Recovering deleted RAID set of external drive

Question

Level 1

3 points

Recovering deleted RAID set of external drive

hi,

I am using a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012), running on Mavericks OS X 10.9.5
Processor: 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 memory
Storage: 750GB 5400-rpm hard drive
External Drive: LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series 2TB hard drive

I cannot access my external drive, after accidentally deleting the RAID set (not sure what was the default number, probably 1).
I wanted to partition the drive, but that option was disabled, and I somehow thought that deleting the RAID set would enable the partition option, which it did, while disabling access to the drive and possibly wiping clean all data...

The drive appears to have 2 preexisting partitions, I think those were part of the double drive system, suddenly I'm not so sure.
I believe I used more than 1 TB of available space, but can't seem to know at the moment. Just a bit shocked.

Is there a way of recovering an accidentally deleted RAID set, if so, what is it?
I would prefer not to continue causing further possible harm till I'm sure I'll find the proper way to recover the data.

I read it might be possible to mount the drive by daisy-chaining it to another drive, or by using the Ubuntu system.
Is it true, if so, would love to hear further details.

Thank You very much for your support 🙂

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Apr 21, 2015 1:41 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 28, 2015 11:02 AM in response to castamina

You cannot recover a deleted RAID. What you have done has broken the RAID and erased the drives. You cannot partition an active RAID. But before creating a RAID array you can partition each drive exactly the same, then create two RAIDs from the partitions. I would not recommend this.

To get your RAID back just open Disk Utility. Select Disk Utility Help from the Help menu. Do a search on "raid". Click on the option "Create a RAID set." Instructions on what to do are there.

RAID Basics

For basic definitions and discussion of what a RAID is and the different types of RAIDs see RAIDs. Additional discussions plus advantages and disadvantages of RAIDs and different RAID arrays see:

RAID Tutorial;

RAID Array and Server:

Hardware and Service Comparison.

Hardware or Software RAID?

RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?

RAID is a method of combining multiple disk drives into a single entity in order to improve the overall performance and reliability of your system. The different options for combining the disks are referred to as RAID levels. There are several different levels of RAID available depending on the needs of your system. One of the options available to you is whether you should use a Hardware RAID solution or a Software RAID solution.

RAID Hardware is always a disk controller to which you can cable up the disk drives. RAID Software is a set of kernel modules coupled together with management utilities that implement RAID in Software and require no additional hardware.

Pros and cons

Software RAID is more flexible than Hardware RAID. Software RAID is also considerably less expensive. On the other hand, a Software RAID system requires more CPU cycles and power to run well than a comparable Hardware RAID System. Also, because Software RAID operates on a partition by partition basis where a number of individual disk partitions are grouped together as opposed to Hardware RAID systems which generally group together entire disk drives, Software RAID tends be slightly more complicated to run. This is because it has more available configurations and options. An added benefit to the slightly more expensive Hardware RAID solution is that many Hardware RAID systems incorporate features that are specialized for optimizing the performance of your system.

For more detailed information on the differences between Software RAID and Hardware RAID you may want to read: Hardware RAID vs. Software RAID: Which Implementation is Best for my Application?

Reply

Answer 2

castamina Author

Level 1

3 points

Apr 28, 2015 11:08 AM in response to Kappy

Dear Kappy

After a visit at the Technician's, I realized the damage caused by deleting the RAID. All files retrieved were completely bugged and unrecognizable, most files were lost.

If you could recommend a highly reliable data recovery software, for future reference, that would be of great help

I finally took a brave step and decided to backup my drive using Time Machine 🙂

Thank You!

Reply

Answer 3

castamina Author

Level 1

3 points

Apr 28, 2015 11:14 AM in response to Kappy

* And another thing in that matter, I managed to find unsaved files from my Quicktime and TextEdit libraries, but they appear to be damaged and cannot be opened. Do you think there is a possible way to restore and open them? (Last Hope)

Reply

Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 28, 2015 11:22 AM in response to castamina

A striped RAID stores files in an odd way - part of the file on disk 1 and part on disk 2. The result is that if you lose one or both disks the data is unrecoverable. That's your current situation. You would need to find a recovery service that may be able to recover the entire array using both of your drives used in your RAID, but I don't know if that's possible. Beyond my pay grade. 😁

Data Recovery by DriveSavers | All Drives, RAID, SSD & iPhones

Reply