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Data Recovery Case Study – Dell MD1000 Server

/ / Data Recovery Services, News

Recovering Data from a Failed Dell MD1000 RAID 5 Server

Dell-md1000Failed System Details

  • Dell MD1000 RAID 5
  • 15 x 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT’s
  • 1 Drive is an unused hot spare
  • Windows Server

Failure Details

Several drives had simultaneously failed resulting in the drives going offline and the server crashing. Restarting the server made no difference, the failed drives remained offline and the data was inaccessible.

During the initial consultation we asked the client what attempts (if any) had been made to get the system working again. They replied “In attempts to bring the data back online we attempted to import a foreign config to the server, which failed. The unit was power cycled a couple of times as well, out of desperation, which was probably a mistake as I think it’s power-cycling that knocked the drives out initially”

Comments

Trying to import a foreign config into a failed server is an extremely risky action, and is best avoided, but when crucial company data goes offline, panic can easily set in and the strangest decisions about how to bring crashed servers back online can be taken. It’s a good job it didn’t work as the server’s config data would have been overwritten by completely foreign data which would have been disastrous.

Power cycling the hard drives is not a good idea either, especially if the server was mid-boot as the hard drives are accessing data continuously.

We’ve a useful web page which describes actions that should be avoided when a server crashes here http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/raid-or-server-failure-the-top-5-things-to-avoid/.

Recovery

Analysis showed that the server was set up in a RAID 5 configuration and all hard drives were electronically and mechanically sound. Analysis of individual drives revealed some had bad media problems that couldn’t be repaired (see more info about bad media here). Also the server’s RAID 5 configuration data had become corrupted.

To recover the RAID data it was therefore necessary to make working images of all the hard drives using specific recovery hardware that would successfully read data from the bad areas of the hard drives with bad media. Once completed the next step was to work out the correct RAID configuration. We would then be able to determine if the data was still intact or whether it had become corrupted. After a Data Clinic tweak or three we were able to successfully recover all the customers data.

> Information Links

  • Data Clinic’s RAID and server recovery services
  • Data Clinic’s Dell Server Recovery Services
  • More Data Clinic case studies
data recovery, Dell, raid 5

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Data Clinic Reviews

Data Clinic Ltd - Manchester
Data Clinic Ltd - Manchester
4.5
Based on 141 reviews
See all reviewsWrite a review
Stewart Whitworth
Stewart Whitworth
12:42 28 Jun 22
Whilst Data Clinic were not able to retrieve the data from 1 of the 3 drives I sent to them - they were very easy to work with, accomodated my requests allowing for a very flexible recovery process (I dropped off the drives in person and provided an obscure drive type for the recovered data which they were perfectly happy with). When I asked why the last drive was unrecoverable, they explained with lots of detail, and of course I was not charged for said drive.I've learnt my lesson and hopefully won't ever need a recovery service again, but if I do I know who to go to!
Brian Greco
Brian Greco
13:38 09 Jun 22
3 years of my lifes' work and photos saved because of the amazing professionals at this company. My iPhone XS Max got stuck in a "boot loop" with a nearly full 512GB of storage. Most of the internet said there was no hope for this Error 14/1110: but Michelle, Elliot, and the team at Data Clinic said otherwise. Amazing friendly personable customer coordination from Michelle including arrangement of emergency service for which I flew into Manchester to the main lab. Elliot was patient, capable, and helped get the job DONE! I now have my phone not only backed up to an SSD for the data itself, but my phone is working as it was, and has updated software to the newest iOS. I cannot express my gratitude enough for the capable professionals who I was able to trust here at Data Clinic. I truly believe this is the best tech service I have ever experienced. Worth every penny and grateful for the invaluable benefit of my memories being restored. THANK YOU! Brian from USA based in Turkey

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