A disk on a virtual raid0 (managed by windows using dynamic disks) has blown away. I guess if it's possible to recover some data from the other disks. Thanks.

Highly unlikely, if not impossible. A RAID 0 (also known as a stripe set or striped volume) splits data evenly across two or more disks (striped) with no parity information for redundancy. RAID 0 was not one of the original RAID levels and provides no data redundancy. RAID 0 is normally used to increase performance, although it can also be used as a way to create a small number of large virtual disks out of a large number of small physical ones. See illustration @ https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Standard_RAID_levelsPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:39:43 +0000, Rick Dee wrote: RAID 0 is normally used to increase performance, In theory. But in my experience, it hardly ever does, and if it does, the improvement is so small as to be almost unnoticeable. Ken Blake

Ok, let me explain better: I have 4 hdd: - 2x 320 GB - Raid0 - 1x 500 GB - Raid0 - 1x 200 GB (blown) which was split with 1 partition of 100 GB for Windows 7 and the other 100 GB on the Raid0 The raid had about 600 GB occupied. That means that if all files were split between the hard drives up to 400 GB would be lost. If each file was on a separate drive, up to 100 GB was lost. What i ask if it's possible to recover that 200-500 GB of data, which is what mainly interests me because this raid has some years on it's back and so important data *should* be on the end of it. I know that windows does not do things that way, and so it might be that the data i want is unrecovarable. But besides that, there should be something that i could get back. How do i do that? Thanks. PD: It seems the controller it's burned, i'll try to replace it. If i get a working drive i'll do an image of it and throw it away - because i do not know how much will it last -. On this last, there's any way to tell windows that the 100 GB of data that's looking is on that image (provided that i restore that image on a new, larger, hdd).

Ok, let me explain better: I have 4 hdd: - 2x 320 GB - Raid0 - 1x 500 GB - Raid0 - 1x 200 GB (blown) which was split with 1 partition of 100 GB for Windows 7 and the other 100 GB on the Raid0 The raid had about 600 GB occupied. That means that if all files were split between the hard drives up to 400 GB would be lost. If each file was on a separate drive, up to 100 GB was lost. What i ask if it's possible to recover that 200-500 GB of data, which is what mainly interests me because this raid has some years on it's back and so important data *should* be on the end of it. I know that windows does not do things that way, and so it might be that the data i want is unrecovarable. But besides that, there should be something that i could get back. How do i do that? Thanks. PD: It seems the controller it's burned, i'll try to replace it. If i get a working drive i'll do an image of it and throw it away - because i do not know how much will it last -. On this last, there's any way to tell windows that the 100 GB of data that's looking is on that image (provided that i restore that image on a new, larger, hdd). It doesn't make any difference how much you explain your setup. RAID 0 spreads the writing across the disks in the RAID, so recovering data is extremely difficult or highly unlikely because you litterally have pieces of everythoing written spread across each of the disks in the RAID. It is litteraly a puzzle and with one disk out of the picture, you are missing pieces of the puzzle. The probability of recovering data depends on exactly which pieces of the puzzle are missing. If the data is extremely important, then you need to search the internet for a company that specializes in recovering data from fialed hard drives. The service these companies provide is not cheap. There is absolutely no capability in Windows to recover your data.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

On Wed, 2 Feb 2011 13:21:37 +0000, Rick Dee wrote: It doesn't make any difference how much you explain your setup.  RAID 0 spreads the writing across the disks in the RAID, so recovering data is extremely difficult or highly unlikely because you litterally have pieces of everythoing written spread across each of the disks in the RAID.  It is litteraly a puzzle and with one disk out of the picture, you are missing pieces of the puzzle.  The probability of recovering data depends on exactly which pieces of the puzzle are missing. Exactly. And that's why I think using RAID 0 is a poor idea. It substantially increases the risk of data loss. And despite its sounding like it should improve performance, in my experience with it any performance improvement is so slight as to be unnoticeable. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

And, to support your view, RAID 0 is not really RAID. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks and Redundant means Able to be omitted without loss of meaning or function, which is defiitely not the case with RAID 0! I think of RAID 0 as an oxymoron like Military Intelligence!Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.