 Hello everybody! Watch this video to find out how to recover data from a RAID system if the LSI-9284i4i controller breaks down, and how to retrieve data from a crashed RAID 5. As we all know, the controller is an important element of a disk RAID, and when it fails, the whole storage system is out of work. The RA is crashed, and you lose access to all of your data stored inside it. A RAID controller may break down due to hardware errors, various kinds of damage, physical defects, and even as a result of wrong configuration. If you encountered this kind of problem, I'll show you how to restore access to the lost data. For better understanding of how the RAID technology works, let's explore the process of creating it on this specific device. This can also come in handy at a later time when you try to restore the RAID pairability. You will know how to rebuild it in order to retrieve important information. Let's find out how to create a RAID using the controller's BIOS. To access it, press the key shortcut Ctrl H when the server is booting. If the previous RAID configuration still remains on the disks, the system will identify it and suggest restoring it. If you don't need that, just press the corresponding keys C, yes, and so on. After that, the Web BIOS LSI window opens. Click on the Start button to continue. After that, go to the Configuration Wizard. In the Wizard window, choose New Configuration and click Next. You will see a warning that the current configuration will be cleared and all data will be lost. Click Yes to continue. Now choose the RAID configuration method, manual or automatic, and click Next. Select the drives for this RAID and click Add to Array. Now the hard disks will be added to a virtual group. Then click Accept DG to confirm. And click Next again. Now add this group to Span by selecting the option Add to Span, and then click Next. At the next stage, choose RAID level, strip size, read and write policy settings, cache and other options. When all settings are ready, click Update Size, Accept, and Next. Click Accept and Yes to save this configuration. Now click Yes one more time to initialize drives. This will start fast initialization, but if you need to wipe the drives completely, select Slow Initialize and click Go. Now the RAID system is ready. The last step to take is to restart the computer. Further actions will include drive partitioning, access configuration, and so on. If you lost access to the disk array because of controller breakdown, there are a few ways of retrieving your data. For starters, you need to make sure if there is a problem with the controller. As soon as you know that the controller is out of order, you can start the recovery operations. The first data recovery method to use if the LSI92804I4A controller is dead is to connect the disks to a properly working controller. For this method, you will need one more controller of the same model or a compatible one which enables you to import the previously existing RAID configuration. First of all, explore this aspect and make sure that this operation is safe for your data. Wrong actions may erase the disk completely, along with your precious files. Visit our channel for a detailed video tutorial about transferring hard disks to a new controller. Find the link in the description below. The second method to recover data involves specialized data recovery software which can work with RAID systems. Hetman RAID Recovery supports all popular RAID types in its file systems and various RAID patterns used by RAID controllers. It will rebuild the damaged RAID with the available hard disks so that you'll be able to retrieve important files. For data recovery, you need to connect all the hard disks to the motherboard of a Windows computer. As you can see, the program has rebuilt the crashed RAID automatically. Depending on the RAID level, it can also rebuild the RAID system even if one or several disks are missing. If your motherboard has less setup hours of power connected than necessary, you can use additional adapters and expansion cards like the ones shown on the screen. Select the RAID in the Drive Manager and check if the program managed to rebuild it correctly. It shows brief information about its parameters. If everything is correct, right-click on the volume and choose Open. After that, choose the scan type – Fast Scan or Full Analysis. For most simple cases, Fast Scan is enough and it takes less time. In my case, the program has coped with the task easily. It has rebuilt the RAID automatically and found all the files which were stored on this disk array. It also displays deleted files which are marked with the right cross. Select all the items you want to recover and click the Recovery button. Specify where to save the data, choose the disk and folder and click Recover again. When the recovery process is complete, you'll see all the files in the specified directory. If the program can't find the missing files after the Fast Scan, then go for Full Analysis. To do it, return to the main menu. Right-click on the volume and choose Analyze the Can. Full Analysis. Choose the file system type. You can uncheck the option for Content Aware Analysis as it will make the process go faster. If you still can't find the necessary files, run Full Analysis again but this time with the Content Aware option enabled. In some situations, the program may fail to rebuild the RAID automatically. It can happen when the service information on the disk is erased so the program cannot identify parameters of the crashed RAID. In such cases, the RAID constructor with the manual build feature will help you. This tool will save the date when the disk beginning is erased, together with the information about the array parameters. This is what typically happens when disks are connected to another controller and the previous configuration is erased, when the RAID is rebuilt or when the disks are initialized. After initialization, data will be erased completely. If you know the array parameters, start the constructor. Choose manual mode. Next. specify the array type, block order size, add the disk that you used to include and replace the missing disks with empty drives by clicking the plus button. You may have to specify the offset, which tells you where the beginning of the disk is located. One more thing to choose is the disk order. When you give all the parameters you know, you will see your RAID and if all information is correct, you will see its folders here. Fill in all properties and click Add. With that, the RAID system will appear in the drive manager. Now, stop the scan, search for files and recover the ones you need. Summing up, we can say that recovering data from RAID may seem quite challenging, but as long as you follow this tutorial and avoid careless steps, you'll be able to restore access to the disk array and recover the lost files successfully. Also, you should always remember to backup your files and this will protect you against many unpleasant situations. That is all for now. I hope this video was useful. Remember to click the Like button and subscribe to our channel. Leave comments under the video. Thank you for watching and good luck.