How to Recover Files from a Crashed Dell old server with Win 2012 R2

[Punjabi]

I have Dell old server 710 model. It was my Intranet server. Today it crashed and it will not boot up. Current OS is windows 2012 R2 installed with Raid 5. All I need to recover is the INETPUB (www) directory from the C drive. I tried O&O Bluecon Tech edition version 16. , it did not help and while trying to recover files it does not even see the C drive. Is there anyway I can recover this www directory and its content  from the c drive. Thanks-

Punjabi

[uk666]

If this is critical data, I would highly recommend you contact Dell Support or a data recovery service.

Try: PERC 5/I Configuration utility configuration utility

The Configuration Utility is a storage management application embedded on the PowerEdge RAID Controller cards (PERC). It allows to configure and maintain the RAID disk groups and virtual disks. This is independent of the operating system. Use the Configuration Utility for initial setup and disaster recovery. 

You can use advanced features through Dell OpenManage storage management application. The online help option can be displayed by pressing the F1 shortcut.

1. Starting the BIOS Configuration Utility
2. Turn on/boot the system.
3. A BIOS banner displays information about the controller and configuration.
4. During bootup, press <Ctrl><R> when prompted by the BIOS banner.
5. After you press <Ctrl><R>, the Virtual Disk Management menu screen displays by default. 
6. This screen displays the controllers, virtual disks, physical disks, free space, hot spares, and other details in an expandable tree directory.

Dell PERC: How to clear the foreign configuration on an HDD using the Raid Configuration Utility

Physical Disk Management screen (PD Mgmt) 

Drives states

1. --FAILED (self explanatory)
2. --Foreign
3. --Ready
4. --Online

Failed and foreign are offline drive states. Ready is a state that signifies the drive is ready to be a member, it is not currently being used.

What usually happens when you have multiple drives go into a failed or foreign state is a single drive experienced a hardware failure. Sometimes a disk hardware failure can cause a disruption on the controller. This can cause other disks to be knocked offline or go out of sync and be marked as foreign. I would run diagnostics to find out which drives are faulty.

Foreign config on raid array:

If you have foreign drives in the array and it is failing to boot then you would need to do this to recover:

1. During boot up, press <Ctrl><R> when prompted on bootup to access the raid controller. On the PD Mgmt Screen , highlight the Virtual Disk that has the Foreign drive(s) as a member.
2. Press F2 to display the available actions. 
3. Select Foreign Configuration.
4. Press the right arrow key to display the available actions, Import and Clear.
5. Select Import the foreign Configuration and then press enter.

Depending on what the drives status are, you may have a drive go into a Rebuild State after this. You should be able to boot back to the OS once the foreign is imported though. The VD would just be in a degraded until the drive rebuilds. 

If you have an offline drive that does NOT automatically start rebuilding, then you need to verify the OS is accessible. If it is then assign that offline drive as a hot-spare and it should start rebuilding. 

Clearing the foreign configuration will delete the array. If you import the foreign configuration it will attempt to bring the foreign drives back into the array and write the preserved cache. This should make the RAID accessible again.

You can find information about foreign configurations in the manual or link below.

How to recover from foreign config on DELL raid 5 array:

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By the way, you made a post in Tech Help & Security:

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But you have not giving any feedback, I was wondering if you resolve the issue.