Data Check: SCSI Drives
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Curious - I have some drives that are pulls from one server or another here (there are several in use, and several more that haven't been used since I started last year.
I don't know they state of the data or the drives... A note has been written on the label "GOOD".
There is no way to check to see if there is retrievable data on it since I don't know the configuration of the array is there?
Since I don't know what system they came from, how the array was configured or how many drives were in the array - It's pretty much pointless to try - am I correct?Just want to confirm my thoughts before I move on....
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@g.jacobse said:
Curious - I have some drives that are pulls from one server or another here (there are several in use, and several more that haven't been used since I started last year.
I don't know they state of the data or the drives... A note has been written on the label "GOOD".
There is no way to check to see if there is retrievable data on it since I don't know the configuration of the array is there?
Since I don't know what system they came from, how the array was configured or how many drives were in the array - It's pretty much pointless to try - am I correct?Just want to confirm my thoughts before I move on....
If you're looking to test the drives, there are a lot of free HDD utilities using things like UBCD and an external reader. That would be one way to test if they're good. If they were in any kind of RAID, I know of no way to try and extract any data off them. I would just DBAN them for good measure though.
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if you want to see if there is any data, just hook them up, one at a time - if you see nothing, or the partitions won't mount, DBAN them like AJ said and move on.
If you want to refresh them for use - personally I'd go with Spinrite!
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It's about what I thought. If the RAID /Array changed, then it's pointless to try to pull data. Test and move forward.
I have a box of drives.. Pulls from system to be recycled. Good and 80GB plus.. maybe I'll keep them. If they are 40GB and less,... targets for the boomstick....
Thanks @ajstringham and @Dashrender -
@Dashrender said:
if you want to see if there is any data, just hook them up, one at a time - if you see nothing, or the partitions won't mount, DBAN them like AJ said and move on.
If you want to refresh them for use - personally I'd go with Spinrite!
I've heard a lot of good things about Spinrite but I've never used it. I'll have to try it out the next time I have a failing drive.
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Spinrite can 'help' recover a failing drive, but there are no promises. It's best to run spinrite on a drive something like once a year. running it helps the drive realize the depth of any problems it has and do sector swap out more quickly than the drive might otherwise on its own.
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Can data be retrieved? Yes.
Will it be worthwhile to do so? Not likely.
