RAID Constructor. How to build a custom RAID configuration manually
After selecting Constructor
You'll have to choose disk count and check disks from the array:
Constructor will be opened:
Left side contains all configurations detected automatically or created by the user. Use the "Clone" button to save the current configuration and start a new one. The central window displays the order of the disks in the array. The right column is for available disks that were not added to the configuration. The bottom pane is for a preview of the array.
Use the tool panel to set RAID level, geometry, and stripe size
Usually RAID level is known, stripe size and disk order can be enumerated automatically, and the geometry is either “Backward" or “Backward Continuation". We haven't met any “Forward" geometry in our praxis yet.
Use the "Detect" menu to start auto-detection of stripe size, disk order, or both.
Disks can be dragged manually to the desired order. And if you are familiar with the boot, file system, and partition table signatures, you can preview their data by right-clicking on them.
The criterion of success is a number of file system elements found at the current configuration. The more files and folders you can see in the preview, the better the configuration.
Preview of broken RAID
Preview of successfully reconstructed RAID. Hex preview is also available, just click on the RAID description in the preview panel:
If “Expert" mode is enabled in the Gear menu, you'll have more options.
At this mode you can set offset to start RAID and limit its size. To do this specify numbers in sectors at the corresponding columns. This may be required when the partition table is damaged and or the disk start is wiped, leaving a healthy data partition in the middle. This a common situation for many cases of formatted NAS array or ESX server disk. Both of these contain system partitions at the beginning of the disk before user data. To gain access to the valuable data you may need to set an offset to the start of the user partition.
If you were unable to find the proper configuration, it is very useful to try also all possible configurations without one disk. Especially if you suspect that some disk is damaged. Another reason to use this method is when RAID failed during writing reconstructed information from parity stripes to the replaced disk. So try dropping one of the disks out of configuration, run detection, and check the results. Return the disk to the set, drop another one, and start detection again. Repeat until you try all disks of the array and clone all configurations that have more files than the previous.
After complete click “Finish" to add all checked configurations to the disk list and continue to work with found partitions.