Arch Linux

SavageMessiah

Member

Registered: 2004-03-20

Posts: 76

RAID Problems

I'm trying to recover a RAID 5 array from my sister's WD Sharespace. The thing died one day, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the disks - they pass the quick check in data lifeguard (WD's drive health tool).

It's apparently a linux software RAID so I hooked all 4 drives up to an old PC of mine and booted it from the arch install disk. I can use mdadm to assemble the RAID 1 (I think) that's spread across the first partition of each drive and contains the software for the sharespace. When I try to assemble the RAID 5 that's on the last partition of each drive, it doesn't work.

Here's what I'm running:

mdadm --assemble /dev/md0 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdb4 /dev/sdc4 /dev/sdd4

It says the array is created but that it only has 2 disks and can't start. It says that if I try with just sda4 and sb4 or sdc4 and sdd4. If try sda4 and sdc4 or sdb4 and sdd4 it says it only has 1 disk! It seems like only 1 each of sda/b and sdc/d "count".

I know next to nothing about RAID. Does anyone have any idea what I could try next?

nowahn

Member

From: elsewhere

Registered: 2008-12-05

Posts: 75

Re: RAID Problems

Hi,

Did you try the --query, --detail and --examine options to mdadm ? (see man mdadm.)

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SavageMessiah

Member

Registered: 2004-03-20

Posts: 76

Re: RAID Problems

Yeah, IIRC --query and --detail didn't do anything because the array wasn't complete.