PERC 6/i - Virtual Disk shows missing PD, but no PD showing failed

Hello

If the drives are in a ready state the controller does not detect metadata tags on them. Metadata tags describe the array and are stored on each drive. When you delete a RAID array it deletes these tags from the drives. I'm guessing that the power outage caused some data loss on the drives that deleted or corrupted the tags. If the tags are missing/damaged then it is possible that other data on the drives are missing/damaged.

If the drives that were previously in the array are all in a ready state then the only option to recover the array is a retag. A retag is when you create the same RAID array across the same drives with the same settings. It will rewrite the tags on the drives and should allow access to the data. You must be sure to not initialize the array as that is a destructive process.

Before you attempt anything I would suggest that you find out more information.

• Is the data critical?
• Is there is a valid tested backup of the data?
• Find out the specifics of the RAID array and write them down somewhere(RAID level, member disks, stripe size, was there more than 1 array, etc)
• What RAID controller are you using? (PERC 6/i) I missed it in your title
• Were any drives in a failed state prior to the power outage?

At this point the data is lost. A retag is a method to try to recover the array. The retag will have one of the three possible outcomes - the array will be brought back online(no guarantee of data), the array creation will fail for various possible reasons, or the array will be brought back online and all data will be overwritten. If a drive that is too far out of sync, is blank, or has corrupted/damaged data is brought online with the other drives during a retag then the controller will just overwrite all of the data across the drives.

Because there is a risk that retagging the array could cause what data may remain on the drives to be overwritten and thus more difficult to recovery I recommend that you contact a data recovery company if the data is critical and you do not have a valid tested backup.

One other thing of note, a retag is not possible on all controllers. Some controllers force an initialization during the creation of a new array. If a retag is attempted on one of these controllers all of the data will be overwritten.

Thanks