[blue68f100]

Let me try to explain it. On a GOS hardware the OS is installed first. It allocates all of the needed partitions needed for the OS. This is then copied in most part across all the remaining HDs (raid1). When you create a Raid 5, it's a partition on each HD to make up the set. As long as you do not do a clean install the dada is still there. It's just a matter of accessing it. Which in most part can be done by re-storing the GOS, either from a recovery set or re-installing the OS through the recovery console. Now if you do what is a clean install it will wipe your HD clean. Depending on what GOS version was installed, a newer version may not have enough room to install. So the original version should be installed to backup the data before wiping every thing clean for the newer version.

I did some extensive testing when I got my 4500. I was pulling the power in the middle of large data transfers (writes) to try to crash the unit. As long as the watchdog was active, snapshots and diaster recovery active it was always able to recover. But soon as you took the diaster recovery away you were asking for trouble. In most cases if the Main HD boot failed you need to allow plenty of time for watchdog to attempt the next HD. This can be a long time considering the std boot takes anywhere from 5-10 min depending on model. One thing you can do is setup the null modem cable and your terminal program. This is active during the boot process so you can see where the problems are accouring.

If you must have the data, I would contact Snaptech. If only the OS was damaged preventing if from booting, extraction of the data will be quick and easy. And should not cost an arm and a leg.

One thing I do and Phoenix too is run SpinRite on ALL of our HD's. This at times will repair a HD and it will boot up. It also builds the bad sector table so the SMART does not have to do it during a transfer if a bad sector is found. This way will keep the HD's (RAID5) in sync.

You can SSH into the shell using a terminal program or putty on MS Windows if the gui is not working. You do NOT want Native Windows near the Snaps HDs. Another words if you can not connect via SMB, FTP or putty do not go any further with windows. It has a bad problem of trying to fix the HD so it can see it, which in turn destroys the data. If you want to snoop use a Linux flavor and terminal program. None of the partition slices are labeled so they do not make any sense. And most all the drives will have different names. You will see alot of symbolic links (shortcuts) so finding the right partition or folder can be time consuming.

Phoenix32 can help you hardware wise but is limited somewhat when it comes to the OS. But he's had several years now to catch up on the OS side.

Good luck.