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RAR / Controllers and hosts / Adaptec and Microsemi

Adaptec ASR-5805 · 6805 · 7805 · 8805 · SmartRAID 3152-8i · maxView · ARC · Quick Init · Build/Verify

Adaptec and Microsemi array recovery. The other silicon family, with its own metadata, its own states and a Build/Verify that writes.

Adaptec's RAID controllers passed to PMC-Sierra, then Microsemi, then Microchip, and the same silicon runs HPE's Smart Array; under the Adaptec name it is the ASR-5xxx, 6xxx, 7xxx and 8xxx cards and the SmartRAID 3xxx series, managed by maxView Storage Manager or the older ARC utility. Logical devices are Optimal, Degraded or Failed; physical devices Ready, Online, Failed or Hot Spare; and the options on creating or repairing a logical device are Quick Init, which writes only the start, Build/Verify, which writes the whole set, and Clear, which zeros it. Adaptec is also where the RAID 1E, 5E and 5EE layouts live, with their rotated mirrors and folded-in spares, which the generic tools' preset lists do not always cover. They arrive here from Supermicro and white-box servers, from older Dell and Fujitsu boxes that used Adaptec cards, and from Apple workstations. A set of two to four members is £500 + VAT upwards after the free look, fixed in writing; larger sets from £1,250 + VAT.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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Power down. Label every slot before a drive comes out. Do not rebuild, do not force a drive online, do not import or clear a foreign configuration, do not initialise, and do not run chkdsk, fsck, zpool import -F or mdadm --create on the members. A rebuild reads every sector of every survivor and writes to the replacement; each of the commands writes to the drives. On images, all of them are reversible. On the originals, none of them is.

Models and versions we see.

Which level is it →
Family Models or versions Metadata, defaults and notes
ASR-5xxx and 6xxx5805, 5805Z, 6805, 6805QSAS 6Gb/s · own metadata
ASR-7xxx and 8xxx7805, 7885, 8805, 8885, 81605ZSAS 12Gb/s · maxCache on Q and Z
SmartRAID 3xxx3101-4i, 3152-8i, 3154-16iMicrochip; the Smart Array family
LegacyAAC-364, 2120S, 2200S, 2820SASCSI and SATA; 1E and 5EE era

What tends to go wrong on an Adaptec.

Quick Init, Build/Verify and ClearQuick Init writes only the start of the logical device and leaves the data area alone. Build/Verify computes and writes parity across the whole set. Clear zeros it. On a failed logical device whose data is still wanted, only the first is survivable, and none should be run before the members are imaged.
1E, 5E and 5EEAdaptec's own layouts: striped mirroring across an odd number of drives, and RAID 5 with the spare folded into the members, which compacts after a failure and changes the map. The levels page covers them; the bench proves each by parity on the images.
GenerationsAn 8xxx card will read a 6xxx set in most cases; a SmartRAID 3xxx will not always read either. The metadata on the drives is readable on the bench whatever card wrote it.
Cache backupZ models keep a capacitor-backed flash copy of the write cache. A failed module loses the pending writes, as on any controller, and the file system on top is repaired on images.

Adaptec and Microsemi symptoms, and how long each gives you.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
One drive amber; the set still upDegraded. Copy what matters, export the log, power down.Do not delay
Rebuild stalledA survivor's read errors. Power down; the first-dropped drive holds the stripes.Do not delay
Controller replaced; drives foreignThe description is on the drives. Do not clear.Do not delay
Several drives gone at onceBackplane, expander, cable or supply. The drives are usually fine.Everyday job
Cache lost or preservedWrites that never reached the drives. Do not discard yet.Do not delay
Packing it and posting it: power down, photograph the controller's screen or export its log, and write the slot number on each drive with a marker before it comes out of its carrier. Send every member of the set, including the one that failed first; it holds the stripes the rebuild never reached. Each drive travels in an anti-static bag inside its own padding, in a box with nothing able to move. Send the controller if it was replaced or holds an encryption key; otherwise it stays. Insure the parcel for what the data is worth, use a tracked service, and know that the posting address is not printed anywhere on this site; it arrives by email in reply to the form, with a booking sheet to print; the sheet inside the parcel is what matches it to your enquiry when it is opened. Or hand the sealed parcel in at the nearest of ten drop-off points, your name on the outside and the sheet inside; say where you are on the form and it comes by email. We pay the postage home either way. The whole of it is written up on the guide to packing and posting.

What the message means on an Adaptec.

Describe yours to us →
What you see The usual reason Where that leaves you
Logical device FailedToo many members outEvery member imaged; assembled from images
Build/Verify offered on a failed deviceThe controller's repairDo not run it before imaging
5EE compacting after a failureThe spare folding inPower down before it reads a weak survivor
Virtual or logical disk degradedA member out; still readableImage the weak drives before rebuilding
Virtual or logical disk failed or offlineToo many members outEvery member imaged; set reassembled from images
Foreign configurationMetadata the controller does not claimDo not clear; import only with every member present
Predictive failure on a survivorThresholds crossedStop; image before any rebuild

From the parcel arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on the parcel and a number on every member the day it is opened, matched to the slot you wrote on it. Each member goes on the imager its interface needs, never on a controller, and its metadata is read before a sector is: the level, the order, the stripe size, the event counts that say which member is current and which dropped out first. An engineer settles what has happened to the set and how much of it can honestly be read back. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo rebuilds, no imports, no initialise
02

Every member imaged, including the one that failed first

Every drive in the set is imaged sector by sector, weak areas last, on hardware that controls every retry, with a map of what could not be read kept for each. Members with failed heads go to the clean bench first; that is the drive site's work and the same bench does it. The drive that dropped out first is imaged too, because it still holds every stripe written before it dropped, and a rebuild that stalled part-way never reached them.

Sector by sector, weak areas lastThe first-dropped member included
03

The geometry, from the metadata or from the parity

Where the controller's metadata survives on the members, the order, stripe size, parity rotation and data offset are read from it. Where it was cleared or overwritten, they are recovered from the data: parity across the members at the same offset should XOR to zero on a consistent stripe, which confirms the level and finds the stale member; where parity lands says the rotation; entropy at stripe edges and the file system's own anchors give the stripe size, the order and the start.

Metadata first, parity secondOrder, stripe, rotation, offset
04

Assembled in software, and repaired on the virtual volume

The set is put together from the images in software, with nothing written to any of them: the current members in, the stale member used only to fill holes a survivor could not give. The file system is checked and repaired on a copy of the virtual volume, VMFS and CSV volumes opened and the virtual machines' disks extracted, databases repaired where they need it. The originals are not touched again.

Nothing written to the imagesVirtual machines and databases opened
05

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job5–10 days at the bench

From the bench

  • Export the maxView or ARC log before the server is touched.
  • Quick Init is the only initialise that leaves the data, and even that writes the start. Nothing before the images.
  • Say whether the set was 1E, 5E or 5EE. The preset lists in most tools do not cover them, and the bench proves them by parity.
  • Export the controller log first. It is the best record of what failed when, and the bench reads it.
  • The drives are the job; the controller is context. Send it if it was replaced or holds an encryption key.
  • Keep the first-dropped drive. It holds the stripes the rebuild could not compute.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · RAR-2026-0628JOB LOGGED ✓

A Supermicro server on an ASR-8805, RAID 6 of eight, two failed, a third dropped during the rebuild, and a Build/Verify the operator had started before stopping it at 3 per cent

All eight drives came in. The three dropped members were imaged, two after head swaps; Adaptec's metadata gave the geometry and parity and Q across the images proved it. The Build/Verify had rewritten parity over the first 3 per cent of the set from data that included a stale member, so those stripes were reconstructed from the first-dropped members' images instead. The set was assembled and the file server's volume copied out.

99.9% of the volume recovered10 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Export the log and photograph the screen
  • Power down and label every slot
  • Send every member
  • Tell us the controller, the level, the stripe size if known, and what was tried

What sets us back

  • Rebuilding with a second drive flagged
  • Clearing a foreign configuration
  • Forcing failed drives online
  • Deleting and recreating the virtual disk

Questions answered before you commit.

What is the difference between Quick Init and Build/Verify?

Quick Init writes only the start of the logical device; Build/Verify computes and writes parity across the whole set. On a failed logical device whose data is wanted, neither should run before the members are imaged.

Is HPE Smart Array an Adaptec?

The same Microchip silicon, with HPE firmware and HPE's own metadata and messages. The Smart Array page has HPE's dialect.

Can you recover RAID 5EE?

Yes. The layout, with the spare folded into the members, is proved by parity on the images, and whether compaction ran is read from the metadata or found from where the map changes.

What does it cost?

£500 + VAT upwards for a set of two to four members after the free look, fixed in writing; larger sets from £1,250 + VAT.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

RAID 1E, 5E and 5EE →HPE Smart Array →Virtual disk failed or offline →Apple RAID and SoftRAID →

Nothing gets worse while it is powered down.

Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the server off and the drives in their slots.

0800 6890668

Price my jobPacking and posting