I have a computer running Windows Server 2008 R2. A software Raid-5 was constructed using 4x 2TB SATA hard drives set as dynamic disks. During a recent maintenance cycle, the computer was shut down and restarted 10 hours later. After restart, one of the disks was marked as "Failed". This also caused the Raid-5 Volume to show as "Failed" and become inaccessible. I was under the impression that a single drive failure would not cause a Raid-5 to become inaccessible but I nonetheless obtained a replacement drive (identical size, model, and manufacturer).
Replacing the failed disk with the new disk did not resolve the problem. After reading a number of threads on this forum and trying the various solutions proposed, the Raid-5 Volume remains in a "Failed" state. In the current state, the following statements apply:
- All four of the constituent drives are marked as "Online" and none of them show "Errors" in Computer Management.
- Disks 1 through 3 show a Raid-5 Volume which is marked as "Failed".
- The original fourth disk is marked as, "Missing" and "Failed". I am aware this is a stub for management purposes.
- Disk 4 has been set to Dynamic Disk, Partition Style MBR to match the settings of the other three Disks.
- Attempting to reactivate the Raid-5 Volume in Computer Management yields the message, "The attempted operation cannot be completed. The selected volume is offline."
- Attempting to select the Raid-5 Volume in DiskPart and bring it online (using: "select volume 1", "online volume") yields the message, "DiskPart could not online the selected volume."
- Attempted to select the replacement disk in DiskPart and repairing it (using: "select volume 1", "repair disk=4") yields the message, "Virtual Disk Service error: To repair a volume, both the volume and plex must be online, and must not be healthy or rebuilding."
At this point, I have run out of ideas for how to recover or regenerate the Raid-5 Volume and would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. Thank you very much in advance.