What would you want in a RAID tool?

[Sparda]

I know various of you run computers with RAID's in them.

Should you ever need software that is able to recover data from any RAID you may have, what functionality would you like said software to have? Please, state the obvious :).

[wh1t3 and n3rdy]

Whilst I'm not running raid, obviously the ability to read all the major file systems is a must. I guess it will depend if they are using a software or hardware RAID solution, I am not that familiar with it all. There must some kind of recovery information on the volumes to aid recovery. The ability to extract that to rebuild would be handy, but i don't know if the information generated will be universal across all RAID arrays and operating systems.

[Sparda]

i don't know if the information generated will be universal across all RAID arrays and operating systems.

No, it isn't. Such a thing can be defeated as all use similar principals. The trick is, making it work at all and automatically without specifying a secure size or how many disks there should be.

What RAID levels would one like it to recover from if, for example, the RAID controller stopped working and it is impossible to get a new one and there are no recent backups.

[Lord Necron]

What RAID levels would one like it to recover from if, for example, the RAID controller stopped working and it is impossible to get a new one and there are no recent backups.

Obviously RAID 1 is not needed.

In the past I needed something to rebuild a RAID 0. All the software I had couldn"t do it without information I didn"t have. The disks were out of a WD MyBook. WD was no help at all with this, of course.

[telesophic]

You didn't say what OS or anything, but I'd guess you'd want it to be Linux-based (I guess I'd personally favor SystemRescue CD http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page) or Windows-based (I'd go with BartPE http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/). Tricky thing with Bart is to load the drivers for the types of IDE/SCSI interfaces you have (Bart on Windows can handle everything from a standard PATA to a full-blown Proliant DL380 G6, so long as you have the drivers).

I've tried SystemRescue on a Windows system with little luck, Bart along with a good imaging utility (Ghost or Acronis, they both work fine and I've experience with 'em) will usually do the trick for a recover.

For situations where the original controller is damaged and the disks are all that's left of the data, I'd try for a replacement controller (honestly). It may be cheaper than attempting a repair otherwise.

Are you trying to like simulate a controller? Maybe get a later version of the same controller and that might help.