XPS 8300 - Raid0 Volume Status Failed

Hi FatCat61,

Apologies that your computer is not performing as you expected.

Here is some information you may find helpful:  http://dell.to/2uG5JQD

Unfortunately, when a RAID 0 array fails, the only thing you can do is a ground-up reinstall.  If one of the drives fails the Dell diagnostics (which you can get to through F12 at powerup), you're best off replacing BOTH drives -- if one has failed, chances are the other will in short order, as the two drives were likely built at or near the same period of time.

It's also questionable whether you even want RAID 0 - it's not that much of a performance boost and as you now know, RAID 0 doubles your chance of losing data.

Thanks guys for the prompt responses, From your answers am I to assume that although the screenshot shows the two physical drives in green (good??), one or both have failed and I can no longer expect to be able to retrieve any data from them? Apologies if that's a really obvious question and I'm missing the point completely..

Thanks

It is very difficult to recover data from a failed RAID 0 array - whatever caused the failure.  If you must have the data, do nothing further with the system - what you'll likely have to do is send the entire system off to a data recovery specialist.  It may be possible to recover the data from the array - but expect a bill well north of $1,000 for a recovery of this type.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I guess that's not an ideal outcome, but I appreciate you pointing me towards the next step. Cheers.

Hi Robert,

It is difficult to tell from the link whether the circumstances are the same as mine.  I've had a response from a DataRecovery specialist, that has advised me that if the physical drives aren't damaged (and have confirmed from my screenshot (see original post), I should be able to restore the PC to it's former state, by rebuilding the array. Do you know if this can be done?

Thanks,

Hi ejn63

I took your advice and rang a couple of local data recovery specialists for quotes for the work.  The 1st one as you say, quoted between £600-£900 (ouch!).  The second one was slightly cheaper, but when I said that I could see the physical drives in green, he said I'd be able to recover the data by rebuilding the array using the on-board utilities.  I followed this up by sending him the same screen-shot as the one in my original post and a technician from DataClinic e-mailed me back to confirm that this was the case. Unfortunately, they didn't go as far as telling me how to do this!

Is this possible?  I have found a post with the same set of criteria as I have, that claims part success by, deleting the RAID (there is no rebuild option), when asked if the boot sector is to be deleted, press no, re-boot, when asked to format the drive, again no, then the RAID rebuilds, and voila, the PC is restored with the data intact.

I'm still in a quandary - on the one hand the data recovery people should know their business, but now I'm not sure because they didn't get back to me when I asked for a step by step guide (I offered payment for the service and everything!).

Any thoughts much appreciated.

A RAID 1 array with one drive offline/failed can be rebuilt from the other drive.  A RAID 0 array with any member drive offline cannot be rebuilt -- unless you have a backup or employ a data recovery specialist, you won't get the data back.

Any reputable data recovery shop will tell you there's at least a decent chance that the recovery will fail because of the RAID 0 configuration (and be willing to waive the charge if the recovery does fail).  Recovering a failed RAID 0 array is very difficult to do.