• Restorer Ultimate Documentation

Basic RAID 4 and RAID 5


RAID 4 and RAID 5 are much similar. You may create and edit a RAID 4 object the same way as a RAID 5 one.

To create a RAID 5 object

1 Click 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.
2 Select Virtual Block RAID Volume on the Create Virtual RAID dialog box then click the Next button
Click to enlarge

Create Virtual RAID dialog box

Select Virtual Block RAID Volume if you want to create a virtual RAID4 or RAID5 object.

3 Select the required objects on the Available disks list and add them to the Selected disks list
Click to enlarge

Create Virtual RAID dialog box

Click to expand/collapse RAID options

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.

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

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 or 6.

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

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.

4 Click the Next button and select the other parameters for your RAID or Virtual volume set and click the Finish button
Click to enlarge

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 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.

You may automatically find parameters for RAID 5 and 6. See the Finding RAID Parameters help page for details.

> 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 RAID 5 or 6.

The Description Files for RAID Configurations topic shows the RAID description file for this RAID configuration.