RAID data recovery is probably one of the most complex processes that any data recovery company can undertake. Most of the time, problems are exacerbated by the customer’s actions prior to sending the drives for recovery. Many users feel that it is important to try to recover the data themselves or repair the array through various system utilities, and this may be fine if the data is not critical. However, in our experience, when you have a RAID failure that has resulted in substantial data loss, more often than not, someone’s job is in jeopardy if that data is not recovered. The biggest advice this article can provide in the event of a RAID failure: LEAVE IT ALONE.
IT professionals have a lot of pressure on them when a catastrophic system failure occurs. It’s your job to make sure all systems are up and running. Many times, out of panic, troubleshooting processes are initiated to correct the problem. Often these processes only make a bad situation worse and, in many cases, can render data unrecoverable. Let’s consider what this data might consist of in an average corporate environment. You are probably dealing with information that cost many millions of dollars in manpower and resources to create. It is likely that much of the data cannot be duplicated. The intellectual value alone could be many millions of dollars. Corporate executives don’t really care to hear how the failure occurred, or what incredible series of events led to the server crash. They don’t mind listening to technical jargon while you try to explain what happened, and they hope they understand that it wasn’t your fault. They just want to know one thing… why was this data not backed up and how can we get it back?
Instead of taking risks on your own, call a data recovery professional. RAID data recovery can be expensive, but in most cases it is much less expensive than trying to recreate data that has been lost. There is a set procedure that most data recovery professionals follow when it comes to performing any recovery work. These procedures are followed and expanded when it comes to RAID recovery. The first step in any RAID recovery is to make sure all drives are working. In order to successfully complete the recovery, it is essential that all drives are fully functional (this is especially true with a RAID 0). This may involve taking physically damaged units back to the clean room to make any necessary repairs to get them back to normal operation. Once that’s complete, the next step is to make full, sector-by-sector clones of each drive. This is not “Ghosting”, but rather a very low level process that allows the recovery technician to fix bad sectors and have full control over how the drive performs. During the cloning process, the original source drive you shipped is usually placed in a “write protect” mode so that no data can be written to the drive. This ensures that the original source data is not altered in any way.
Once the cloning process is complete, the original drives you sit on are pushed aside and no longer touched. The actual recovery process is performed on the cloned copies, so nothing done during the recovery can make the situation worse. After the drives are cloned, they will be loaded into an emulator and deleted. Gutting is like taking the scattered pieces of a puzzle and carefully putting them together. In a nutshell, ripping is taking the data scattered among the multiple drives that make up the array and placing it on a single destination drive. From there we have a single drive on which we can complete what we would consider a “normal” recovery. We can complete this process even at the multi-terabyte level. If the stripe damage is not too severe, a complete rebuild of the directory structure and all associated data can be completed in most cases.
As mentioned above, RAID data recovery can be expensive. Depending on the company you contact, prices can vary considerably. Typically, a RAID recovery can cost anywhere from $800 to $3,000 per drive. Various factors influence the cost, such as RAID type, file system, total size, failure situation, etc. Trial and evaluation fees are often charged if the data cannot be recovered. This is understandable given the amount of time and resources required to perform a single RAID recovery. However, in most cases, the costs involved in data recovery are not even 1% of the total value of the data. If you are reading this article and have not experienced a RAID failure, what are you waiting for? Back up your data NOW.
