Often a degraded array has limped along until a second drive failed, a rebuild went wrong, or the controller died and destroyed the configuration. We recover RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10 arrays from servers, workstations and NAS units across South Yorkshire.
A free diagnostic is done on every RAID array job. Each job receives one fixed quote in writing before any work begins.
On most jobs, you only pay if we recover your data. For electronic, mechanical and chip-level work, we'll take half up front and the rest only if we're able to recover your data. Jobs involving BitLocker, ransomware, forensic or CCTV/DVR work are paid upfront once you accept the fixed quote. Complete pricing can be found on the data recovery cost page.
When we begin to diagnose a RAID array problem, we match what we see to one of the ten faults listed below, which represent almost all of the problems that make it to our bench.
The worst type of RAID failure: the array survives the first drive failing, then the rebuild process kills a second, older drive.
The rebuild process was started onto drives suspected of being faulty and only got halfway, corrupting the parity it depended upon.
The controller card failed and took the array's definition with it, so the geometry has to be determined from the individual drives themselves.
An older member returns to the array with stale data and causes the file system to tear itself apart.
A new array is created over the old one and overwrites its metadata; stop this process before initialisation completes.
Several member drives were damaged at once during a power event; each will be repaired and imaged individually.
Two or more drives 'fail' together, but diagnosis shows it is due to a failure in the chassis wiring and not the drives themselves, so it is diagnosis first and panic never.
Although the RAID is still intact, the file systems on top (NTFS, ext4, VMFS) are wrecked, so parser-level recovery is required.
Deleted configurations are recoverable as long as the underlying blocks remain intact.
Parity becomes desynchronised from the data when the controller battery dies or there is a sudden power loss, and this is solved at the image level.
Every single drive is imaged sector by sector before we do anything else, and we never work on the original drives directly. Using those images we figure out the geometry of the array (the order of the disks, block size, rotation and offset), build the volume virtually and pull off the file system sitting on top. We regularly recover RAID 5 arrays with a stale member, RAID 6 arrays with two failed members, nested RAID 10 sets and arrays from hardware controllers with lost configurations.
Do not force drives back online or perform a rebuild onto any suspect disk. Do not allow a generic IT 'fix-it' person to attempt 'just one more thing', as a partial rebuild destroys the parity needed for successful data recovery. Shut down the system, label all of the disks according to their bay number and contact us. Are you experiencing business-critical downtime? Tell us when you call and we will prioritise your diagnostic.
There is one simple rule that guides our approach to RAID recovery (image everything first), and our bench was designed accordingly:
All member drives are imaged at the same time on dedicated imaging hardware before any analysis, and the original drives will never be part of another rebuild.
Once the drive images have been made, the bench works on them to determine the correct array geometry (member order, block size, rotation and offsets) so it can then mount the virtual array.
Failed member drives receive the full hard drive treatment (heads, firmware and PCB) so they can be imaged along with the rest.
Entropy and parity checks are performed to confirm the geometry was accurately reconstructed, before the file system is extracted from the newly restored volume.
Interpreters for NTFS, ReFS, ext4, XFS, BTRFS and VMFS, for whatever sat on top of your array, including virtual machine disk images.
All of the member images are taken using write-blockers; your original disks stay exactly as they arrived.
Regardless of whether the RAID is hardware, software or somewhere in between, the geometry resides on the disks, and that is all we require.
Once you've powered down your server or array, remove all of the member disks and label each disk with its slot or bay number. Drive order is critical to rebuilding your array. Get a quote first by calling us on 0800 689 0668 or using our free online diagnostic, then post us your labelled disks; the controller and chassis can remain with you. A photo of your original setup will also help.
Please get a quote before sending your media to us, either by telephone on 0800 689 0668 or by completing our free online diagnostic. Once a customer has their quote, they post their media to us, tracked and insured.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please remove the hard drive or SSD from your machine and send us just the drive; we do not offer an internal drive-removal service. If you have a server or RAID system, please send us every disk, each clearly labelled with its bay. We cannot recover data from storage that is soldered directly onto the motherboard (for example Apple Silicon Macs and some thin laptops), so we need removable drives to be sent to us. If you are unsure which kind you have, ring us first.
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Mark your package for the attention of Leeds Data Recovery and we will contact you as soon as we have diagnosed your media.
Unsure about what to send? Call us first on 0800 689 0668 or complete our free online diagnostic.
Free diagnostic, fixed quote and, in most cases, you only pay if we recover your data. Start now or call the freephone.