Retrodata RAID Recovery

A degraded RAID is any RAID array that is not able to run at optimum speed, although it is generally used to describe an array in which one or more of the drives has failed, depending on the RAID level.

With RAID 5, only one drive can fail; the array will continue to perform, calculating the parity from the remaining drives, until the failed drive is replaced. We recover degraded RAID arrays, regardless of the failure.

RAID 6 can continue to operate with two drive failures, and for this reason it is becoming more popular with companies that have extremely high-capacity RAID storage servers.

At that point, it will require a RAID rebuild, which gradually brings the new drive back into the array. During this process, which takes hours for a small storage array and many days for a multi-Terabyte drive, performance is significantly slower than usual.

We’re experts at degraded RAID recovery.

A RAID rebuild places considerable stress on all drives, and it is often during this process that another drive fails. Multiple drive failure can be catastrophic, and this is one of the occasions we recommend immediately cutting all power to the RAID (literally pulling the plug) and calling a specialist RAID recovery company. Any attempts by even an experienced IT admin will almost certainly cause further data loss, and possibly complete data loss.

RAID controllers and systems are not designed to cope with this scenario, and if they are allowed to continue attempting to rebuild the array, further damage will be caused.

We are able to recover from multiple drive failure, having performed this on many occasions, and with a 100% successful RAID recovery rate since June 2009, will probably continue to do so.

RAID 30 is popular with Xsan storage area networks – especially when the main application is video editing and video post-production. RAID 30 is capable of exceptionally high throughput, simultaneously serving numerous users. Our engineers have solid experience of RAID 30 Recovery – including within the Xsan environment.

RAID 30 has the redundancy and performance of RAID 3, combined with the raw performance of RAID 0. It consists of two servers, each configured with RAID 3, and then striped with RAID 0.

Each of the two servers can continue functioning with the loss of a single drive, but the array will run in degraded mode until the faulty drive is replaced, and the RAID rebuilt. Most servers will take out a drive even if it develops a single excessive sector and once it is replaced, a RAID rebuild can take a long time – even days – during which period if another drive develops bad sectors or fails, it will result in a critical failure from which recovery will only be possible by RAID recovery specialists.

RAID 5 Recovery

RAID 5 is block-level striping, with the parity spread across all drives. Any one drive can fail, at which point the RAID will run in a “degraded state” (slower than usual, and a very dangerous situation for data) until a replacement drive is installed.

Many modern RAID controllers have the facility for hot-swapping and will automatically detect the failed / failing hard drive, drop it from the array, add the new, hot-swap drive and start rebuilding the array from the parity on the remaining disks.

However, by far the most RAID 5 recovery scenarious we encounter have been caused by data corruption, file system corruption or damage, or user error.

RAID rebuilds appear to be extremely common reasons for crashed RAID 5 systems; we believe that once one drive fails, if they were originally in the same batch, there is a better-than-usual chance another is going to fail shortly. The RAID rebuild failure is intensive, and places strain on the drives, making them more susceptible to failure and it is often during this process that we are contacted for data recovery.

Retrodata are able to recover RAID 5 arrays probably quicker than any other company. We have a perfect RAID recovery track record, maintaining a 100% successful RAID recovery service since June 2009. This covers RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 3 – even a massive RAID 30 array in a storage area network consisting of 56 drives. Four of these drives had failed.

RAID 0 Recovery

RAID 0 is pure, block-level striping. This means they are broken up into “blocks” – also known as “stripe size” which can usually be defined when initially building the array. Stripe size is normally chosen depending on the type of data stored on the array; a large stripe size for large files such as video, and smaller for general data and databases.

There is absolutely no redundancy in RAID 0; if only one of the drives fail, all access will be lost to all the data. The only chance of recovery is to repair and recover the failed drive, after which RAID rebuild procedures will need to take place.

Retrodata have exceptional skills at RAID 0 recovery. Not only are we probably the quickest option available to recover RAID 0 arrays, but we have a flawless track record dating back to June 2009. We have not failed to recover a single RAID 0 array (nor that with any other RAID level) since then.

Retrodata recover corrupt RAID arrays from any device. Regardless of the RAID level, the level of corruption, the file sytem or the operating system, we have them all covered; there is not a single file- or operating- system we’re aware of that we cannot work with.

With an enviable RAID recovery success rate, we’re almost able to guarantee a 100% successful corrupt RAID recovery with any form of file system or operating system corruption. We regularly recover RAID arrays that have defeated other companies.

Emergency RAID recovery

Our ability to successfully perform emergency RAID recovery from practically any RAID storage device means Retrodata are probably your best option for any mission-critical failed or crashed Server.

We can practically guarantee a completely successful recovery from a Virgin RAID failure.

Once all the RAID members have been cloned and secured (we never work from original drives unless certain critical time-related factors and the client has ordered us to) we can generally complete a RAID rebuild and start extracting your data within 30 minutes. Our own proprietary, in-house RAID Recovery System allows us to work with any file system or operating system and deliver results in minutes and hours, rather than days and weeks.

We recover corrupt RAID arrays from any system or server. Dell, HP, IBM, Compaq – Apple Xserve, Apple Xsan -Linux RAID, UNIX RAID – the list is endless.

If you have experienced RAID failure, crashed RAID storage, we’ll be able to recover and restore your data and have you operational in no time. We’ll make sure that what was a catastrophe is a distant memory.

Emergency Data Recovery If your storage device has multiple drives and is configured with RAID, we can (in all likelihood) regenerate and rebuild your RAID and start recovering and extracting your data from within as little as one hour of receipt of the member drives.