Bad Sector HDD Copy utility? 1

[attrofy]

For all of you gurus out there, I have a HDD in a RAID array that has failed (believed due to a building overheat). The RAID array repaired itself, but three of the 4 disks were damaged. The array is still semi-functional, and I was able to restore 2 of the three bad disks. However, the third disk is reporting an astounding number of bad sectors (over 5000 in a 36 hour surface scan - I cancelled the test as I couldn't afford to wait longer). Interstingly enough, the HDD mfg (Seagate) tool indicates there are no physical problems with the disk, only corrupted file structure issues.

Anyway, the RAID array is still functioning, but it wants to rebuild itself to restore data integrity. Due to the physical limitations on this corrupted disk, it gets to the 55% mark and crashes out. This happens in the OS and in the BIOS rebuild. The RAID controller locks up (or reports that the disk has locked up) and crashes the array. The system either ends in a lock up or instant reboot. I have tried every form of chkdsk, scandisk, sector analysis, etc - both from the OS and the HDD and RAID manufacturers.

I believe if I can get a valid clone of this disk, the array will rebuild itself - errors and all - and I can fail out the bad disk (or even the copy of the bad disk) and have it rebuild the array with a good disk in its place. Since the file corruption is happening in only one logical partition - I can format that partition through the OS - and reinstall all the data (as this is the file server partition).

What I am looking for is a sector copy tool that will copy or clone the disk - bad sectors and all. I tried this with the RAID mfg utilities, as this was an option, but the software was limited in scope as a raw brute force sector by sector copy. When it came to a read error, it tried to copy the data, and crashed on the read. I know there are more elegant software solutions out there that will ignore bad sectors, and will clone the MBR and related data from the MBR. I read an intersting page that Norton Ghost would do this using the -IR or -IA switches from the command line, but I am concerned as this is in a RAID array on Win 2003 it will want to see the logical drives, and create corruption trying to fix anything it doesn't understand (also, it is intended for XP and 2000 only with no mention of RAID support). As I have not used Norton Ghost since its first releases, I am unsure if this will work with the drives plugged into a test pc. Where I can tell it to copy a "non-logical" drive to another "blank" drive. Any advice on this info (I have Ghost 10.0 BTW - just never used it) would be greatly appreciated.

Lastly, any suggestions or advice on other good software or utilities some of you have used in the past? I am trying to avoid reinstalling everything as this is on a W2k3 SBS server that is running Exchange, AD and acting as DC and file server. The critical data is secure - it is jut the hassle of restoring user profiles, mail, etc, and making sure everything syncs between the old and new copy.

Here are the technical specs if it matters:
Highpoint Rocket Raid 1820A controller
Seagate Baracuda 7200.7 120 GB SATA drives (4 drives, 1 hot spare, divided into 3 logical partitions)

Thanks in advance for any input or suggestions

 

[wahnula]

Ghost 2003 is approved for server 2003. I use it all the time to clone arrays on my SBS machine, it's a $30 app and has lots of command line options.

You did not mention the RAID # but I am guessing RAID5. Remove the worst disk and do not let the array rebuild, clone that image to a single good drive (IDE SCSI anything) with Ghost 2003 and see what you've got.

There is a free full-featured trial of Symantec's LiveState that many people have found joyous. Remember that the sooner you get that data off that array the better, that's why I recommend an immediate clone of what you've got before trying too many tricks.

Tony

 

[attrofy]

Thanks for the update. I opened my package of Ghost, and found a copy of Ghost 2003 bundled in there. I had installed 10.0 and tried running it, it wouldn't clone the disk - it wouldn't recognize it (as a logical drive) so I couldn't point to it for cloning. I thought about installing 2003 to see if it made a difference, but began seeking other solutions after reading conflicting info on its capabilities. I d/l'ed a demo version of Diskpatch from

http://www.diydatarecovery.nl

and found it was able to read through the entire disk, and provide info other tools had not. So I purchased the license this morning and am cloning the disk as we speak (hopefully).

I will definately look into LiveState and explore the Ghost 2003 disk as soon as this completes (succeed or fail).

In Ghosting your arrays, will it work from a NAS or other non-array disk? Or does the image have to live on the array? And have you ever rebuilt an array from the image? If so, what are the steps required first (does the array have to be rebuilt on clean disks as a blank array, then install the image on top - or will the image rebuild the array?

Thanks for the info.

And yes, it was a Raid 5 array - sorry for not mentioning that.

 

[wahnula]

And have you ever rebuilt an array from the image?

Most definitely. I have a lot of USB/FW external drives but prefer an internal IDE or SATA drive for the clone. I cloned the array to a single disk, then changed the drive letter of the target disk, removed the array and checked function using only the single drive as the 'array...perfect.

Then I took clean, formatted drives, and created the new array in RAID BIOS. Now both Windows and Ghost sees the array as a single drive, and you can recover the data to the new array from the single drive using Ghost 2003. Perfect.

I have used this ping-pong method in the past. Always let the controller build the array before loading data.

Ghost 2003 has a bad rep with some but I am one gleeful owner. It has been pretty reliable for me. I just found out the LiveState has a new name now that Symantec has bought Veritas and mumbo jumbo changed its name and took the power out of the free trial.

I hope all this is moot and you are back up & humming away.

Tony

 

[attrofy]

Well, sad news, I somehow cloned the blank target disk to the full intact Source disk. I know how it happend, it wasn't carelesness, but it could have been avoided (and better familiarity with the tool). I was using an HP as a test bed, and for some reason it cares which plug the SATA goes in first. When I set them in logical order, it changed the order based on some magical HP formula. So my disk 2 and 3 swapped positions. As there was no identifying info other then size, cluster, cylinders and sectors, (and both disks were identical), I mistakenly selected the blank disk. I should have tried to hex edit the disks, then I would have seen an almost empty disk...but live and learn.

Now I have the opportunity to install a clean array, clean partitions, and make a Ghost copy at the outset.

I am curious if you partition your array, and how do you ghost the partitions? Would I just treat each partition as its own drive? Wouldn't Ghosting the individual partitions only restore the data in the partitions, and not restore the server functionality? How would the W2k3SBS image come into play? Is there enough functionality in the "Backup my computer" imaging to restore the entire "volume" (server and RAID functions in all)?

Thanks again for the info.