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Atttempting To Recover One Partition In A Raid-0 Environment

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I keeping getting errors on one partition (FAT32) and one disk in a Raid-0 configuration. It appears that something is screwed up in the file allocation tables, as I can run all the Western Digital Diagnostics, which do not write to the disk, on all partitions and on both of the disks in the Raid-0 without any errors. However, CHKDSK, will not run to completion on the one partition. Gives messages, such as: truncated entry or null entry. Likewise, when I back up either the partition or disk with ACRONIS no errors are listed in the log file.
I would like to convert the partition from FAT32 to NTFS. If I try the CONVERT command it fails and says it it unable top convert the partition. My question the becomes should I Recover/reload the partition or the disk information from the ACRONIS backup and then attempt to reconvert or should I first reformat the partition to NTFS and the attempt Recovery? Should I use Disk or Partition? I have the PlusPack so I should be able to Restore to dis-similar hardware, or in this case format, i.e., Backup is FAT32 attempting to Recover to NTFS partition.

Running ACRONIS Home 2013 - Fully up to date
Any thoughts and/or recommendations would be appreciated! Thx

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Hi Tony,
I assume this is hardware RAID? What is the controller (chipset)? Intel or ??

If memory serves, you cannot run WD Diag windows version and correctly test individual member disks of a RAID 0 array. The disks are conjoined and seen in windows as a single volume. While your initial diagnostics from chkdsk indicate a problem with the partition, a problem with one of the member disks may in fact be the culprit. Or, maybe it is just a problem with the file system or formatting.

If you are able to back up the "problem partition", can you validate it? If it validates, you can be assured with a reasonable level of certainty that restoring it or the data it contains is possible.

If in doubt, back up the data manually to be sure. You cannot convert a FAT16/32 partition to NTFS if chkdsk fails. This indicates another issue.

Before doing anything I would ensure all of my data is backed up safely. If its in a .tib image, I would ensure it can be validated, mounted and read from.

If successful, I would delete the errant partition and format NTFS. Then mount the partion back up and restore my data.

At the first sign of trouble, I would break the array, change the operate mode of the RAID controller to IDE, AHCI (whatever applies) and test each disk individually using a WD Diag Boot disk. This should rule out any physical or mechanical issues.

I would then change the controller mode back to RAID, enter the RAID configuration Utility and recreate the array. Now you can use an Acronis Boot CD and your back ups to restore your partitions one at a time in the sequence they existed previously. Since you've gone this far, I would not restore the previous "problem partition" as FAT32. I would simply copy my data to it formatted as NTFS.

End result is two verified healthy disks. A freshly formatted RAID array, and your data restored to an NTFS formatted drive containing NTFS partitions.

Since we have no background on your hardware, OS or Acronis version being used, you should be absolutely sure your Acronis boot media will correctly detect and see your array as a single disk in the recovery environment.

Hi Shadowsports,

Thanks for the recommendations/suggestions. The RAID is hardware Intel with Matrix Manager 6 and the OS is 32bit WIN XP/Pro fully up to date and Acronis is Version 2013 Home, fully up to date, with Plus Pack features.

Using the WD utilities and booting from USB does allow me to see the disks individually. I have been successful in backing up both a disk type backup and a partition type backup several times, with no errors indicated on the log. I will try to validate against them and see what the results yield.

I am aware I can "break" the RAID by disconnecting the drives from the RAID and connecting them individually. There is a RAID repair tool by a group, I believe located in Germany, who offer a free RAID repair tool, but it does require that the drive be "individually" connected, i.e., not connected to the RAID controller. I will try validating the backups and if they are good I will then attempt to reformat the problem partition to NTFS and reload the backed up data. Fortunately, I have drive "C" on a SSD and the "problem" partition is user data, so it is not as if I cannot boot.

Thanks again for recommendations.