The Case of the Vanishing 8TB: A RAID-0 Recovery Adventure

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When a client recently brought me a completely non-functional TRIPP-LITE RAID enclosure, I knew I was in for an interesting afternoon. What started as a routine data recovery job quickly turned into one of the more technically exotic cases this month—and a perfect example of why RAID-0 arrays can be both a blessing and a curse.

What Went Wrong?

The client had been using an external dual-drive RAID enclosure that suddenly stopped working. After some initial troubleshooting, they discovered they had two 4TB drives configured in RAID-0 (striped array), giving them 8TB of total capacity with improved performance—but zero redundancy.

Here’s where things got complicated:

  • Multiple Recovery Attempts: The client had already tried several recovery tools, including Stellar recovery software, which could only find file headers with no recoverable content
  • Accidental Initialization: In a moment of desperation, they accidentally initialized the array using macOS, effectively wiping critical RAID metadata from both the beginning and end of the drives
  • Missing Documentation: The RAID parameters for this particular enclosure model weren’t published anywhere—meaning I was working completely blind

The Recovery Process

Step 1: Forensic Imaging

Before touching the original drives, I removed them from the enclosure and connected each to professional DeepSpar disk imagers. This created bit-perfect forensic copies of both drives, ensuring that no additional data could be lost during any recovery attempts (it’s the first and most critical step leading into logical data recovery work in these scenarios). One of the drives was mechanically unstable, which explained why the array had begun experiencing issues to begin with. Some quick firmware modifications, disabling of SMART, and some other prep work rendered imaging with my world-class hardware and software tools relatively uneventful however.

Step 2: RAID Parameter Hunting

With the images safely stored, I began the painstaking process of determining the original RAID configuration. Using R-Studio Technician and UFS Explorer Professional Recovery software, I scanned the entire 8TB array trying to interpolate the stripe pattern.

I tested every conventional RAID-0 configuration:

  • Different stripe sizes (from standard 64KB down to uncommon smaller sizes)
  • Various drive orders
  • Different offset calculations

Step 3: The Breakthrough

After working through the weekend testing dozens of parameter combinations, I finally discovered the culprit: an extraordinarily rare 512-byte stripe size. Most RAID-0 arrays use stripe sizes of 64KB or larger—this tiny “hairline” stripe was so uncommon that my initial automated scans completely missed it.

Once configured correctly, the data structure suddenly became readable again.

Step 4: Data Extraction and Organization

The successful RAID reconstruction revealed approximately 5.83TB of recoverable data spanning nearly two decades (2005-2025).

The Technical Challenge: Why This Was So Difficult

RAID-0 arrays present unique recovery challenges because data is literally scattered across multiple drives in a very specific pattern. Without knowing the exact stripe size, drive order, and offset parameters, the data appears as complete gibberish.

In this case, several factors made recovery especially complex:

  1. Exotic Stripe Size: The 512-byte stripe size is virtually unheard of in modern RAID implementations.
  2. Metadata Destruction: The macOS initialization wiped the RAID configuration data that might have provided clues.
  3. Previous Recovery Attempts: Multiple scanning passes had created additional wear on the drives.

The Silver Lining

Despite the multiple complications, I achieved 100% data recovery with no apparent file corruption. The client’s years of digital memories, business files, and critical documents were completely intact.

Key lesson: While RAID-0 offers performance benefits, it doubles your failure risk compared to a single drive. For critical data, consider RAID-1 (mirroring) or a proper backup strategy instead.

Prevention Tips

If you’re using RAID-0 for performance:

  • Maintain regular backups to a separate, non-RAID storage system
  • Document your RAID parameters (stripe size, drive order) for future reference
  • Consider RAID-10 for both performance and redundancy
  • Monitor drive health regularly using SMART diagnostics

Bottom Line

This recovery demonstrates that even seemingly hopeless data loss situations can often be resolved with the right tools, expertise, and persistence. However, the best data recovery is the one you never need—proper backups and redundant storage remain your first line of defense.

If you’re dealing with a failed RAID array or other data loss emergency, don’t attempt multiple recovery tools or reinitialize drives. Professional recovery services can often salvage data that appears completely lost—but only if further damage is avoided.

SOLUTION: Skip Microsoft Account Requirement During Windows 11 24H2 Fresh Install

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If you’re installing Windows 11 24H2 from scratch and want to use a local account instead of being forced into a Microsoft account, you’ve probably hit this roadblock. Microsoft has made it increasingly difficult to avoid their cloud-connected ecosystem during setup, but there’s still a straightforward workaround.

What Changed?

Starting with Windows 11 22H2 and continuing through 24H2, Microsoft removed the obvious “I don’t have internet” or “Skip for now” options during OOBE (Out-of-Box Experience). The setup process now aggressively pushes users toward creating or signing into a Microsoft account, claiming it’s required for “the best experience.”

While Microsoft accounts offer legitimate benefits like cloud sync and enhanced security features, many users prefer local accounts for privacy, simplicity, or corporate policy reasons.

The Fix: Bypass Network Requirements Entirely

The solution leverages a built-in Windows command that disables the network requirement during setup, which then allows local account creation.

Step-by-Step Process:

  1. Boot from your Windows 11 installation media and proceed through setup normally
  2. When you reach the “Let’s connect you to a network” screen, press Shift + F10 to open Command Prompt
  3. Type the following command and press Enter: oobe\bypassnro
  4. Your system will automatically restart and return to the network selection screen
  5. You’ll now see a “I don’t have internet” option – click it
  6. Choose “Continue with limited setup” when prompted
  7. Create your local account as normal

Why Choose a Local Account?

Several legitimate reasons exist for preferring local accounts:

Privacy Control: Local accounts don’t sync data to Microsoft’s cloud services, giving you complete control over what stays on your machine.

Corporate Requirements: Many businesses require local accounts for compliance or security policy reasons.

Simpler Troubleshooting: Local accounts eliminate cloud authentication as a potential failure point during system recovery.

Reduced Dependencies: Your login credentials remain functional even without internet connectivity.

Legacy Software Compatibility: Some older enterprise applications work more reliably with traditional local accounts.

Most of these features can be selectively enabled later by signing into specific Microsoft services without converting your account type.

Security Considerations

Local accounts require more manual security management. Ensure you:

  • Use a strong password and security questions
  • Enable BitLocker disk encryption manually if needed – and be sure to backup your BitLocker Recovery Key!
  • Configure Windows Update to stay current with security patches

Bottom Line

The oobe\bypassnro command simply disables a configuration flag that makes internet connectivity appear mandatory during setup. Microsoft hasn’t removed local account capability – they’ve just made it less obvious to find.

This approach gives you full control over your Windows 11 installation while preserving the option to add Microsoft services later if your needs change.

Note: This method works on Windows 11 24H2 as of August 2025. Microsoft occasionally updates OOBE behavior, but the underlying bypass mechanism has remained consistent across multiple feature updates.

SOLUTION: 0x80070035 – “The network path was not found” on Windows 11 24H2

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If you’ve recently upgraded to Windows 11 24H2 and suddenly can’t access your NAS or another PC’s shared folders, you’re not alone. Microsoft quietly hardened SMB (Server Message Block) security defaults in this release, and one side effect is the dreaded:

Error Code: 0x80070035 – The network path was not found

What Changed?

Starting in 24H2, Windows now requires SMB signing (digitally signing every SMB packet) by default on both the client and server roles. While this makes sense in enterprise environments, many home users and small businesses still have older NAS devices, media servers, or peer‑to‑peer Windows PCs that either:

  1. Don’t understand SMB signing at all, or
  2. Support it but can’t negotiate it quickly enough.

The result is that Windows drops the connection before the remote share ever responds, and you get a network path error instead of an authentication prompt.

The Fix: Make SMB Signing Optional Again

You don’t have to turn SMB signing completely off (though you can). Simply tell Windows: “Don’t require it—use it if both sides support it.” There are three easy ways to do that.

1. PowerShell (One‑Liners)

Run PowerShell as Administrator and paste:

# Relax signing requirement for inbound (server) and outbound (client) SMB
Set-SmbServerConfiguration  -RequireSecuritySignature $false -Confirm:$false
Set-SmbClientConfiguration  -RequireSecuritySignature $false -Confirm:$false

If you’re stuck with a legacy NAS that breaks even with optional signing, also run:

Set-SmbServerConfiguration  -EnableSecuritySignature $false -Confirm:$false
Set-SmbClientConfiguration  -EnableSecuritySignature $false -Confirm:$false

That disables automatic signing entirely.

2. Batch File

Save this as Fix-SMBSigning.bat, right‑click Run as Administrator:

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "alert="

for %%K in ("HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters"
            "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters") do (
    for /f "tokens=3" %%V in ('reg query %%K /v RequireSecuritySignature 2^>nul ^| find "REG_DWORD"') do if /i "%%V"=="0x1" (
        if not defined alert echo Disabling SMB Signing Requirement & set alert=1
        reg add %%K /v RequireSecuritySignature /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f >nul
    )
)
endlocal

:: Uncomment these lines if you want to force a restart of SMB services immediately
:: net stop lanmanserver /y & net start lanmanserver
:: net stop lanmanworkstation /y & net start lanmanworkstation

3. Direct Registry Import

If you prefer a .reg file, paste the following into Notepad and save as DisableSMBSigning.reg, then double‑click:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters]
"RequireSecuritySignature"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters]
"RequireSecuritySignature"=dword:00000000

Reboot or restart the LanmanServer and LanmanWorkstation services for the change to take effect.

Why Not Leave SMB Signing On?

If you’re in a corporate environment with Active Directory, you should leave SMB signing required. But for home and small‑office setups—especially with devices that can’t handle it—the risk of disabling the requirement is minimal as long as you’re on a trusted LAN (which I’m sure your home network is… hopefully).

SMB signing defends against man‑in‑the‑middle attacks by cryptographically verifying every packet. If all your devices are inside a secured network, that’s probably not a major concern.

Bottom Line

The 24H2 update didn’t break the connection to your NAS; it simply enforced a security feature your hardware can’t handle. Loosening that requirement restores normal behavior.

If you’re still seeing 0x80070035 after applying one of the fixes above, double‑check:

  • Firewall isn’t blocking File and Printer Sharing (SMB‑In)
  • The remote device is actually reachable (ping its IP)
  • Correct share permissions are in place

SOLUTION: “Windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation failed with error 0x0000011b”

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Well, it’s not often I bother to write up a new blog post these days, but when I do, you know it’s something particularly irritating that I’ve decided to save you the trouble of solving on your own. This problem absolutely qualifies.

When attempting to share a printer over the network from one Windows 10/11 machine to other Windows 10/11 machines, the above error now often appears.

Myriad “solutions” across the internet exist, most of which involve uninstalling particular Windows hotfixes (KBxxxxxx) or manually adding the printer port. Problem is, none of these solutions actually work anymore. The problem was initially caused by Microsoft’s need to patch PrintNightmare and other related vulnerabilities in the Windows printer subsystem. These workarounds previously sufficed, but some situations require a more surgical approach now. Because if you attempt to simply roll back the patches, not only is that a temporary solution, it actually winds up forcing an install of the generic Microsoft Enhanced Point and Print driver instead of the correct one for the printer… which results in endless pages of gibberish being printed instead.

So here’s the actual solution: manually configuring group policies on affected machines (both client and “server”). The way to accomplish this is by using registry edits, because on any machine not running “Pro” editions of Windows, the Group Policy editor is MIA.

After lots of trial and error, here is the final version of the registry patch I used on all affected machines (again, client and server/sharing machine) to correct the problem. Simply reboot after applying the patch, reinstall the printer (by discovering over the network via Windows Explorer > Network on the client workstations), and you’re done.

Open Notepad, and save a new .reg file with the following contents:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint]
"InForest"=dword:00000000
"NoWarningNoElevationOnInstall"=dword:00000001
"Restricted"=dword:00000001
"TrustedServers"=dword:00000001
"UpdatePromptSettings"=dword:00000002
"RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print]
"RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled"=dword:00000000

Then merge the changes with the local registry by double-clicking the new .reg file and you’re done. Needless to say, to reverse the changes, simply delete the new keys this adds (though there is no reason to do so).

Enjoy, and you’re welcome! 😉

SOLUTION: Alienware, XPS laptops – Slow video streaming speeds on YouTube

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Here’s a really annoying one. Dell XPS and Alienware machines, despite their significant capabilities, experience super slow high-res video streaming on YouTube. The buffer is visibly razor-thin on anything 1080p or above without any obvious reason why. This occurred on a gigabit fiber connection in my case.

The solution? As often is the case, the value-added (in this case, QoS traffic-shaping/packet inspection) networking software is actually value-subtracted. Simply navigate to the Killer Control Center software and disable the following (useless) option to correct the problem and reclaim your proper streaming speeds!

Value-added? More like value-subtracted.

Dell XPS 13 7390 and other machines: low or no microphone volume during Zoom calls

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A pretty recent emerging issue I’ve encountered is problems with microphone volume during Zoom calls (specifically!) on some machines. One of the more popular models experiencing this problem regularly is Dell’s XPS 13 7390, which is an all-round terrific laptop. The common thread connecting all of these affected models is their use of the Realtek audio drivers (which very many laptops do these days).

The solution — or, at least, the workaround — for this one is actually quite simple. It turns out that the 4/22/2020 driver version of the Realtek Audio Driver is problematic when paired with Zoom specifically. Thus, rolling back this driver manually (by downloading a previous version from your manufacturer’s support site) should work.

Alternatively, though, you can actually just completely uninstall the driver altogether, forcing Windows to (at least temporarily) use the generic Microsoft High Definition Audio driver instead. Here’s how to (easily) accomplish that:

  • Click your search box and type appwiz.cpl, then press ENTER
  • In the resulting window, scroll down to Realtek Audio Driver
  • Click Uninstall and follow the prompts. Reboot.

After this, everything should be back to normal once again.

SOLUTION: Bluetooth mouse/keyboard delay in response after typing or lack of motion

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Many machines experience a problem where a connected Bluetooth peripheral takes seconds to wake every time it’s left motionless for a short period or the user types on the keyboard. This delay can range between a second up to a few seconds, and it’s absolutely frustrating.

Fortunately, it’s also incredibly easy to solve:

  1. Right-click the Start Button and choose Device Manager.
  2. Expand Bluetooth.
  3. Right-click your Bluetooth adapter and choose Properties.
  4. Click the Power Management tab and uncheck the box that reads “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”

The power savings are minute at best anyway, and this should completely solve your problem. Enjoy, and you’re welcome! 😉

Bypass Microsoft Account Creation during Windows 10 Build 1909 OOBE Setup

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This is a quick and easy one. In previous versions of Windows 10 setup, selecting an offline (so-called “limited”) account was relatively easy. However, with the latest build of Windows 10 Home, if the machine is connected to the internet during setup, the option disappears.

It’s true that you can simply disconnect from the network (or open cmd and delete the wlan profile), then click back and try again, to avoid this. But there’s a much easier way.

Instead, in the sign-in field, type a bunch of random numbers, then click Next. At this point, you can choose to create a local/limited account instead—even if you’re connected to the internet. It’s really that easy!

SOLUTION: Windows 10 upgrade failure 0x8007001F – 0x20006

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This week, a client brought me a Windows 7 PC which refused to upgrade to Windows 10, despite their having reserved a license long ago for the OS and attempting to install it repeatedly. The error message they were receiving was:

0x8007001F – 0x20006
The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during REPLICATE_OC operation

A screenshot of the setup error message which repeatedly plagued this machine

My usual remedial measures, after poring through setup error logs and all that fun stuff, were completely unsuccessful in this instance. Myriad internet searches also turned up lots of other people with the same problem, but no actual solution. Everyone simply wiped/reinstalled Windows.

Some of these attempts included:

  • sfc /scannow
  • BCD rebuild
  • Boot parameters rebuild
  • System (boot) partition rebuild
  • Filesystem checks, etc
  • Permissions repairs

Nothing at all worked. Eventually, however, I stumbled across a solution almost too simple to seem likely to work: an in-place upgrade of Windows 7. In other words, in colloquial terms, a conventional “repair install”.

All this involves is to grab Windows 7 install media matching the version installed and perform an “upgrade” process right from within Windows. Once complete, I had to reenter the Product Key and reactivate – so make sure the sticker is legible on the particular machine you’re working with. If it isn’t, specialized activation backup/restore methods will be required to continue with the process and eventually the Windows 10 upgrade.

After this, everything worked perfectly. The W10 upgrade process was smooth, and the client is now happy as a clam!

SOLUTION: “There is a problem with the selected printer” when printing email in Outlook

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Today, I encountered an issue that was new to me. A client’s PC refused to print any email within Outlook (in her case, Office 2013 version, but the same problem persisted in Outlook 365 prior to my correcting it). The error message she received was:

There is a problem with the selected printer. You might need to reinstall this printer. Try again, or use a different printer.

The problem persists regardless of which printer is selected—even if it’s a default built-in virtual printer such as Microsoft Print to PDF or the XLS printer. However, it won’t necessarily affect all email messages.

So, what’s the deal? As it turns out, this problem is caused by a corrupted font. Knowing this is half the battle—but unfortunately, it’s only the start of the process you’ll need to follow in order to fix it.

As the folks over at Kinetic Computer Services explain, copying and pasting the entire contents of an affected message into Word (Close Word if open, CTRL+A + CTRL+C to copy, then reopen Word and paste using CTRL+V) will generate a related (but different) error if you wish to confirm that this is actually the case. Word will complain that “There is insufficient memory or disk space. Word cannot display the requested font.”

You might think that simply reinstalling all system fonts would correct this problem, but as I discovered, it sadly does not. The System File Checker also doesn’t fix anything. So, instead, you’re left to identify the affected font on your own and then take action.

What I did was to highlight small sections of an affected email message and copy and paste them individually into a new Word document until the error message appeared. This was much easier than attempting to step through an affected document and identify manually which font might be to blame based on differences in appearance. In my client’s case, it was the Papyrus font that was bad.

!


Keep in mind that after the error appears once, you’ll need to close Word to provoke it to appear again. So after the copy/paste of the entire message the first time, close Word, then reopen it before beginning your sectional diagnosis of the email content.

Once you identify the affected font, open a Windows Explorer window and navigate to C:\Windows\Fonts. Search for the font that’s affected, highlight it, and copy it someplace else for backup purposes just in case. Then, simply delete the font from the C:\Windows\Fonts folder. If it’s a critical system font, Windows should automatically replace the file for you. If it doesn’t, try right-clicking the copied file (located outside of the Windows Fonts folder) and choosing Install for all users. It should complain about the font being corrupted, and then install a good version for you automatically.

If all else fails and Windows can’t work this out on its own, find yourself another Windows machine and manually copy the font from there, then install it on the affected machine. Once this is all done, close and reopen Outlook—and the problem is solved!