A degraded array limped on until a second drive failed, a rebuild went wrong, or the controller died taking the configuration with it. We recover RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10 arrays from servers, workstations and NAS units across South Yorkshire.
Free diagnostic on every raid array job. Fixed quote before any work — and no fix, no fee.
Every raid array job starts by matching the symptoms to the fault — these ten cover almost everything that reaches the bench.
The defining RAID disaster — the array survives one loss, and the rebuild kills a second, older drive.
Rebuilds onto suspect drives half-complete and corrupt the parity they depended on.
The card dies taking the array definition with it — geometry is re-derived from the drives alone.
An old member rejoins with outdated data and the file system tears itself apart.
A new array created over the old one overwrites metadata — stop before initialisation finishes.
Power events take out two or three members at once; each drive is repaired and imaged individually.
Drives 'fail' in groups because the chassis wiring failed, not the disks — diagnosis first, panic never.
The RAID is fine but NTFS/ext4/VMFS on top is wrecked — parser-level reconstruction.
Deleted definitions are recoverable while the underlying blocks survive.
Dead controller batteries and sudden power loss desync parity from data — solved at image level.
Every drive is imaged sector by sector before anything else — the originals are never worked on directly. From the images we determine the array's geometry (order, block size, rotation, offset), reconstruct the volume virtually, and extract the file system on top. RAID 5 with a stale drive, RAID 6 double failures, nested RAID 10 sets and hardware controllers with lost configurations are all standard work for our lab.
Don't force drives back online, don't run a rebuild onto suspect disks, and don't let a generic IT fix-it attempt 'just one more thing' — partial rebuilds destroy the parity data recovery depends on. Power the system down, label the drives by bay, and talk to us. Business-critical array down? Say so when you call and we'll prioritise the diagnostic.
RAID recovery runs on one rule — image everything first — and the bench is built around it:
Every member drive is imaged simultaneously on dedicated hardware before any analysis — originals never join a rebuild again.
Works on the drive images to solve array geometry — member order, block size, rotation, offsets — and mount the virtual array.
Failed member drives get the full hard drive treatment (heads, firmware, PCB) so they can be imaged like the rest.
Entropy and parity analysis to verify the solved geometry, then file-system extraction from the reassembled volume.
NTFS, ReFS, ext4, XFS, BTRFS and VMFS interpreters for whatever sat on top of the array — including virtual machine disks.
All member images are taken through write-blockers; your original drives stay exactly as they arrived.
Hardware, software or somewhere in between — the geometry always lives on the drives, and that's all we need.
Power the server or array down and remove the member drives, LABELLING each with its slot / bay position — drive order is essential to reconstruction. Send the labelled drives; the controller and chassis can stay with you. A photo of the original layout helps.
Most customers post or courier their device to us — it arrives next morning, and the free diagnostic starts the day it lands.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac or server? Please remove the internal hard drive or SSD and send us just the drive — we don't provide an internal drive-removal service. If the storage is soldered in (e.g. Apple Silicon), call us first on 0800 689 0668.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Mark the package for the attention of Leeds Data Recovery and we'll call you as soon as we diagnose your media.
Not sure what to send? Call 0800 689 0668 first or use the free online diagnostic.
Free diagnostic, fixed quote, no fix no fee — start now or call the freephone.