6TB drive from m.2 drives from another system, without the Optane drive being present...?

You've (almost certainly) 'compromised' the RST array & rendered all the data on that drive unreadable... on the machine it is currently in.

If you connect the 6TB drive as an external drive, you may be able to retrieve the "m.2" data so that you can restore the RST array.

[Eighjan]

1 minute ago, Linus_Jack said:

Wait, so you mean I can just take my HDD to another desktop, plug it in, then I can dump the data from that desktop?

I misunderstood what you mean in your first post (gone midnight in the UK); I re-read it & now understand better.

See my post above this...

[Linus_Jack]

29 minutes ago, Eighjan said:

OK; you added data to the 6TB drive from m.2 drives from another system, without the Optane drive being present...?

You've (almost certainly) 'compromised' the RST array & rendered all the data on that drive unreadable... on the machine it is currently in.

If you connect the 6TB drive as an external drive, you may be able to retrieve the "m.2" data so that you can restore the RST array.

So I can now take out my 6TB disk from the current desktop computer and install it on another desktop computer to read the 6TB HDD data? What I am worried about is that if I remove this 6TB hard drive, will the array be completely destroyed, resulting in the loss of 6TB data? (And thank you very much for your reply and help at this late hour in UK!:D)

[Linus_Jack]

These are the screenshots from the RST section in BIOS.

MSI_SnapShot.bmp MSI_SnapShot_00.bmp MSI_SnapShot_01.bmp

[Linus_Jack]

Contacted Intel Customer Service. The suggestion given is to install this HDD on another computer for data recovery. I used EaseUS, which helped me recover most of the data (but there are still a lot of data lost, unable to open, no file name, No directories etc.). After the recovery is complete, Optane is bound to a 1TB hard drive for game acceleration, but it is no longer used on hard drives with important data. Therefore, I suggest that everyone, Raid0 is a terrible thing, a little carelessness may cause data loss, so when using Optane memory, be careful not to use it on the hard disk with important data, and always back up your important data in Private cloud. Hope this post can help people who are using Optane memory.

[Linus_Jack]

And thanks @Eighjan a lot for the help! I appreciate it!