I hope I can fix this in any other way. I got no back-up. And the money $5000 for a pc that only costs me $1500! So if there is no other solution I can throw my pc out of the window or what?
No no, just your data is lost. Your comptuer is not dead (just it is faulting out because it has no data to boot from because the RAID array died).
You can try rebuilding the array but it maybe that the drive is dead and you need a new HD. This is cheaper than $5000. As you have no backup lets first start by pressing F5 key at the part where is says
Press f5 to run onboard diagnostics. Hopefully, this onboard diagnostics includes an option to try and repair the array. If it can't then I hate to say it but your data is more than likely lost (unless you have 5000 dollars just lying around).
Now a quick summary on Raid Arrays:
- RAID O - Spans the data across two drives in stripes, which allows higher read rates by having the data spread across multiple drives. Due to this spanning though, once one drive fails the whole array is lost. This makes it a VERY unstable setup for data. No loss of size (2x250GB drives = 500GB array).
- RAID 1 - Mirrors the drives (requires an even number of drives). This allows the system to boot even in the event of a single drive failure and allows recovery of the array should 1 drive fail (4 drives can tolerate 2 drives loss etc, providing they do not have the same data on them). Has a somewhat increased read speed as well (sometimes negligible) but not near the level of RAID 0. The drawback is the complete loss of 1/2 of total space due to mirroring. (2x250GB drives = 250GB array).
- RAID 3 - Combines the concept of striping found in raid 0 with a parity disc. So that if one drive dies, the parity data can be used to rebuild the drive and recover the array. Requires 3 or more disks. Suffers a write penalty though because all parity data is stored on one disk, which means that EVERYTIME something is written to the array the parity disc is accessed. Also, suffers from the loss of one drive of space. (3x250Gb=500Gb array or 4x250GB=750GB) (remember we need atleast 3 drives). If more than one drive dies, the data is lost.
- RAID 5 - Same concept as RAID 3 but gets rid of the write penalty to some degree but suffers from the same drawback when it comes to space and loss of more than one drive . It gets rid of the this penalty by scattering the parityt data across all of the drives.
- RAID 6 - Adds a second set of parity data at the expense of an additional drive in space. This allows two drives to fail before data is lost. This setup requires atleast 4 drives. (4x250GB=500Gb and 5x250GB=750GB).
- RAID 10- ALso called 1+ 0 etc. Basically combines striping and mirroring together. Requires a minimum of 4 drives. So you basically have a mirrored array of striped RAID 0 arrays. Data loss is the same as RAID 1 (4x250GB=500GB) but you get the benefit of the increased read speeds of RAID 0.
First we will try to save you some money by trying to rebuild the array with the old drive, but this time we will build a RAID 1 array. You can see the cost/benefits above. To rebuilt the array you will need to select the F2 setting and try to rebuild it. Understand though, this drive has failed once and may fail again in the future, we are just trying to save you some money. Once the array is rebuilt, all of your data will be lost, so you will have to reinstall windows etc.
If you want to replace the drive that is up to you. Rebuild will be the same.
I really hate being the bearer of bad news, but the facts are what they are.
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