Windows 10: Installing MediaCreation tool on a RAID5 partition wipes out *ALL* partitions

Trying to upgrade my Win10 pc to Win 11, I "thought" it'd be great to put it on a drive partition my my external RAID5 storage. I did do a backup of the OS; but didn't think to backup the RAID. The install didn't complete, and it wiped out ALL partitions on the array. Any ideas how to recover from this "error in judgement". My Bad! Humbled after 35 years in the field.I'm using an ORINCO USB storage device with RAID hardware built in.

:)

 

W7 Hard drive partition issue

to get rid of that 100 meg windows partition that setup creates for you on a new install on a blank hdd:

- press shift+f10 when on the partition management screen in setup <-- this opens a command prompt
- diskpart <-- start the windows command line partition management tool
- list disk <--- list the installed hdds in this computer for the next step
- select disk 0 <- might have to replace 0 with the number of the correct disk
- clean <-- this will erase all data on the disk you selected one step up- dont use the wrong disk!
- create partition primary <- creates a primary partition taking up all space on the drive, adjust the command if necessary
- exit, exit to exit diskpart and the command prompt
- click refresh in partition manager and select your newly created partition and install to that

 

HDD partitions format

Used a tool from the list and it worked..
Install won't start if windows can't recognize the partitions.

 

Partition Problem/Question

Your issue is with the tool that you are using. Consolidating just means moving all data together to ensure that partition resizing does erase anything. Most partition tools do this automatically. The issue is that resizing the partition will require the Win7 Partition to be moved to a new location, which would require the boot sector to be editing to change the start target. Windows disk manager doesn't allow uses to do stuff to the boot section because if they corrupt it, they will blame Microsoft.

You need to beef up the partition tool you are using. Try Partition Magic or Partition Manager 8.0.

P.S. yes, it is possible to wipe only the Win7 and Vista partitions and reinstall from stratch. It will simply ask what partition to write to during the install process and allow you to delete which partition(s) you want.

Create a backup of any personal stuff, game saves, etc. on the media partition and just do a fresh install is my recommendation.