In this blog post we will discuss how you can fix the issue of RAID controller not reconsigning the drives and if you are not able to fix the RAID controller not recognizing drives error, how you can recover data with Stellar Data Recovery Technician software. Get the software now!

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A RAID controller is a software program or hardware componentthat is used to manage storage drives such as hard disk drives (HDDs) andsolid-state drives (SSDs) in a RAID environment to achieve redundancy, performance,or both.

This logical arrangement of physical drives in a RAID arrayis susceptible to errors often caused by hardware/software failure and humanerrors.

This package contains the driver for the Silicon Image SiI 3114 SoftRaid 5 Controller, that will provide you with proper installation of the device on your computer. The driver is compatible with the following operating systems: Windows XP(32/64bit), Windows Vista(32/64bit), Windows 7(32/64bit), Windows Server 2003(32/64bit). Supports various brands of large capacity serial ATA hard disk drives Flexible serial ATA cable is easier to route inside a PC SATA power cable: Connect the S-ATA hard drive and system power supply Silicon Image SiI3112 SATALink PCI Host Controller Compliant with Serial ATA specification Rev. 1.0 Slot type: 32-bit PCI Provides two independent. The VIA VT6421A controller delivers the benefits of Serial ATA and RAID in a cost effective and easily integrated single chip package, providing Serial ATA technology to enable platform providers and systems builders to satisfy the requirements of multiple market segments. Supporting PCI and Cardbus (PCMCIA) interfaces, the VIA VT6421A provide card vendors the flexibility.

Events such malware or virus infection, power surge or abrupt shutdown, device driver issues, metadata conflicts, etc. can lead to errors where RAID controller may stop detecting or recognizing RAID drives.

Further, SMART disk errors and overheating can also lead to such errors. And in some rare cases, a RAID may stop detecting RAID drives after a soft reboot.

Below are some quick fixes for a RAID controller when it failsto recognize RAID drives.

How to Fix RAID Controller not Recognizing Drives Error

To fix the RAID Controller not detecting RAID hard drives error, follow these troubleshooting steps,

Step 1: Inspect Drives

Remove all drives from the RAID stack and connect them to aWindows PC via SATA or SATA to USB converter cables.

Then use a SMART disk monitoring utility such as CrystalDiskInfo or a comprehensive datacare tool like Stellar Data Recovery Technician to get better insights aboutdisk health.

• If the drive monitor utility displays poorhealth and SMART warnings, prefer cloning the disk as it may fail in the nearfuture. Immediately skip to Step 3. and reconstruct a virtual RAID to avoid data loss.
• In case everything looks fine, continue to withthe below fixes

Step 2: Check/Reset BIOS configuration

Make sure BIOS settings are defined as per the RAID setup.If you observe any recent changes due to BIOS update or corruption, revertthose.

Silicon Integrated Hard Disk Controller Drivers

You may also try to update or downgrade your BIOS.

CAUTION: Updating BIOS is safe if it completes successfully. However, downgrading BIOS can be fatal for the system as it can brick your laptop or PC. System BIOS may get corrupt if the downgrade procedure fails in between. So proceed accordingly, at your own risk.

Further, check the SATA Mode selection or similar setting inyour system BIOS to ensure RAID is selected instead of SATA drive.

Step 3: Replace or Try another RAID Controller

If your RAID array is external or network-connected, tryreplacing the hardware controller. Alternatively, you can try anothercontroller to check if the drives are recognized.

This step may not be feasible to many as hardwarecontrollers are not cheap. But there’s a more affordable alternative discussedin the next step that can help you rebuild a virtual RAID array.

Step 4: Reconstruct a Virtual RAID 0, RAID 5, or RAID 6 Array

Silicon Integrated Hard Disk Controller Driver

If you are not able to fix the RAID controller not recognizing drives error, it’s better to reconstruct a virtual RAID with the help of a RAID recovery software. Follow these steps to rebuild your RAID array and recover or backup your inaccessible data,

• Download, install and run Stellar Data Recovery Technician

• Choose what to recover and click ‘Next.’

• Select ‘RAID Recovery’ under ‘Other Location’ screen and click ‘Scan.’

• Click on respective RAID tab and move RAID disks to ‘Move hard drives up/down for disk order’ list box using left-right arrow buttons.

• Arrange all disks in the correct order as they were in RAID stack by using the up-down arrow buttons.
• Enter or select the required RAID parameters or choose ‘Don’t know …’ option if you don’t remember the required parameters for virtual RAID reconstruction.

• Click the ‘Build RAID’ button. Based on entered parameters, the software recreates a virtual RAID construction. Otherwise it creates a few probable RAID constructions
• Click the ‘Show Volume List’ button

• Select the RAID volume and click ‘Scan’

• If the desired files are not found, click on ‘Click Here’ link at the bottom-left to begin a ‘Deep Scan.’

If the RAID volume is not listed, select virtual RAID 0 drive and scan for missing partition(s).

• Select the files or folders that you want to recover and then click the ‘Recover’ button
• Click ‘Browse’ to choose a save location

WARNING: Do not select RAID drive(s) as a savelocation to avoid overwriting. Select an external HDD or internal hard drivevolume with enough storage space to save recovered data.

• Click ‘Start Saving’ to begin saving recovered files at your desired location

Onceyou have recovered your data, go ahead and format the RAID disks. Then recreateyour RAID array with the formatted disks.

In case the raid controller not recognizing drives error arises again, try low-level format or get RAID level storage drive to recreate RAID.

Conclusion

A RAID controller detection works with defined parameters unless any of the predefined settings conflicts or changed due to BIOS misconfiguration, damage, or corruption. Due to this, a RAID controller may fail to recognize the drives.

Further, logical, mechanical, and physical errors including SMART errors can also cause such drive detection error with RAID arrays.

This guide helps you fix all the common problems related to theRAID controller, drives, and software that cause the RAID controller not torecognize RAID drives.

In most cases, raid controller not detecting drives error can’t be fixed and you may not be able to access your RAID volume even after applying these fixes. In such cases, you must use a powerful and reliable RAID data recovery software such as Stellar Data Recovery Technician that can reconstruct a virtual RAID array and facilitates data recovery from the virtual RAID.

The software can rebuild a failed, broken, corrupt, and crashed RAID 0, RAID 5, and RAID 6 arrays even if the critical RAID parameters required for RAID reconstruction are unknown. You can further keep using this software as it also monitors RAID drive health and helps you prevent situations such as RAID controller not recognizing drives error as it proactively monitors disk health and SMART status.

What is CipherShield Smart Insert technology?
Smart Insert with CipherKey allows you to have total control of your data with two intelligent key insertion modes. Standard design with all CipherShield drives, mode 0 with hotplug mechanism enables you to authenticate and access the drive when the CipherKey is plugged in. When the key is removed, all data within the drive are encrypted. Mode 1 is better utilized for a large data backup job where you don’t want to be tied waiting for the data transfer to be completed. The CipherShield drive is authenticated by plugging the key in once and removed. The drive runs without the need to have the key connected at all times. The risk of theft is no longer a concern because when a USB or power cable is unplugged, the drive will automatically lock down its content. A limited number of models available, the rest can be special ordered from Buslink, or specify the key mode 1 when ordering from resellers or your preferred IT solution providers.

How to operate the drive?
All CipherShield drives utilize a CipherKey or two CipherKeys to gain access to the drive. Access to the drive is granted by inserting the key into a slot on the faceplate. By removing the key, data cannot be accessed even though the drive is still connected to the computer. When the key is removed, the drive is “transparent” to the operating system of a computer, thereby ensuring full protection of the data.

What is CipherKey, and how does it protect the CipherShield drive?
The CipherKey is a physical key with a design based on the Firewire form factor. It contains the secret encryption key code necessary for encryption and decryption operations. The hard drive has been partitioned and formatted using the CipherKey, thus the entire content of the hard drive is associated only with this unique key. Only a CipherKey containing the identical secret encryption key code can be used for authentication or to unlock the drive.

Why should I need CipherShield encrypted drive?
The sensitive nature of confidential information is driving the need to secure data stored on all portable computer systems. CipherShield’s innovative solution ensures multi-level privacy, confidentiality, and authentication – allowing organizations to protect valuable assets, credentials, and intellectual property that are exposed to significant risk of theft. Legal liability and the financial consequences associated with stolen confidential information require organizations to go to extreme lengths to protect their data. CipherShield encrypted storage products offer superior hardware-based encryption and pre-boot authentication, thus allowing companies to shield their data and regulate control over access to their corporate and sensitive customers information. By doing that, they comply with federal regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, or HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) for the healthcare industry.

Why hardware encryption is better than software-based encryption?
The encryption strength of the software-based / password protection approach depends entirely on the strength/unguessability of the password itself. Not only that, you have to take into consideration the fact that…. people just forget. With today’s hectic life, remembering a complex password like “Myd0g$N4me#7” with all the numbers, punctuations, and mixed uppercase and lowercase letters, will eventually lead to the password in a post-in note and stuck somewhere to the wall, or else they’re just going to create a simple password like “john123”. And then think about the scenario when the user does forget. With hardware-based key encryption, the key itself is the password. The encryption and decryption, which utilize a government-grade AES encryption algorithm, are done by a processor embedded inside. The access to the data doesn’t rely on a password, which could be easily hacked, but on a physical element.

Apart from a faster, real-time processing of data encryption and decryption, hardware-based encryption is also not as vulnerable as software-based password input in terms of brute force attack of password guessing. An attacker can plug the drive into the computer and have a program performs hundreds of password guessing in a second. Furthermore, there will also a cross-platform issue with the software-based password feature, in which it will only work in Windows PC, not Mac or Linux. With hardware-based encryption, this won’t be an issue at all. The main advantage to CipherShield over other security methods is that our product is designed to be used by everyone and anyone. Unlike software encryption, there are no passwords to remember or complex installation. Such methods usually require MIS support and are quite expensive to maintain.

File system formats explained

There are many types of file system used to store data on drives. The types depend on the operating system (OS) used. Microsoft Windows supports FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT. Macintosh supports FAT32, HFS+, exFAT, and NTFS (read-only). Linux supports: Ext4, ZFS, xfs, NTFS (need to enable support), and exFAT (need to enable support). It is best to use the native format for better security, compatibility, and speed, i.e. NTFS for Windows, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for Macintosh, and Ext4 for Linux. If you need to use your drive in multiple OS, reformat your drive to exFAT. All our drives with USB-C come with exFAT as the default format so you can use it in all the OS.

Driver Download

The model number of all BUSlink hard drives are located at the back panel of the unit, where all the power and interface ports are. If you have any questions or difficulty in downloading the files, please contact us at support@buslink.com.

BUSlink USB 3.0 SuperSpeed PCI-Express Card (U3-PCIE)
Drive: USB3-PCIE.zip

L and D series USB 1.1 hard drives ( with yellow panel )

Please note that we no longer provide phone support for L, D, or P series hard drive.

Power adapter: DC output 12V – 2.5A
Driver: 3in1.exe
Alternate Driver: setup2000.exe

• Only use setup2000.exe if 3in1.exe does not work
• For Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP SP1 and SP2 only
• Will not work with Windows XP SP 3, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

Note: We have discontinued support for L and D series hard drives, including any updates for the drivers. If you’re on Windows XP SP3 and above, the only option is to remove the IDE hard drive from the case and plug directly to your PC, or purchase a USB to IDE adaptor, or purchase a new USB 2.0 enclosure. Please email support@buslink.com for a current list of product examples.

Buslink USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (UII-xxx)
BUSlink Combo USB 2.0 and FireWire External Hard Drive (CO-xxx-U2FE)
BUSlink Triple Interface External Hard Drive (CO-xxx-U2FS)
Disk-On-The-Go USB 2.0 (D-xx-U2)
Disk-On-The-Go Lite Dual Interface USB 2.0 and FireWire (DL-xx-U2F)
Disk-On-The-Go Lite USB 2.0 (DL-xx-U2)
Power adapter for desktop drive: DC output 12V – 2A
Power adapter for Slim drive: DC output 7.5V – 1.2A
Driver: USB2MassStorage_v1019.zip

• All these models are plug and play.
• The mass storage driver is built in on most OS.
• You only need to install the driver if the computer is still on Windows 98SE.

All FireWire drives including FireWire Data Bankers and Disk-On-The-Go external notebook drives are plug and play.
There is no separate driver available, and none is needed.

• FireWire Drive with 1 FireWire port will not work with OS X

Power adapter for Desktop Optical Drive: DC output 12V – 2A
Power adapter for Slim Optical Drive: DC output 7.5-1.2A
Driver: USB2MassStorage_v1019.zip

• All BUSlink External Optical Drives are plug and play, especially those models that start with UII-xx, and those with D-xx-U2 on slimline drives
• The mass storage driver is built-in on most OS.
• You only need to install the driver if the computer is still on Windows 98SE.

BUSlink USB 2.0 PCI Card (UII-PCIP)
BUSlink USB 2.0 and FireWire PCI Card (PCI-U2F)
BUSlink USB 2.0 Cardbus (UII-CB4)
BUSlink USB 2.0, FireWire, and SATA Combo PCI Card (PCI-U2FS)
Driver: U2V2_1_4.zip
SATA Driver for BUSlink USB 2.0, FireWire, and SATA Combo PCI Card (PCI-U2FS): sata_PCI.zip

Silicon Integrated Hard Disk Controller Driver Free

Silicon Integrated Hard Disk Controller Driver Download

BUSlink 2 ports SATA Cardbus (CB2S)
Driver: sata_cardbus.zip