[Resolved] Intel Matrix Storage -- FAILED

[idata]

Ok, so when I went to bed everything was fine. This morning, I move the mouse, and the screen doesn't come back on. So, I use the power button to shut off the system. Turn it back on, and still nothing. I repeat this a bunch of times, reseat the video card, etc. Nothing.

Time to reset the CMOS settings. After doing this, finally the monitor comes on -- but it loads into the EZ-FLASH recovery bios system telling me my bios is corrupted and do I want to try to recover. Why yes, I do! After going through that process, my computer appears to be working again -- but Windows tells me it failed to recover from hibernation. Maybe this is what caused the whole problem in the first place?

Now onto the more serious problem. I have a separate drive for the OS, so Windows loads -- but the disk manager in Windows tells me my RAID 5 drive is not initialized, even though it DOES tell me the size of it properly. Hmm.

Reboot, go into BIOS settings, realizing that due to BIOS being reset the motherboard has the SATA setting as IDE instead of RAID. So I switch it to RAID, save, exit, reboot. This time the Intel Matrix Storage reports to me that the RAID 5 is in a FAILED state. I have 4 drives in the RAID -- and now TWO show as members, and TWO show as "non-Raid". Not good. Not good at all.

Why does the Intel Matrix Storage think that two of the drives are no longer members of the RAID array?? And how can I add them back in without destroying everything?? I mean, all the data is still there. None of that has changed.

In searching around, I found this: http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showpost.php?p=3329132

Any idea if it will work?

Is there a better solution? Can I take the drives somewhere to have the data recovered? Why can't the Intel driver just rebuild the partition data without destroying the actual data?

What is the next step I should take?

Please help!

UPDATE:

I followed the steps in the post from extreme overclocking above and it all worked!!

1) Go into the Intel Matrix Storage Manager in BIOS.

2) Mark all the drives in the RAID as "non-Raid." This warns you that all your data will be lost, but really is simply re-writing the partition table, which is ALREADY messed up anyhow...

3) Re-Create the RAID using the SAME settings as the original RAID that you are trying to recover. Disks must be in the same order as before, and the strip size must be the same as before. Note: Having the disks in the wrong order will not destroy your data, it will just mean that step (4) will not work... If (4) doesn't work, you will need to repeat steps 1-3 until you have the disks in the proper order... 

4) Once the RAID has been re-created, get TestDisk from http://www.cgsecurity.org/

5) Follow the Step-By-Step directions for TestDisk: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

6) If all goes well, you will simply have to reboot and all will be better!

NOTE: My OS drive was seperate from my RAID drive, so I didn't have to mess with the MBR -- I could still boot into Windows just fine, it's just that my RAID wasn't there. IF your OS is on your RAID drive, I would suggest using the DOS version of TestDisk, and if your computer won't boot after fixing the RAID you should use your Windows Install DVD (or whatever MBR fixer your prefer) to repair the MBR.

Good luck! Oh... and BACKUP YOUR DATA!!! 🙂