Recover data from RAID array

Updated on December 29, 2020

"Raid is an efficient technology that helps in storing data on multiple drives using complicated disk configurations. Hence in case of any data loss causing scenario, it involves a highly complex process to recover data manually. SFWare Partition Recovery software makes the recovery process easier by scanning the hard drives of raid volumes and recover data. Download now and recover lost or formatted data from RAID array within few clicks"

RAID is a storage technology that involves storing of same data across all the hard disks to protect data from any kind of hard drive failures. RAID is abbreviated as redundant array of independent disks or redundant array of inexpensive disks.

No matter how crucial a hard disk is for a computer, it still has certain drawbacks and RAID is not an exception. It definitely helps user by storing the data with its unique storage structure, but still there exists the risk of data loss. Indeed, the lost data can be recovered easily using RAID data recovery software that recovers data from NAS drives, RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5 arrays.

Before heading on to recovery of RAID data, it is important to know about the levels of RAID.

Different RAID Levels

Data is allocated on RAID hard drives in different ways, which are referred to as RAID levels including RAID 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10. The explanations of frequently used RAID levels are given below:

RAID 0 – Also Known as a stripe set or striped volume. Here data evenly splits across two or more disks without any parity information, redundancy or fault tolerance.

RAID 1- Consists an exact copy of a set of data on two or more disks. This structure offers no parity, striping, or spanning of disk space across multiple disks.

RAID 5- Provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe error correction information. here parity calculation is performed on the full stripe, small changes to the array experience write amplification. which means it takes a long procedure to write a new sector or a new parity.

Among these three RAID arrays, most commonly used and utmost prone to failure array is RAID 0. Since RAID 0 provides no fault tolerance or redundancy. The failure of one drive will cause the entire array to fail, as data is striped across the disk the failure will result in total data loss.

It is really distressing to lose certain essential data from the drive. On the other hand, thanks to the same technological evolution that gave us RAID recovery software to simplify the process of recovering data from RAID hard drive.

What is RAID Data Recovery?

RAID data recovery is the process of recovering and restoring of array configuration from RAID storage architecture. RAID recovery generally involves reconstruction of all RAID arrays to the original or last known configuration.

The software must know the RAID configuration of hardware, software and firmware level for successful RAID file recovery. For instance, Seagate Central NAS drive uses a RAID structure. the software must be capable to recover data from Seagate central NAS drives.

SFWare RAID Recovery Software, on the first process of recovery identifies the proper file system structure associated with RAID and recovers data from RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 array drives effectively. Also it is designed with automatic advanced scan engine to detect and recover RAID partitions from various data loss scenarios including lost or formatted RAID logical volumes.

RAID 0 recovery

Before rushing to recover of RAID 0, it is important to understand the causes of RAID 0 failure. There occur two types of failure in RAID 0 arrays.

In each case of failures array configuration should be recovered and usually that includes data order on the member disks and block size.

Recover RAID 0 Manually

Determining block size- Block size can be specified either in sectors or in kilobytes. 1 KB = 2 sectors. You should be careful not to mix the units. For example- Windows uses a 128 sectors block for RAID 0.

Determine a data order on the member disks- Firstly, confirm block size you need to find a copy of any large enough file which was for sure stored on the array.

Choose files for analytics- If you can’t recall any files that are stored on array, you can always do raw recovery for one of the remembered disks.

Search the member disks for the file fragments- Fragments cannot be found using any calculation. Here, you should be using a tool (disk viewer) for searching.

Note: It takes about an hour to search a typical array and sometimes need to spend a week to recover the array entirely.

Drawbacks of Manual RAID Recovery

Trying out Manual method is too complex and time consuming. If you are not fluent with the disk editor it complicates configuration and end up erasing all the data from the array. Try out an efficient RAID recovery software for secure and safe recovery of data from raid arrays.

Step by Step Process to Recover Data from RAID Array

Download and install the SFWare Partition Recovery Software on the system. Launch the application.

SFWare RAID Partition Recovery utility recovers formatted, lost or inaccessible data from RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5 drives. The software is a complete solution with advanced features to recover files, photos, videos, emails etc. from Windows-based hard drives, external media and RAID array.

The tool also recovers data from JBOD drives, which has RAID structured drives.

Conclusion

RAID can be used in large file servers, transaction of application servers where data accessibility is critical, and fault tolerance is required. But data loss can occur in any point of time. Hope the solution mentioned above will help you recover data from RAID arrays.

If you need any further assistance on recovering data from RAID arrays, please contact our support department.

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