Recovering TrueCrypt-encrypted RAID array

[raydim]

I had a RAID5 array consisting of four 1TB drives using a Perc 5/i controller.

The drive was encrypted with TrueCrypt and was used to store data, not an OS.

Unfortunately the array got degraded and two drives stopped working at one time.

However now all drives are working but the array is not recognized anymore by the controller software.

Is there any way I can recover some or all of the array so I can open it up with TrueCrypt and extract all recoverable files?

[Budious]

  raydim said:

Unfortunately the array got degraded and two drives stopped working at one time.

The recovery tolerance is for failure of a single drive, lose more and you're screwed. Hope you got a tape backup somewhere.

[raydim]

I assume that while the drives may have become unreadable for a short period of time, much of the data should still be intact.

[sc302 Veteran]

being that you have drive encryption, i believe you are screwed. the data would most likely be recoverable if you didn't have the encryption. you can call up a data recovery center five them all the information and see if they can do it, if they can then it is possible, if they can't hope you have a decent backup.

you can try http://www.gillware.com they are pretty good with answering questions.

[raydim]

None of the data I lost was crucial enough to warrant the obscene cost of going to a data recovery center.

I was wondering if there was a program that could mount the four separate drives as a virtual RAID array (showing up as a lettered drive in My Computer) which I could then open in TrueCrypt.

[c.grz]

Have you tried rebuilding the array? I know in the 6/i controller, you could rebuild the array without re-initializing it.

[sc302 Veteran]

  raydim said:

None of the data I lost was crucial enough to warrant the obscene cost of going to a data recovery center.

I was wondering if there was a program that could mount the four separate drives as a virtual RAID array (showing up as a lettered drive in My Computer) which I could then open in TrueCrypt.

all i said was ask them a question, not send the drive out to them. sometimes you can call up and ask people questions and not have to pay for answers.

[+BudMan MVC]

You could try http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm

Recover Data from a broken RAID Level 5 or 0 Array

But as mentioned if you lost 2 of the drives -- its quite possible you can kiss all that data good bye. That was an encrypted array just makes it even more unlikely that you will be able to recover anything.

I have to wonder if

"None of the data I lost was crucial enough to warrant"

Why was it encrypted in the first place then?

Lets say it was not encrypted -- with the way raid 5 works your data and parity is stripped across all disks in the array -- if the data on those 2 disks is gone the % of data you could get back from the other 2 disks would be most likely a very small percentage.. Since it would only be data that was only completely stored on the 2 disks that did not die, etc.. What was your stripe size?

Now throw encryption on top of that -- your pretty much out of luck!

Your best bet would prob be to just force the 2 drives online and cross your fingers that they went offline for something minor, etc. And hope they stay online long enough for you to recover some of the data, etc.

But normally in the case of loss of an array -- your going to have to restore from backup. You would think that any data that would warrant encryption would also warrant good backups ;)

Good luck - but I sure would not hold you breath on recovery of any of the data.