Fastest way to get files off a damaged RAID Mirror drive onto a new drive

[questorfla]

The raid Mirror failed on one drive.  The otther seems to be in decent shape but that makes it the only viable copy of over 10 years worth of files saved into one place so I am being careful.
My plan was to first try an actual copy onto a single new drive to make sure they were all readably.  That was first catch, Permissions.  I found a way to use a single right click via a reg edit that now does most of the grunt work that but t is still terribly slow and besides it is making my workbench system the owner.  So i probably will have to do again.

I was wondering if there is a way to change the permissions tro "everyone" in general such thatthe copy would work with no edits for permissions once i get the RAID Rebuilt?
.
I could just clone it (and may yet for safety) but in the end I need to confirm the files can be opened and read.  At  least sampling a few.
The fastest copy / backup utility I have found was Good-Sync although I had a few comments on Tera-copy, Karen's replicator. and one i had never heard of called Rich Copy 4 but it seemed a little dated.

Once this is all ready to roll, it is the better part of a 2TB drive that has to be copied to another 2TB drive.  Once i have THAT for a backup, then i will load it onto a 2TB RAID Mirror as it was for years.

Thanks for any names or suggested software. I think I am stuck on the permissions as i have seen nothing but people complaining about the the same issue.

Just wondered if anyone had any Preferences for speed and reliability when used in house, no Internet, this is just one system with  a ton or ram and a Fast processor and i just need to Copy the files to make sure they can be copied.  In case they are corrupted for any reason.  I have not had time to investigate the Raid crash but the other drive half is pretty dead.  Click of Death

[Shades]

First of all: I only work with one system that has a raid setup, so I can only share my experiences with that system.

Raid solutions quickly become a stinkin' pile of c... when a disk fails when it is just set to striping (yeay...speed, boo...writing same data twice). Unless there is a contingency drive (preferably same brand, type and size) put in the raid setup, you likely will have a big problem trying to get your raid setup to rebuild itself.

I work here with a Linux server that has a software raid with 4 disks and a separate boot drive. Till now it was every time still able to rebuild itself after a calamity. But only because one of the 4 drives is there as a contingency. Now I always get confused with the numbering, but if I remember correctly this setup is called: raid 6. the number might not be correct, but it is a compromise between raid 5 and 10. Can't be bothered to look it up, sorry.

However, I never recommend a raid setup to anyone. Although the speed difference is noticeable, it isn't that much. It also doesn't weigh against the problems you run into when one of the standard consumer components breaks. It could take sometimes one or more days before the raid was usable again.

If there would still be an option to have the broken drive work long enough to clone it, you should be able to use the cloned drive to continue with the raid rebuilding. Turn the broken drive upside down and see if that helps (you would be amazed), There is also the trick of putting it in a zip-lock bag, make very sure there is no air inside the bag with the drive and putting it in the freezer for several hours. If you have no means of doing that, don't bother with this trick...which is a 'hail Mary' at best.

And when you do connect the drive again for cloning, work as efficient/fast as you can to get all data off it. Prepare beforehand everything you need so you waste as little time as possible. If the heat doesn't kill the drive, the condensation most likely will. In the mean time it is best to not use the system with the RAID at all. Avoiding too many discrepancies between drives and all that.

If it contains 10 years worth of data, where are the (confirmed) backups? Raid is not backup!!!!!!!!! Anyone who thinks it is...should seriously be punished by 10 whiplashes... so they will never ever forget that! Ok, that may be harsh nowadays...wearing a fool's hat at home, work and their commute for 10 days then. 

[4wd]

If you're going to copy all the files to ensure readability, I think the first thing I'd do is image the HDD first.  This will not only keep all the permissions but you can always mount the image later if necessary to check anything.
Verify that it is not corrupt - make a couple of copies of the image when you're done, hide one well away from where you're working.

Try Sysinternal' Disk2VHD.

If you have Admin privileges, you can use RoboCopy from the CLI to copy everything, including permissions - check its options.

[40hz]

^There is a GUI of sorts available for Robocopy.

Look here: http://technet.micro...tilityspotlight.aspx

[mouser]

image the HDD first.

exactly.
wish such a large volume, you do not want to do normal file copying for this scenario.  it will take too long, be too much stress on the drive, and too prone to permission or other errors.

you want to do a drive image or a drive clone; in other words make a low level copy of the entire drive.

these days i use Macrium Free version for such things.

[4wd]

Look here: http://technet.micro...tilityspotlight.aspx

-40hz (August 11, 2014, 08:05 AM)

I knew about that but not having used it I was unsure whether it covered the full range of RoboCopy's options, (of which there are lots ... and lots).

Looks like it does  

these days i use Macrium Free version for such things.

-mouser (August 11, 2014, 08:30 AM)

While I'd use AOMEI Backupper, Paragon HDM Pro, etc, the reason I mentioned Disk2VHD is that VHDs are natively supported by Win 7+, ie. Disk Manager->Action->Attach VHD

Come to think of it, instead of Disk2VHD you can use Disk Manager->Action->Create VHD (it's here in Win8, IIRC Win7 also had the facility).

Only downside to VHDs I can see is it's one humongous file.

Oh, I forgot to mention - once you've made a verified image, (and made a couple of copies), work with the image, not the actual HDD.

ie.

Make image, verify image, unplug HDD, copy image, mount image, copy files from mounted image.

This will hopefully leave the real HDD as a physical backup until all files have been copied and verified from the mounted image.

There is no "fast" way to get your only copy of important files off of a HDD, especially when it's a RAID HDD since it's probably the same model/age as the one that just died. 

[Stoic Joker]

Okay, so one drive in a mirrored set failed. Under ideal circumstances...that's what supposed to happen. One drive is mirrored (e.g. imaged) on the fly to another drive so if one fails, you still have a copy. Given the panicked - fire drill - tone, are we to assume there are no backups?

Personally, I would just go for the RAID rebuild...because it's just going to take a low level image of the source drive and lay it on the target drive. Doing a 3rd party image isn't going to gain or save anything at this stage, it's just going to add steps to the process. If the now - presumably - last copy/drive is going to fail during the imaging process...then it's going to fail during the imaging process ... How the imaging is done isn't the deciding factor.

If you have a hardware RAID controller, it should start doing the rebuild without needing to boot the OS. So letting it idle at a boot prompt (like F8) will take some of the IO "pressure" off the drive while it's rebuilding. But this assumes this isn't a mission critical system that a whole horde of people aren't waiting to get back into. Note, not all systems do this so check the documentation for your RAID first - Might not have hurt if you'd mentioned what you had above.

Go over the documentation for your RAID twice before initiating anything...then read it one more time to be sure. After that you just gotta grit your teeth and pick a button. First time I did a RAID rebuild I smoked half a pack of cigarettes in an hour ... Second time wasn't so bad.

[Stoic Joker]

On a side note: the last time I XCopy'ed half a TB of files to preserve permissions (which was a week ago), it took about 15 hours to complete. And that was running between to VMs both of which were sitting on the same blazingly fast 8 disk RAID array.

[40hz]

Not knowing anything about the situation, the OS, or the hardware, I can't suggest anything more than Stoic did above. I'd definitely try to get your mirror back first and then get a real backup procedure in place once you do. Because he's absolutely right. There's nothing you can do that will exercise the surviving drive less than a rebuild. A full file by file copy will definitely stress it more. So definitely re-establish your RAID. At least that way if the surviving disk goes west you'll have a good data copy on the new drive to work with. As was said, if the other drive is about to go, it'll go no matter what you do at this point.

Luck!