I built my PC back in 2017 with two 2TB HDDs set up in RAID 1 for storage. Recently, I rebuilt the PC while keeping those old drives (F:Old Data Drive) and added new 8TB RAID 1 drives (D:Storage Drive) and two 2TB M.2 drives for booting and work. Everything was working fine until my PC started BSODing (Blue Screen of Death) a couple of weeks ago. After some recovery attempts, I replaced the old boot drive, reinstalled Windows 10, and could access all drives again, including the old RAID drive. I had some permission issues but was working through them. Once I decided to upgrade to Windows 11, everything seemed fine until the reboot after installation, when my Old Data Drive suddenly showed up as [F:Local Disk, making it inaccessible](https://imgur.com/I3RzGMC). The drive is visible in both [Disk Management](https://imgur.com/j999ECS) and [Storage Spaces](https://imgur.com/shr4hWD), and I'm running Disk Drill to recover files. Before reformatting, I want to know what caused this change and if there's a better way to regain access without losing data. Any advice?
3 Answers
You might want to try checking if those drives were configured correctly after the upgrade. Disconnecting your old drives during the OS installation can sometimes prevent Windows from altering them. Could be that the update did something funky to your drive setup. Best of luck with the recovery!
It sounds like a frustrating situation! When you change system settings or update your OS, it can mess with RAID configurations or drive visibility. One thing to check is the health of your drives using a tool like CrystalDiskInfo; even if they're still showing good health, sometimes hidden issues can creep up. It's also possible that Windows Storage Spaces isn't perfectly stable; I've heard of similar complaints from others. Just remember that even in RAID 1, backing up data is really important!
Thanks for the tip! I ran CrystalDiskInfo, and both drives checked out fine, so at least I know it's not a physical failure. I agree that RAID isn't a full substitute for backups. I'll definitely be looking into that more seriously.
If you're still able to see your data using Disk Drill, that's a good sign. Once you back it up, reformatting could help reset the RAID setup. Make sure to configure it correctly in the RAID management tool afterward to avoid these issues in the future. Just be careful and keep an eye on your backups for important data!
Yeah, I regret not disconnecting them when I installed Windows 11. It seems like a good precaution for the future.