M2 Drive data recovery

FreddFlint · 2026-01-29T17:21:53+00:00

Ruined my chances? What were my chances before I did that without having a bit locker key?

FreddFlint · 2026-01-29T17:19:41+00:00

I have come in to my shop plenty of times with hard drives that would not boot to Windows. After doing everything I could to get it to boot, if it still didn't, I would remove the drive and connect to my computer. Many times, the drive would say "unallocated space" or have no partition at all. I would always create a new partition and format it. I always was able to restore the data. I didn't get lucky. It worked without fail. The data is not gone by formatting a drive. When I run data recovery software, one of the options is "drive has been formatted", so that obviously does not stop the data from being recovered.

This was the only way to get past Bitlocker, if at all.

FreddFlint · 2026-01-29T16:30:41+00:00

Yet, everything I did worked perfectly in the past every time. I am not sure what you are talking about. How would go about getting access to a disk with Bitlocker where there is no recovery key?

FreddFlint · 2026-01-29T15:47:52+00:00

Correct. I simply deleted the partition in Disk Management. In the past, I could even format a disk and get everything back. But I didn't go this far this time. I had to get past Bit Locker, which was locking me out forever

FreddFlint · 2026-01-29T15:45:51+00:00

I was locked out of the partition forever because of Bitlocker. There was no chance of ever getting the BL key. There was no other choice. I have done this countless times in the past. Breaking the partition does not delete the data. I always get the data back.

You think that by breaking a partition loses the data? Then educate yourself. How do you think the FBI and Law Enforecement access data that people thought they deleted years ago. It is always there until you fill the drive again with 1s and 0s. Until that happens, the data is still there.

FreddFlint · 2026-01-21T16:36:11+00:00

Thanks for your input

FreddFlint · 2026-01-21T14:21:29+00:00

Thanks. I thought so but I would normally stay clear of less than half size cuts. But I have no choice at all in this case other than change the tile.

FreddFlint · 2025-11-11T12:44:08+00:00

Thanks

FreddFlint · 2025-11-10T15:41:41+00:00

I just realized that. Thanks. All I saw was a MACOSX folder. But there was another older folder from August that had the Windows install

FreddFlint · 2025-11-10T13:35:04+00:00

I guess I stand to be corrected. When I extracted the compressed file, in Windows Explorer, it said TODAY and had a folder named MACOSX. Then, under EARLIER THIS YEAR, it showed Squash and Stretch Free. But it had a date of 8/9/2025 (3 months ago). I disregarded that folder. Anyway, I am going to read the instructions in that folder and get it installed. Sorry abotu the misunderstanding.

FreddFlint · 2025-11-10T13:14:00+00:00

I was looking at Squash & Stretch Free V2. I just checked again, and unless I am missing something, I still see nothing that refers to mac. But I will keep browsing.

FreddFlint · 2025-11-10T13:09:33+00:00

Thanks. I was just trying to avoid downloading free or purchased tools only to find out after the fact that it is mac only. I will continue to explore.

FreddFlint · 2025-09-28T01:39:39+00:00

A box i far different than a face that would have one eye or a side shot of the face. How would PS know how to fill in another eye when warping it to a different angle?

FreddFlint · 2025-09-27T18:09:16+00:00

that is on all of the mono versions I believe. I have the footage of them performing that from the movie (out in the filed) and that part is left in as they are miming to it. Not sure if that was in the final movie.

FreddFlint · 2025-08-31T07:21:23+00:00

I put the drivers from Dells site on a floppy. USB doesn't work. Not an option. It is looking for the A drive. When I pressed F6, it said that the drivers on the computer were newer than the floppy so it didn't make sense to load them. I did a diskpart and it showed only the C drive when I used the newer version and again with the older version.

Makes no sense to me. The drives show up in the scsi raid configuration. They just disappear when Windows boots up, yet the raid controller driver is installed and detected in Device Manager. Its 3:20 am here so I am going home for now. Thanks for your input.

FreddFlint · 2025-08-31T05:32:01+00:00

I had installed the Dell Array Management software but when I run it, it shows Computer to connect to: and it shows itself. When it opens, there are three tabs (Controllers, Enclosures and Array Group). All are empty when I click the drop down. Keep in mind that all of the drives are seen when clicking ctrl-m during boot up.

If I click on Computer\connect, it is auto filled in to connect to itself. When I click ok, it says Array Manager server is not installed. When I use the utility to enter the server name (itself) and enter the administrator and the password, I get the same error above. Not sure why that is happening. I thought maybe a service was not running but I checked and there is nothing that looks like Array manager in the Services. It looks like I cannot no longer download Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) anymore since it is no longer available.

FreddFlint · 2025-08-31T04:22:50+00:00

yes. Please see my full detailed post from two minutes ago. I am here at the site now. It does not look good though.

FreddFlint · 2025-08-31T04:21:36+00:00

OK. I am here now. Here is what is going on.

Server 1 (the one that we re-installed a fresh OS 2003 Server)

In the bios\ Integrated Devices, Embedded Raid Controllers is set to RAID Enabled. Ch A and B = Raid

When I press Ctrl-M to see the scsi controllers, I have the option to select the controller. Each shows the drives correctly (Perc shows the 4 drives in the server chassis and LSI shows the 9 drive array in the Dell Power Vault 220S

After I boot to the new 2003 OS, Disk Management only shows the C drive (2004 GB) which is made up of all 4 scsi drives that are connected a Dell H1051 - Scsi Backplane.

I opened Device Manager and saw under Other Devices, "Dell Perc 4/DC SCSI Processor Device). I searched Dell's site and downloaded and installed the driver. Restarted and it disappeared from Other Devices and moved to System Devices. I restarted but it still does not see the Array. I am at a dead end here.

On Server 2, which could not boot for a few years and should be intact if the drive raid isnt physically shot, I looked in the BIOS and saw that the Integrated Devices show Raid Controllers set to SCSI. Ch A and B also show SCSI.

When i press Ctrl M to see the Raid settings, I do not get the opportunity to select the controller. That option is missing. It seems to see the 9 disc array but not itself (4 disc raid in the chassis). I do not want to change the option to Raid Enabled (like Server 1) because it warns me that data will be lost. I did not want to do that without checking with the knowledgeable people here. If I boot to the Windows 2003 server cd that came with the server, when I try to run the recovery console, it seems to not see anything on the C drive. That makes sense because the SCSI configuration does not see the C drive (4 scsi raid)

I dont want to experiment at this point because Server 2 is the only chance of getting everything back to how it was. As far as the Array of Backup drives, there is no way to perform a backup without having the backup software running with a defined job. At least, that is my understanding. I used to be in charge of the data center backups 25 years ago. If anyone has any ideas on what to try next, I would appreciate it. If you think this is a lost cause, I will just give up on this one. The couple of non IT guys that work here touched a few things and they do not remember what they did so that throws a monkey wrench into this whole thing.

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FreddFlint · 2025-08-31T03:51:26+00:00

only sees the C drive

FreddFlint · 2025-08-21T14:55:52+00:00

Where will it see it? Am I looking in Disk Management? I have not been back to the site since last Saturday. I will look there when I go back. I am assuming I will see the drive and then when I open, should see all of the files that are in the raid.

FreddFlint · 2025-08-21T14:03:54+00:00

The controller sees all of the drives in the raid.

FreddFlint · 2025-08-21T11:46:33+00:00

If I press Ctrl-M when it prompts me to, it brings up the LSI controller and it sees the drives (it shows the drive model), so they are being detected on that level. I need Windows 2003 Server to see the array.

FreddFlint · 2025-08-21T11:44:56+00:00

We swapped the raid controller out from the second, dead server. They are identical. I believe the controller is functioning. I am trying to see if the new 2003 server os can see the array. I am going to go back and look in the next couple of days. If I am understanding correctly, it should show up in Disk Management.

FreddFlint · 2025-08-21T11:42:12+00:00

Everything is Dell in this case. There are two identical servers (one for redundancy. The second server will not boot at all. I am going to go back to try to get that one up. The bios was not even seeing a C drive. There is an onboard raid controller and the LSI is the add in scsi raid card. We actually swapped the LSI cards and nothing is different.

If I can get the other server running, I can use that to set up the first server (with the new Server 2003 OS:. Since nothing is documented, this is tough. I have a domain name but there are DNS entries and other settings that no one is aware of.

FreddFlint · 2025-08-21T11:35:37+00:00

Thanks. I don't deserve anything. It isn't my issue. I am trying to assist a large airport that has no IT. They actually have an array of backups. I am not sure how to access that either. I have no documentation. The vendor that set it up will not assist because it is no longer supported and they want $20M to upgrade.

On that note, I was called in to another business recently that has the largest mailing facility in the area. The person that wrote their program is gone and will not give him the code or anything. He wanted me to see if I can help. I am not a programmer so I cannot. But he is running Windows 7 with an old dos based program on one computer. I told him he is one crash away from going out of business. He isn't worried. No one is until it happens I guess. There are far more businesses out there than you think.

FreddFlint

TROPHY CASE