Lost partition due to accidental Raid 0

[RustyTank]

I got my OWC Mercury Elite Pro back from a repair (power). I had not seen that the repair shop changed the switches to RAID 0 while I used to work with 2 independent drives.

This resulted in the fact that the drives don't initialize any more. I'm afraid I lost my data, but I can't imagine that that happened in 5 minutes. I had 2 drives in the enclosure (3tb and 4tb).

Any suggestions?

I'm currently running data rescue 3 deep scan, but that is taking 30+ hours.

 

[brand]

Are we to assume that you don't backup your data and that you didn't back it up before you sent it in for repair? What was your plan if OWC replaced the whole thing instead of returning it?

 

[alphaod]

Have you switched it back to the original setting?

 

[matoch]

I'd call OWC and get advice. I'm not familiar with how the enclosures work. As someone else mentioned have you put the switch back to the original setting?

 

[RustyTank]

Are we to assume that you don't backup your data and that you didn't back it up before you sent it in for repair? What was your plan if OWC replaced the whole thing instead of returning it?

Sorry for the late reply. I'm in a different timezone

I sent the enclosure for repair without the disks in it.
What I didn't check when the enclosure (for 2 disks) came back were the internal switches which can set the drives in Raid 0, Raid 1 or in Independent mode. I always used this in independent mode. Thus 2 drives independently visible and accessible.

Off the two drives in the enclosure one drive of 4TB is my back up drive of the Mac Mini as well as the back up of the secondary drive of 3TB with media.

Due to the fact that they both sit in the same enclosure when I switched it on with the RAID switches set to RAID 0 instead of the independent mode which I normally use I now have this problem.

The drives are no longer recognized. It keeps asking to initialize. Even after I put the drives in a drive docking station and when I changed the switches to independent mode in the enclosure again.

I have a third back up of my mac mini with all my docs, photos and music.

So it may not have been the best back up sollution it was backed up at least once and critical files twice.

 

[brand]

I sent the enclosure for repair without the disks in it.

That is much clearer. I kind of thought that but didn't want to assume it. While I don't have a solution for you I hope that this helps you to implement an onsite and offsite backup strategy so that you are not put in this situation again. I have lost data before due to hard drive failure and it is can be devastating. Since then I have learned my lesson and backup all of my important data using a modified version of the 3-2-1 backup methodology.

Good luck in getting reunited with your data.

[EDIT]You edited your post while I was taking forever to type mine to clarify your backups making part of my post invalid. I will leave my post as is rather than retyping it.

 

[flynz4]

To the OP... unfortunately you have probably lost your data. I truly hope that the data recovery works. Even so... it will probably be a mess to organize again.

Without sounding or intending to be mean... I think the rest of us should look at this example. Many of us on this forum have repeatedly advised to think through one's backup scheme... and to NEVER put the primary data and backup on the same physical device. Even though the OP's data was on two separate drives... it was still within a single point of failure (the enclosure). Besides the wrong switch setting that impacted the OP... there were many other mechanisms that could have caused corruption of both his primary and backup data.

Data should always be backed up to at least 2 different independent destinations. At least one of those should be offsite. Both should be fully automatic with zero human intervention. Ideally, both should use different programs to back up the data.

Back to the OP... I sincerely hope your recovery is successful.

/Jim