Rebuild Started — Now Virtual Disk Is Missing

When the Array Forgets Itself — The Vanishing Volume Syndrome

Everything looked normal at first: the rebuild counter climbed slowly, the drives spun evenly.
Then the dashboard refreshed — and the entire virtual disk disappeared.
It wasn’t deleted. It was lost in translation — a controller that no longer remembered where its data lived.
This isn’t a total loss; it’s a metadata collapse, and it can be reversed if handled correctly.

What You See

Controller begins rebuild, then the volume vanishes mid-process.
BIOS or utility lists No Virtual Disks Found though all drives are detected.
Event logs record Metadata Reset, Epoch Mismatch, or Config Version Change.
OS boot halts at no boot device or shows an uninitialized disk.
Foreign configuration prompt may appear even on previously stable drives.

Why It Happens

A metadata epoch reset occurred when the controller lost parity synchronization.
NVRAM cache corruption invalidated the virtual disk header.
Controller rebooted mid-commit, writing partial configuration tables.
Mixed firmware versions between new and existing drives introduced structure conflict.
Parity map references physical drives, but logical identifiers were rewritten.

What NOT To Do

Do not reinitialize or create a new array using the same disks.
Do not import foreign configurations without imaging each drive first.
Do not update firmware during an unstable state.
Do not run file-system tools that expect valid headers.
Do not assume controller failure and swap hardware until logs are secured.

What You CAN Do

Export the controller configuration before power-cycling again.
Capture an NVRAM dump if the controller allows it.
Image all drives in raw sequence; order reconstruction may depend on it.
Compare drive identifiers (S/N, slot, WWN) to the last known layout.
Contact ADR support for parity map reconstruction before re-import.

Diagnostic Overview

Array Type: RAID 6 — Virtual Disk Configuration
Controller State: Rebuild Interrupted / Virtual Disk Missing
Likely Cause: Metadata Desync or Cache Epoch Reset
Do NOT: Reinitialize or Import Foreign Config Before Imaging
Recommended Action: Export Config, Preserve Memory Dump, Rebuild Map via Parity Analysis