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Updated on January 30, 2026
diriwe
Participant
January 30, 2026 at 6:37 am
Q:

Help with 8TB raid 1 recovery

I had a mobo failure and pulled the 2 x 8TB drives I had in a raid 1 configuration with Windows Storage Solutions. I have built a new windows computer and installed 2 x 18TB HDDs in a raid 1 configuration. I did not reinstall the 8TB drives because i do not have room to physically mount 4 HDDs in my PC case.

I have tried to recover the data by attaching one of the 8TB drives to my new computer using an Orico usb3.0 hard drive dock. However, my computer is not recognizing either of these drives when docked and powered on. The dock works to read other sata drives and is rated for 22TB, so I don’t think the dock is bad.

How do I go about recovering this data if the computer won’t recognize the drives. Would something like Disk Drill even work for this situation. Any and all advice is appreciated. Thank you!

Edit: i wanted to add that the 8TB drives spin up when docked in the Orico, but windows does not recognize them as far as i can tell.

Edit2: Windows CAN see the drives in Disk Management, but says they are invalid dynamic disks

Tagged: 
Raid data recovery

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Jace Elric
Participant
January 30, 2026 at 6:39 am

The data on the 8TB drives is most likely still intact, and the problem is related to how Windows software RAID works rather than actual data loss. Since the RAID 1 was created using Windows dynamic disks or Storage Spaces, connecting the drives through a USB dock often prevents Windows from reading the RAID metadata correctly, which is why the disks appear as invalid dynamic disks. In this situation, file recovery tools like Stellar RAID data recovery, Disk Drill are not the right solution and can lead to incomplete or messy results. The proper way to access the data is to connect at least one of the 8TB drives directly to a motherboard SATA port, even if only temporarily, so Windows can detect the disk correctly and allow the foreign dynamic disk to be imported. Once the volume comes online, the data can be copied to the new 18TB RAID. It is important not to initialize, format, convert, or attempt any repair actions on the disks, as that would overwrite the RAID metadata and put the data at risk

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