I built my PC back in 2017 with two 2TB HDDs configured in RAID 1 as a storage solution. When I rebuilt it in late 2024, I kept my old drives in the tower alongside a new RAID 1 setup with two 8TB HDDs for storage, plus two 2TB M.2 drives for booting and work. Everything really worked well with just a few permission issues on the Old Data Drive RAID. I faced some trouble trying to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11, but continued using Windows 10 without a hitch. Recently, I started experiencing BSODs, and after a few attempts, I ended up replacing the boot M.2 and reinstalled Windows 10, which let me access all my drives again.
I decided to try upgrading to Windows 11 once more and, although all was fine until the reboot during installation, once it finished, my Old Data Drive RAID showed up as 'Local Disk' and I can't access it anymore! It's recognized in Disk Management and Storage Spaces but isn't letting me in. I'm currently using Disk Drill to retrieve files from it. Now I'm wondering if anyone knows why this might have happened and if there's another way to regain access aside from formatting the drives and re-setting them up in RAID?
3 Answers
If you can get into Windows normally or via Safe Mode, check C:WindowsMinidump for any dump files related to those BSODs. These logs help in diagnosing the crash issues. If you find any, zip them up and upload them to a sharing site so someone can take a look and help you figure this out. Multiple dumps are best for a thorough analysis!
Have you tried checking the health of your drives using CrystalDiskInfo? If it shows 'Caution' or 'Bad', that's an indicator of potential issues. Also, just a heads up - while Storage Spaces is an improvement over Dynamic Disks, it can still have problems like this. Always consider regular backups; relying solely on RAID isn't foolproof!
It sounds like your system's change in BIOS or disk setup during the upgrade might have caused the RAID to get misconfigured. Before making major changes like these, always ensure you have solid backups, just in case. You can find more info on general issues with Windows 11 in the FAQ thread of this community.
I just ran CrystalDiskInfo and both drives show as having good health, so I don’t think there’s a hardware issue there. It might have been caused by the upgrade to Windows 11, but I can't figure out what went wrong. I didn't back up these drives properly, and I was banking on RAID 1 for redundancy, but this has thrown me for a loop.