dandersen...
I believe you'll need to delete the dynamic volumes in order
to reclaim them. This page from Microsoft may be helpful:
"How to Delete a Dynamic Volume"
"To delete a dynamic volume:
1. In Disk Management, right-click the dynamic volume that you
want to delete, and then click Delete Volume.
2. Click Yes when you are prompted to delete the volume.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
When you delete a volume, all data on the volume is deleted
in addition to the volume itself.
You cannot delete the system volume, boot volume, or any
volume that contains the active paging (swap) file."
More on the page:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308424&sd=tech
Having deleted the dynamic volumes, the system should then
recognize them and let you configure them normally.
Let me know if this resolves your problem.
Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by way of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.
A user's guide on this topic is on skermit-ga's site, here:
http://www.christopherwu.net/google_answers/answer_guide.html#how_clarify
sublime1-ga
Additional information may be found from an exploration of
the links resulting from the Google searches outlined below.
Searches done, via Google:
"after * convert to Dynamic Disk"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22after+*+convert+to+Dynamic+Disk%22 |
Request for Answer Clarification by
dandersen-ga
on
28 Nov 2005 18:06 PST
I'd like to do this without loosing that data on the drive. The data
was intact before installing Windows XP onto the boot drive, and as
such I'd would expect it to remain intact since the drives with the
RAID haven't been touched.
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Clarification of Answer by
sublime1-ga
on
28 Nov 2005 18:50 PST
I don't think that's possible, since you've removed the original
OS which controlled the RAID system. The Windows 2003 system is
what had control of the RAID configuration, and since it's now
gone, there is no way for your current system to mount and access
files from the RAID drives. The File Allocation Tables have all
been deleted.
The image you posted clearly shows that the original boot drive,
which you say was using Windows 2003, was located on the 18.64GB
Dynamic Volume which was part of the RAID configuration, and
controlled it.
Had you mentioned the hope of accessing files on those drives,
I wouldn't have answered your question, since there is no answer
I can give that will allow you to do that. Your question, as posed
seemed to require only that you be able to access the drives and
use them again. In good faith, I provided you with exactly how to
accomplish that.
I empathize with your loss, and if you are insistent on finding
a solution which doesn't, to my knowledge, exist, I can ask the
editors to remove my answer. If they agree, they will erase our
dialog, and you can add a Clarification to the effect that you
only want a solution that somehow regains the data on the drives.
Let me know your wishes...
sublime1-ga
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Request for Answer Clarification by
dandersen-ga
on
28 Nov 2005 20:13 PST
Sorry for my omission. The only reason I though this was possible, is
because Microsoft implies it's possible @
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkb_cnc_ykyz.asp
and to quote the linked page:
If you move one or more dynamic disks from a disk group to another
computer that has its own disk group, the dynamic disks you moved are
marked as Foreign until you import the disks into the existing disk
group. You must import the disks before you can access volumes on the
disk.
So while I've been unable to find any reference to it being possible
on Google, MS seems to imply that it is possible, and as such I'd like
to find out how.
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Clarification of Answer by
sublime1-ga
on
28 Nov 2005 21:20 PST
danandersen...
The quote you cited specifies that dynamic disks can only
be imported "to another computer that has its own disk group".
If you were to create a new group of dynamic disks using your
new XP system (assuming that's feasible) you *might* stand a
chance of then importing the others, however this may not
work if you've formatted the 18.64GB drive or erased the
Windows 2003 OS from it, which seems to be the case, if I'm
understanding you correctly (Am I?).
The article you cited notes:
"After you remove a dynamic disk from a computer, the
remaining online dynamic disks retain information about
the removed disk and its volumes in the dynamic disk
database. As a result, Disk Management still displays
the removed hard disk but shows it as Offline and
assigns it the status of Missing."
Your 18.64GB volume is given this status, presumably
because it has been formatted or erased.
It then suggests:
"You can delete all references to the removed disk by
updating the dynamic disk database. To do this, use
Disk Management to remove all volumes on the missing
disk. After you remove all the volumes, right-click
the missing disk, and then click Remove Disk. The
missing disk is no longer displayed in Disk Management."
So another possibility is that you could delete the
18.64GB volume, and perhaps the remaining dynamic
disks would then become importable, but, again, only
into a system "that has its own disk group". I suspect
that if they don't become importable by way of creating
a new disk group under Windows XP, or if this is not
feasible for you, deleting the 18.64GB volume may not
be helpful, but if you stand to lose everything anyway,
I would first try deleting the missing volume, rebooting
and seeing if that changes the importability of the
remaining volumes, as a last resort. You could also try
Rescan Disks without rebooting.
Presumably, you've already right-clicked on the Missing
disk and looked for and tried the Reactivate Disk option.
If this continually fails, as well as the Rescan Disks
in the Action Menu, there's not much else you can do.
Let me know where this takes you...
sublime1-ga
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Clarification of Answer by
sublime1-ga
on
29 Nov 2005 12:48 PST
Speaking to the comment by astapelfeld-ga, there are some
file modifications which can be made with a hex editor that
will unlock Windows XP support for RAID-5. See this page in
this extensive article about RAID-5 and Windows XP from
TomsHardware:
http://www4.tomshardware.com/storage/20041119/raid5-01.html
Here's the homepage for the UltraEdit Hex Editor recommended:
http://www.ultraedit.com/index.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=10
And here's a page about free Hex Editors from The Starman:
http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/tool/HexEds.htm
sublime1-ga
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Clarification of Answer by
sublime1-ga
on
29 Nov 2005 12:52 PST
Sort of the file modifications discussed above, here's an
article from Microsoft Support about XP storage:
"You cannot create mirrored volumes or RAID-5 volumes on
Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition-based computers. However, you
can use a Windows XP Professional-based computer to
create a mirrored or RAID-5 volume on remote computers
that are running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000
Advanced Server, or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server."
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q314343
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