Rebuilding Software RAID (Windows/Dedicated Server with BIOS)

For Windows Dedicated Servers with BIOS

This article explains how to restore the software RAID on your Windows Dedicated Server.

RAID rebuild is necessary if one of the hard disks was replaced due to a defect.

• Start the Windows Rescue System on your server.

• In the Console, type diskpart and then list disk to display an overview of the hard drives.

  C:\Users\Administrator>diskpart
  
  Microsoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600
  
  Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.
  On computer: VM0797FC0
  
  DISKPART> list disk
  
  Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt

  
  -------- ------------- ------- -------

  --- ---
  Disk 0 Online 40 GB 0 B * ------- Disk 1 Online 40 GB 40 GB
  Disk M0 Missing 0 B 0 B *

  In this example, Disk 1 is the new hard disk (easily identified by the missing * in the Dyn column). M0 on the other hand is the defective (and already replaced) hard disk.
  
  In the following steps of this manual we will show you how to convert the new hard disk into a dynamic disk, remove the old disk from the configuration and rebuild the RAID.

• Set the focus on the new hard disk using the command select disk. In case of disk 1, the command would be:

  DISKPART> select disk 1 Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

• Enter the convert dynamic command to convert the disk to a dynamic disk:

  DISKPART> convert dynamic
  
  DiskPart successfully converted the selected disk to dynamic format.

• Type the list volume command to display an overview of the volumes.

  DISKPART> list volume
  
  Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
  ---------- ---

  ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------

  -------- -------- --------
  Volume 0 System Rese NTFS Mirror 350 MB Failed Rd System
  Volume 1 C NTFS Mirror 39 GB Failed Rd Boot

• Pay attention to volumes that have the status failed. Select them one after the other and remove the exchanged disk with the command break.
  
  For example, if M0 is the replaced disk and volumes 0 and 1 have the status Failed, enter the following commands in this order:

  DISKPART> select volume 0
  Volume 0 is the selected volume.
  
  DISKPART> break disk=M0 nokeep
  DiskPart successfully broke the mirror volume.

  DISKPART> select volume 1
  Volume 1 is the selected volume.
  
  DISKPART> break disk=M0 nokeep
  DiskPart successfully broke the mirror volume.

• You can still check the result with list volume. The status should now be Healthy:

  DISKPART> list volume
  
  Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
  ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- -------- -------- --------
  Volume 0 System Rese NTFS Simple 350 MB Healthy System
  Volume 1 C NTFS Simple 39 GB Healthy Boot

  You can also see from the type simple that it is no longer a RAID volume. You can change this with the following steps.

• Select the relevant volumes one after the other and add the new hard disk to them using add disk.
  
  For example, to add disk 1 to volumes 0 and 1, enter the following commands:

  DISKPART> select volume 0
  
  Volume 0 is the selected volume.
  
  DISKPART> add disk=1
  
  DiskPart succeeded in adding a mirror to the volume.

  DISKPART> select volume 1
  
  Volume 1 is the selected volume.
  
  DISKPART> add disk=1
  
  DiskPart succeeded in adding a mirror to the volume.

• The RAID will automatically be rebuilt. Depending on the number and size of the files, this can take up to several hours.
  
  You can check the current status with list volume.

  DISKPART> list volume
  
  Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
  
  ---

  ---------- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- ---------

  -------- --------
  Volume 0 System Rese NTFS Mirror 350 MB Healthy System -------- * Volume 1 C NTFS Mirror 39 GB Rebuild Boot

• Delete the defective hard disk from the configuration. For example, if it is M0, enter the following commands:

  DISKPART> select disk M0
  
  Disk M0 is now the selected disk.
  
  DISKPART> delete disk
  
  DiskPart successfully deleted the missing disk.

• If the first hard disk (Disk 0) has been swapped, you will need to rewrite the Windows boot loader. To do so, exit Diskpart and then run the following commands on the command line:

  bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
  bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
  bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:

• You can now boot the server back into normal mode.