cannot reactivate dynamic volume

I recently reformatted my computer and has finally gotten the drivers and updates installed. However, there is a problem with my RAID5 volume:

I installed driver, application, etc. I saw the drive in Computer Management. It had a question mark below it and clicked "import dynamic volume". The volume appeared in my computer. Yah! I restarted the computer, and the drive disappears. I went into computer management, and it's there, again with a question mark below it. Now it gives me the option reactivate my disk. I click on it, but it tells me that "the attempted operation was invalid. contact blah blah.....". What should I do?

 

Want to give these tips a shot?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc785259.aspx

cheers ...

 

Also, check in your event logs to see if anything got logged there that has more detail on what's going wrong.

 

I don't think that article provides for solutions to the errors I encountered.....

nope. there's nothing useful

 

Try some of the suggestions on this TechNet page.

 

Have you changed OS? Vista premium will not read dynamic disks. Need biz or ultimate for that.

You said it's RAID 5 so I assume all other member disks are present.

It could be corruption...

 

It's Vista Ultimate x86. I used to use Vista Ultimate x64, but I can't get the driver of the RAID card to work with the 64bit version anymore (weird...). Could this switch from x64-->x86 be the cause?

And I don't think it's corrupted. Before I reformatted my computer, it was fine. Besides, 3DM2, the RAID card's application, can still see and monitor the array. It's says it's health is "ok" (written in green).

 

OK, so you're on hardware RAID, that is good since your volume info is stored on the card instead of the disks... that rules out one kind of corruption. If it's reading healthy in the RAID monitor app, that's another good sign.

When you go to import the disk group into windows, what exactly is that error it gives you? Especially on RAID 5, if you are on Ultimate 64, even nasty parity errors should be resolved without error messages when you bring it back online.

 

When i first tried to import it, it completed the operation successfully. Then I restarted my computer and the volume disappears. When i went into Computer management, the import disk option was greyed out. It only allowed me to either reactivate the disk or convert it to basic (which i don't want to do since it'd destroy all my data).

And I use Vista Ultimate x86 now on account of the driver issues I had with x64

 

Edit: Wait.. you want to re-activate it... is that what's grayed out?

It could be a driver or firmware issue, are you on the latest from 3ware?

Usually it will be grayed out when you are on a version of windows that cannot handle dynamic disks. You're on Ultimate so that shouldn't be the issue

Also there is a log file

also...

That's from one of their user guides.

 

I actually tried to upgrade the firmware to the newest version but got the following error:

 

Well you want to re-activate the volume anyway, that is the only way to get the array back online...

Edit: What is the error message that gives you?

 

What is the only way to get the array back online? Upgrading the firmware? The error message? It's in the screenshot isn't it?

 

What is the rest of this error when you try to re-activate:

 

hmmm.... Strange. I tried upgrading the firmware the first time by opening the flash.exe file that came with the image. However, I then tried the 3wUpdate program that was installed as part of the application suite. It upgraded my firmware. Yah!

Now, I get a different error message when I try to reactivate my disk:

"This operation is not allowed on the invalid disk pack"

 

That's a low level problem, probably again a driver issue. Have you rebooted and restarted the array? There is not much info, I can find:

Source

That's something going on below the disk management layer, like drivers or software managers (something in 3DM 2 maybe). I'm not really sure where to point you there except to make sure you're on the latest drivers in addition to firmware.

 

here's my (latest) theory:

In the good old days, I used Vista x64 and every was well. I reformatted for some reason, I couldn't get the driver to work. I didn't want to mess with this so I switched to x86. I imported the disk in x86, and since it was initialized with GPT instead of MFT, using x86 might have corrupted it. Now, I am on x64 again fixing the problem. Any ideas?

Now, when I click the reactivate, I get a:

"the attempted operation is invalid. either the parameters specified are invalid or the operation could not be completed on the selected object. refer to the disk management help for assistance on the correction of the attempted operation."


When I use a recovery software like R-Studio, I can see all of my data fine.

 

If it was GPT XP would not be able to access it, and should not be able to damage the array, unless somehow the 3ware driver adds GPT support to XP? Edit: wait you are not on XP... so GPT vs MFT is not an issue

There shouldn't be any problems moving between 64 bit and 32 bit Ultimate as long as the array hasn't been touched.

Are there any clues from 3DM 2? It still seems like a driver problem, especially from the invalid operation error message.

 

there doesn't seem to be anything out of place in 3DM2... everything looks pretty much the same as I had left it. Do you have any suggestions as to what specifically should I look for?

and the only data on the tw_mgmt log is an entry telling the administrator logged in successfully.

One interesting clue is the ability of data recovery software to read my files... I'm not sure what it means yet

 

I'm not sure what would be wrong there, but sometimes there is configuration required from within the RAID manager software. If everything looks good it probably is, there's something else going on.

All of the info for your volumes is stored on the adapter card itself, so as long as the contents of the disks haven't changed your data should still be intact. The problem is somewhere in getting Windows to recognize it as a valid array. You can't mount it on either Ultimate 32 or 64 bit with the latest drivers and firmware?

I couldn't find anything relevant to importing volumes in their software user guide, but maybe in the full manual that you got there are some clues.

 

Nope, mounting with either 32 or 64 bit versions of Vista fails. I'll check the relevant sections of the manual again....

 

I found this encouraging passage on Technet:

It says this doesn't indicate data loss, but it also doesn't provide for a solution....

 

Try the diskraid command to list the drives and check their status (not to modify anything)... there is a useful example at the bottom here ("Example: Interactively View Status of Subsystem"): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770763.aspx#BKMK_19

 

..........

 

No VDS provider means Windows cannot see your controller, that's why I thought there would probably be some sort of way to import or bring online the array with the 3ware software

 

I'll post screenshots of every screen of 3DM2 when I have time tomorrow.

 

here are the screenshots. They are ordered numerically, ordered in terms of their proximity. I went from left to right (on the menu) in taking them.

 

.........<maximum attachment limited reach>..........

part 2

 

....... part 3 ..........

 

I have thought of 3 possible "solutions" I could try.... However, each has its own particular risks...


1) Install Windows 7 or Windows Server 2K8 and see if it could reading the volume

2) try to non-destructively convert the disk to a "basic disk" ( link) and convert it back to dynamic

3) Carve the volume into 1TB chunks and convert those to basic disks.

Are there better (read: safer) possible remedies I could try first?

 

In terms of whatever you do now, you're pretty much risking your data. I would actually call 3ware and try to get them to troubleshoot this with you before you take any potentially damaging actions.

I looked through all of the screenshots, and the only thing that struck me was 'Available Drives: No Drives' in #3 from Part 2. Is that just for spare drives?

 

I think by available, 3ware means that the drive is "available" to be put into a new unit (ie an empty drive ready to be included as part a new RAID volume)...

I am in contact with 3Ware, but they haven't been able to come up with a solution...

 

Of the 3, which would you say presents the least danger?

 

I'd say if you can, install Server 2008, or Win 7 if the drivers will work. That'd be the least destructive method. If they can't be read under Server 2008 you've got an even lower level problem with the array (than drivers). In that case one solution is to move the data off with a recovery utility (it looks like you've got a lot of data), if it is feasible, and then reconstruct the array from scratch.

Edit: Maybe the newer firmware is bad, maybe you can downgrade the firmware to the version you were using when it worked.

 

Windows 7 cannot activate invalid volumes either..... I'll report back with more results. The DISKPART command does seem to work in Windows 7.

 

so what are the DISKPART commands I should try? When I execute the command in Windows 7, it gives me this (see screenhot). There is no "subsystm0" to select.

When I typed in HELP GPT, there was an intriguing guide, thoug I didn't some parts of it. (see 2nd screenshot)

 

diskraid is the command that would let you know if windows saw the array. The example is at the bottom here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770763.aspx