RAID Data Recovery

DTI Data Recovery is one of the few companies in the US that are qualified to perform RAID data recovery. One of the hardest types of recovery, a RAID Array Restoration involves many different levels. A lot depends on the type of RAID, is it software or hardware based, is it a RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 10. The different levels of RAID along with the block size and file system is information that the RAID engineer will need to give you a quote.

RAID Levels and How They Affect Data Recovery

A RAID array can have many different levels. RAID’s can be anywhere from RAID 0 to RAID 50 with everything in between. Each has a different function and reason for implementation.

RAID 0 Data Recovery

The hardest RAID to recover is a RAID-0. A RAID 0 is a striped or spanned set where two hard drives are serving as one volume. This type of RAID is being used more and more in gaming machines and a lot of home computers due to the additional disk size and speed the data can be accessed at. The problem with a RAID 0 is if one of the hard drives fails for a physical reason, it MUST be recovered prior to data recovery of the RAID 0. Since the volume is spanned parts of files like a database could in fact be housed in part on both drives!

If you have a RAID 0 that has failed make sure the data recovery company you are sending your array to has a clean room like DTI Data. If not there is little chance they will be able to recover a RAID 0 with a physical hard disk problem.

RAID 1 Data Recovery

A RAID 1 is a mirrored array. One drive is an exact copy of the other drive. If one of a RAID 1 array disk fails then it is possible to recover the data off of the other drive. DTI has been successful many times being able to recover data with only 1 of the RAID 1 drives.

RAID 5 Data Recovery

A RAID 5 array is a mirrored stripe set. In a 3 drive array only the space of 2 of the drives is available for storage. The parity is spread throughout all 3 drives. With a RAID 5 recovery, only 2 of the 3 drives must be accessible for data recovery. If more than 1 drive has had a physical failure, then the RAID data recovery company must get at least 2 or a 3 drive RAID array working.

RAID Operating Systems and Data Recovery

Since physical recovery of a RAID depends upon what level of RAID is being used, a logical RAID failure would seam to be an easier restoration. The fact is that logical RAID data recovery is often the hardest part of RAID restoration. Whether it is a RAID 0 or a RAID 5, once the hard disk drives have been repaired enough that our engineers can access the drive, the programmers now need to rebuild the file system.

Before you decide to send your failed RAID array to anyone, make sure they have the same capabilities as DTI data. We have in-house programmers that can rebuild parity, file systems, partitions, and all the other things that can fail in a RAID array.

Many times on a RAID 5 the parity that runs across the drives is damaged along with one or more hard drives. At this point our engineers have developed a proprietary method that de-stripes the array and creates a new volume. This allows the data and files to be recovered.

If you have any types of problems with an array and you need RAID Data Recovery, please contact DTI Data at once! Don’t try to rebuild the array without consulting one of our engineers. Our RAID engineers are ready to help you 24 hours a day.

Call us now toll free (866)-438-6932 or direct (727)-345-9665.

*Note: If you are unable to contact an engineer after hours on our main support line feel free to call our Exchange Server  24 hour hotline at 727-251-2058 for after hours RAID data recovery support.