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Foreign configuration: import or clear
Hi We have Power Edge R320 with this error on boot up Foreign configuration(s) found on adapter. Press any key to continue, or ’C’ to load the configuration utility or ’F’ to import foreign configuration(s) and continue. This is in Raid 1 Virtual Disk 0 Degraded This is the first time seeing this Thanks Gene
Hi Mr. Mysinger! Following this topic and I have a similar situation with unfortunately a RAID 0 array but with only two drives. The first drive is the one with the "Foreign Configuration" and the drive seems like it's being detected just fine (green light). This is the Server OS array- the Data array is RAID 5 with 4 drives has no errors. I "think" the only way forward to so "import"the Foreign Configuration rather than "Clear" and hope the OS comes back up. Am I thinking clearly? Would it be prudent to remove the 4 drives of the second array just in case there's any issue with the "import"?
Thanks,
Jeff
I would not remove any of the other drives. You may create a new issue by removing the other drives. Foreign operations should only affect drives in foreign status. Foreign operations are controller wide, so if you choose to import/clear it will do that for all foreign drives on the controller.
Yes, import would be the correct option in your situation. Import will attempt to bring the drive back to an online state. You should only attempt an import if the virtual disk is offline/failed. A clear operation should be performed if the virtual disk is online/degraded. Since RAID 0 has no redundancy it will be in an offline/failed state if any drive is missing from the virtual disk.
http://www.dell.com/storagecontrollermanuals/
Thanks
Hi sir! I have two non-RAID drives that I mistakenly converted to RAID offline mode. How do I reset them to non-RAID disks without losing data?
DELL-Erman O
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November 30th, 2023 11:20
Hi, I don't aware of convert to non-RAID drive without losing data. You can use a few method in this article How to convert the physical disks mode to Non-RAID or RAID capable | Dell US
- Enter the Dell PERC 9 Configuration Utility by pressing <F2> during the post.
- Click Configuration Management > Convert to Non-RAID Disk.
- Select Physical Disks to Convert to Non-RAID.
- Select the physical disk and click OK.
- A screen is displayed asking if you are sure you want to perform the operation. Click Yes to continue.
If you convert to a non-RAID disk with Dell PERC, your data will be gone. This operation will erase all data on the RAID drives, so make sure you have a backup of your important files before proceeding. If you have already converted the disks and lost your data, you may try to use data recovery software to recover the data from the non-RAID disks.
Thanks for your reply. I am sure that the RAID0 wasn't built successfully and didn't write any new data in raid mode. If I clear the RAID configuration or convert these two disks to non-RAID mode, the disks still will be reinitialized and all data in the disk will be lost?
Another question is that whether the data was deleted when I created virtual device and converted them to RAID capable?
Thanks!
DELL-Erman O
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November 30th, 2023 13:04
Creating VD operations often involves reinitializing the drives, which wipes all existing data. I think creating a virtual disk usually doesn’t delete any data. However, if you’re converting the drives to RAID capable, it’s similar to creating a RAID configuration, which, as mentioned earlier, typically results in data loss.
Daniel My
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Posted June 18th, 2019 12:00
Hello
In general, if the virtual disk is still online/degraded you will want to clear the foreign configuration. If the virtual disk is offline/failed then an import will attempt to bring it back online. If you clear the foreign configuration it will delete the virtual disk configuration from any foreign drives. This should put the drive into a ready state. Once the drive is in a ready state you can test it with diagnostics and rebuild it back into the virtual disk if it passes.
http://www.dell.com/storagecontrollermanuals/
Thanks