Let me start by saying that I am actually quite good with computers. Ordinarily, I like them and they like me. And the last and only time I have had a serious problem with my own hardware was a decade old video card dying in the Mac it came in.
So. I'm running a computer with a RAID 5 3-disk setup for storage (apart from the OS hard drive). One hard drive drops out so the RAID 5 is functional but degraded.
No problem, I figure. It's happened before and just rebuilt itself. But this time it didn't. I run a HDD checker (SeaTools) and it declares the drive toast. Fine. The RAID is pretty old and I figure I'll just back up the array (my last backup is like half a year old) and restore the backup to an entirely new hard drive, twice as big as the array.
Only the backup won't run. Mind you, the degraded array is still fully functional and accessible. WTF. And it deleted the old backup, so now I don't have ANY backup.
So I pop in a new HDD to fill out the array, maybe that'll fix it and let me run the backup. No. But wait! SeaTools doesn't like a few sectors on the new HDD, so I'll use a different one.
Okay, it's rebuilding again, I walk away for a while and OMFG
Apparently (there was a computer illiterate bystander) Windows crashed and rebooted. SOMEHOW, the RAID 5 array is COMPLETELY FUCKING BLANK!!!
All I can speculate is that one of the 2 remaining "original" array disks dropped out of the array, and when the system rebooted it automatically generated a fresh array.
I desperately tried rebooting to see if it would somehow magically bring back the old array, no dice. I find and run a RAID 5 data recovery program demo, but it won't tell me how much data is on the thing it wants $99 to fix. I'm not spending that much to find out it "saved" my blank array.
So I had RAID5 AND a backup and I STILL got destroyed. Can anyone tell me if the RAID recovery guys have any chance to help me or if I am totally and irrecoverably fucked due to the blank array being created?
P.S. A careful reader will notice that I foolishly didn't take the opportunity to manually copy critical files when the RAID was degraded but working and wouldn't back up. I have no explanation other than tunnel vision. Don't let that happen to you!
Tag (courtesy of fkusumot): "Please feel free -- nay, I encourage you -- to offer rebuttal."
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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
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The old smileys: 
; - ) : - ) : - ( : - P : - D : - # ( c ) ( k ) ( y ) If anyone knows the shortcut for 
, let me know!
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I have the most epic death scene ever in VGChartz Mafia. Thanks WordsofWisdom!
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