Create a Virtual Volume Set or RAID

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(Available on Restorer Ultimate PRO and Restorer Ultimate PRO Network only)

If a volume set or RAID is present in your system, Restorer Ultimate detects it, and a Volume sets and RAIDs object appears on the Device/Disk list. This object can be searched for files, scanned, and files found on it can be recovered the same way as from regular drives/volumes.

If you have components from a failed volume set or RAID, you may create a Virtual volume set or RAID from the components to recover files from it. Such components may be any objects on the Device/Disk list, be them real hard drives or disk images.

To create a Virtual volume set or RAID

1Click Create Virtual RAID on the Task List
>A Create Virtual RAID wizard will appear to guide you through the process of creating a RAID or Virtual volume set.
2Select the appropriate type from the Create Virtual RAID dialog box then click the Next button
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Create Virtual RAID dialog box

Select Virtual Block RAID Volume if you want to create a virtual RAID0 or RAID5 object.

3Select the required drives from the Available disks list to the Selected disks list
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Create Virtual RAID dialog box

hmtoggle_plus1RAID options

Available disks

List of disks available for creating virtual disk arrays

Show Partitions

If this check box is selected, Restorer Ultimate also shows partitions on hard drives

Show as:

Select the units in which you want to see object sizes. You may select, Bytes, Sectors, and Bytes and Sectors.

Selected disks

List of disks selected for creating virtual disk arrays

On

Select the On/Off line status for each Volume set or RAID component.

Offset

Specify the offset (in sectors) for each Volume set or RAID component.

Buttons

Add

Click this button to add the selected disk from the Available disks list to the Selected disks list

Remove

Click this button to remove the selected disk from the Selected disks list

Remove All

Click this button to remove all selected disks from the Selected disks list

Move Up

Click this button to move the selected disk one level up in the Selected disks list

Move Down

Click this button to move the selected disk one level down in the Selected disks list

Add Missing Disk

Click this button to add a virtual disk into virtual disk array that will be created

If one component from the volume set or RAID is absent (due to hardware failure, for example), you can add a "missing disk" to re-construct the volume set or RAID structure. The missing disk should be placed in the same order as the original volume set or RAID structure.

Note: Restorer Ultimate does not write anything real on the disk. A missing disk is a virtual object that does not affect actual data on the drive.

Note: Components should be placed in the same order and the offsets should be specified as they were in the original volume set. If this order is incorrect, you must change it by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.

Turning Disks On-Line and Off-Line on-the-fly

You may turn the objects in the virtual RAID or volume set on-line and off-line by selecting/clearing the On checkbox on the Create Virtual RAID dialog box. It may be useful, for example, if you need to see which disk is non-actual in a RAID5.

Actually, when you turn an object off-line, Restorer Ultimate substitutes it with a Missing Disk or Empty Space object.

4Click the Next button and select the other parameters for your RAID or Virtual volume set and click the Finish button
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Create Virtual RAID dialog box

You also need to specify Blocks order for virtual stripe sets or RAID5. You may select it on the Blocks order drop-down or shortcut menu.

The RAID block size parameter must be set the same as for the original volume set. If the order or Raid block size parameter is not correct, data on the parents will not be damaged, but the data cannot be recovered.

>A Virtual volume sets and RAIDs object will appear on the Device/Disk list panel

The Virtual volume set or RAIDs object can now be processed like regular drives/volumes.

If Restorer Ultimate detects a valid file system on the newly created RAID object, a partition object will appear on the Device/Disk list panel.

Note: You may check how correctly you have reconstructed the original volume set or RAID. Find a file and preview it. If the file appears correct, you have created a correct RAID layout. The file should be large enough. For example, it should have size equal or larger to Block size*(Number of disks-Number of parity disks) for RAID5.