Rebuild split RAID5 array

Question

I'm running 6 320GB SATA drives in a RAID5 configuration on a Gigabyte M59SLI S5. Last week the system started hanging durning array initialization. One of the disks is dead and another has been kicked out of the array to create a new array.

The end result is I have one broken array with four working disks and and 2 missing disks, one broken array with one working disk and five missing disks, and one new disk ready to go.

I'm looking for a solution to merge the two arrays back into a single array so I can rebuild with the new disk.

Answer 1

If any changes have been made to the disk that was dropped to create a new array, you'll find out how good your backups are because that's almost the only way to get your data back.

I'll be fair... If only a little writing to the second missing disk has occurred, you could probably send the disks to a data recovery expert and get a solid fraction of the original data. Probably.

A RAID5 array that is missing a disk has the reliability of RAID0 and the performance of RAID5. You want to treat a missing disk as a critical failure to be resolved ASAP. Drive to the store if necessary.