RAID Recovery

Services | RAID Recovery | Media and Operating Systems | Procedures | Forensic Services

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Data-loss circumstances

RAID configurations are among the most complex media devices to recover data from. Not only can data configurations be quite intricate (either in a volume, striped or spanned), different manufacturers will often use complex configuration applications that can add further complexity. Each RAID recovery presents unique challenges.

There are dozens of reasons as to what may cause a RAID Array system to fail. Some of the most common reasons include: human error, software problems, transmission error and hardware malfunctions. Typically, failures tend to be disk or controller related, often being the result of an abrupt power failure or surge spike. This can also lead to the disruption of logical volumes, possibly destroying the file system structure and all data if not handled correctly.

RAID recovery procedure

We give every RAID data loss situation high priority status.

Diagnosis determines whether the media device is accessible to our equipment. A clone is then made and the recovery begins using our proprietary software and in-house techniques. Our advanced software tools extract the data from the images. When a drive image is not available, the tools can reconstruct the data 'on-the-fly' in the same way that the RAID rebuild process would have done on the original system.

In the case of electromechanical failure, failed or damaged components are replaced in a clean environment using specialized tools.

Multiple-drive arrays are cloned onto our media so that software repairs can be performed and the data files extracted. Sometimes the existing file system structures are missing, or, damaged to such an extent that data has to be extracted directly from one or more fragments of the cloned image.

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RAID Data Configurations

• RAID 1
  RAID 1 mirrors or duplicates the content of one drive onto another equally sized drive. Mirroring provides optimal data integrity and immediate access to your data if one drive fails. RAID 1 allows you to use only half of the available capacity of your NAS device. RAID 1 requires at least two hard drives and must consist of an even number of drives. Data recovery for this type of configuration often takes less time, tools and resources assuming the mirrors were intact at the time of failure.

• RAID 5
  RAID 5 provides the best balance of data redundancy, performance and capacity. Like RAID 0, RAID 5 stripes all of the available drives into one large volume. However, the space equivalent to one of the hard drives will be used to store parity data. If the server was configured correctly and one hard drive fails, it should rebuild your data using the parity data. RAID 5 requires at least 3 hard drives. A RAID 5 configuration can also be used with a hot spare which reserves a hard drive that functions immediately if a drive failure occurs. The total RAID capacity is the sum of all the hard drives minus the space of two drives. RAID 5 with hot spare requires at least 4 hard drives. All drives which are part of the array are required in order to perform successful data recovery.

• Non-RAID
  In addition to RAID, you can also configure your server without using a RAID configuration. A non-RAID configuration, also referred to as JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks), does not allow any data redundancy and is slower than some RAID configurations. Data recovery for this configuration varies in complexity depending on JBOD type and hardware configuration.

• Server RAID Recovery for:
  Our RAID data recovery service technicians and engineers are trained to handle most current server hardware platforms as well as the most commonly used legacy systems. To perform a RAID recovery, we often only require the drives which once stored the data. Every single RAID data recovery case which arrives at Data Detect receives high priority importance because of the normally critical nature of a RAID system. Although we support all server manufacture brands listed below and more, feel free to Contact us if you have any specific RAID recovery requirements.
  
  1. Compaq
     All ProLiant Series
  2. Dell
     All PowerEdge Series
  3. HP Invent
     ProLiant (CPQ), Integrity, AlphaServer, e3000
  4. IBM
     IBM XSeries, Unix AIX, PSeries
  5. Gateway
     Entire line of products
  6. All Intel, AMD + More
  7. Sun Microsystems
     Entire RAID Product line