RAID Data Recovery
Business-grade recovery for degraded, failed and misconfigured RAID arrays — hardware and software, single or multiple member failure.
RAID failures rarely involve a single point of failure. A degraded array, an interrupted rebuild, or a controller fault can all put stored data at risk, and the safest response is diagnosis before any further changes are made to the array. DiskAnalyst reconstructs array configuration and recovers data from the individual member drives in a controlled lab environment.
Common Causes of Failure
Multiple Drive Failure
More than one member drive failing, or failing close together, can take an array below its fault-tolerance threshold.
Failed or Interrupted Rebuild
A rebuild that fails partway through can leave an array in an inconsistent state, sometimes affecting data beyond the drive that was being rebuilt.
Controller / Configuration Loss
Damage to a hardware controller, or loss of its configuration, can make an otherwise healthy set of drives appear as an unreadable array.
Degraded Array
An array running in degraded mode has lost its redundancy — a further single failure can take the entire array offline.
Logical / File-System Corruption
The underlying array can be structurally intact while the file system built on top of it is corrupted or inaccessible.
What We Handle
- RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10 arrays
- Failed or interrupted RAID rebuilds
- Multiple simultaneous drive failures
- Degraded or offline arrays
- Hardware and software RAID controllers
- Business and server RAID storage
Common Signs & Failure Scenarios
Our Recovery Approach
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1
Member Imaging
Each surviving member drive is imaged individually before any reconstruction is attempted, so the original drives are not put at further risk.
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2
Array Parameter Analysis
We determine disk order, stripe or block size, parity rotation and offsets from the imaged data rather than assuming the original controller settings.
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3
Virtual Reconstruction
The array is reconstructed virtually from the member images, without writing back to the original drives.
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4
File-System Recovery
Once the array structure is reconstructed, the file system on top of it is recovered and your files are extracted.
Important: What Not To Do
- Do not initialize the array.
- Do not create a new RAID in place of the failed one.
- Do not force a rebuild without understanding the condition of each member drive.
- Do not change the order of the drives.
- Label each drive before removing it from the array or enclosure.
- Do not allow automatic repair or rebuild tools to write to the member disks.
Devices & Configurations We Cover
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, including cases with a single failed drive, a failed rebuild, or file-system corruption on top of an otherwise intact array — each case is assessed individually.
Not before diagnosis. Rebuilding a degraded array can overwrite data if it is attempted with a misidentified or marginal drive — we recommend assessment before any rebuild is attempted.
Yes. Member drives should be labeled and kept in their original order and enclosure position — reordering them can complicate or prevent reconstruction.
Often, yes, depending on the RAID level and which drives failed. Multiple-drive failures are more complex but are a routine part of our RAID recovery work.
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