RAID & Server Data Recovery

RAID / Server problem? Call 0870 140 2525
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data recovery
hard disk recovery
disc drive failure   

Emergency file recovery from failure of RAID arrays and Servers

We successfully recover data from failed / damaged / impacted RAID 5, 0, 1, 10 servers

Data Clinic offer a prompt and professional service for the successful recovery of your valuable data from any type of failed RAID system including Dell PowerEdge / PowerVault, XServe and SuperMicro systems. In addition to a free collection service that ships your damaged RAID to us, we offer a UK call out service where we recover your critical data onsite.

Specific failures on RAID systems that we can recover data from include:

  • RAID array / Controller Card Failure
  • Controller Card Set-up Corruption
  • RAID Container Crash
  • Server won't boot
  • Server registry configuration lost
  • Rebuild failure
  • Damaged striping
  • Multiple hard disk drive failure (or multiple drives go offline)
  • Intermittent drive failure resulting in configuration corruption
  • RAID array or volumes that won't mount after a server crash
  • Configuration damage or corruption
  • Addition of incompatible drives
  • Hardware conflicts
  • Software corruption
  • Software or operating system upgrades

Data Clinic's Recovery Process for Servers, NAS, or RAID Arrays

  • Our technicians treat Server and RAID data loss situations as high priority cases. An initial diagnosis determines whether each media device is accessible to our lab equipment. If so, the first priority is to create a raw image of all data from accessible media onto new media so that logical analysis can determine the nature of the information loss situation

  • If some of the media is inaccessible our lab will test the components and closely examine its internal health to determine the extent of physical damage.

  • Recovery of crashed RAID and other hard disks often involves replacing failed or damaged components in a clean environment and using specialized hardware and software tools to create the raw image. Failed components typically include electronics, read/write heads, head assemblies, magnets & drive motors.

  • Logical recovery uses the raw images of all the server's media by examining the low-level data sectors. Technicians must determine both the exact layout of volumes which span or are striped across multiple drives and what fixes to filesystem structures are needed to get access to the important data.

  • Multiple-drive servers are typically 'destriped' onto our media so that filesystem repairs can be performed and the data files extracted. Sometimes the existing filesystem structures are missing or damaged so much that data has to be extracted directly from one or more fragments of the destriped image.

  • Our programmers have created a full set of software tools used by our technicians to analyze, destripe, fix & recover data from raw images drives to virtually all operating systems. Once a recovery has been successfully performed, file lists are created and information validity is checked.

> Data Clinic recover data for some of the UK's best known companies - click to see our client list

Call the Data Clinic and talk your problem through with us on
0870 140 2525

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Links:

> 8 Golden rules to follow to minimize data loss
>
Minimizing data loss on RAID arrays and servers
> Recovery of lost / damged / deleted Exchange server (EDB) files & SQL databases
> Information on RAID parity calculations (technical)
> Case Study: Advanced Data Recovery on a flood water damaged RAID 5
> Case Studies: RAID data recovery (Windows)
> Case Studies: RAID data recovery (Mac)
> Apple X-Serve RAID recovery
> Back to the main data recovery page

> General data recovery section
> Advanced data recovery section

 

 

 

"Data Clinic's achievements in the field of data recovery consistently break new ground and move the industry forward"

Dr P Nutter
Lecturer in Computer Science and Data Storage Technologies
The University of Manchester

 

 

 

RAID 5, 0, 1, 10, 50 Fault? - Call Us

0870 140 2525
Onsite / In-Lab data recovery services

UK Wide Collection


RAID-0
Level 0 is not redundant, hence does not truly fit the "R.A.I.D." acronym. In level 0, information is split across drives, resulting in higher data throughput. Since no redundant information is stored, performance is very good, but the failure of any disk in the array results in information loss. This level is commonly referred to as striping.

 

RAID-1
Level 1 provides redundancy by writing all information to two or more drives. The performance of a level 1 array tends to be faster on reads and slower on writes compared to a single drive, but if either drive fails, no information is lost. This is a good entry-level redundant system, since only two drives are required; however, since one drive is used to store a duplicate of the other, the cost per megabyte is high. This level is commonly referred to as mirroring.

 

RAID-5
Level 5 employs a combination of striping and parity checking. The use of parity checking provides redundancy without the overhead of having to double disk capacity. Simply put, parity checking involves determining whether each given block has an odd or even value. These values are summed across the stripe sets to obtain a parity value. With this parity value, the contents of a failed drive can easily be determined and rebuilt on a spare drive.

 

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