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RAID 0, 1, 5 Data Recovery - Alandata Data Recovery
Some of our RAID recovery service highlights:
- In 1998 we developed COPYRAID, our own internal RAID Data recovery software utility.
- We have since used COPYRAID to recover over Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of RAIDs.
- We Recover tiny 3-10gb RAIDS all the way up to monster 20 terabyte SAN arrays with 20 hard drives.
- We recover RAIDS running on dedicated RAID controllers, like Adaptec, Dell, HP, Lacie, Snap.
- We recover software RAIDS like Windows Dynamic Disk, Linux and those found in NAS boxes.
- We recover RAIDS from Novell, Linux, Unix, Mac, Windows.
- We recovered RAIDS for IBM, NYU Medical Center and States Attorney Generals.
- We recovered RAIDS after the major national data recovery companies have failed.
- 90% of our RAIDS come from other Data Recovery companies (whats that tell you?)
Alandata understands RAID thoroughly. We are great analysts, dogged determined and the best in the analyzing RAIDs. You could say that we "wrote" the book on RAID. Because we wrote our own software to recover RAID.
Tools.
Good analysis tools are essential.CopyRAID has a features to help us look at the data and figure out the configuration. Since we wrote it we can modify the code to help solve difficult configuration issues. Like writing special code to look for certain things. We sometimes write special code to merge data from the good areas of multiple damaged drives.
Q: What if my RAID is very damaged - can anything be done?
A: Yes. Fortunately with RAID the data is spread out over many drives - so often we are able to salvage quite a lot of useable data from the good drives. Unfortunately sometimes we get RAIDS that have been damaged badly. See my POST on the common RAID failure. Oftentimes technicians attempt to recover the data by using the raid software that comes with their system. Like they may swap in a new drive for the one that they think is bad and then rebuild the array. The problem is that they frequently get this wrong and they never back up the individual drives before they do this. If you resync the array with the wrong drive then you create damage across the whole array. Depending on the number of drives and the stripe size you may end up with data thats only good in 512kb fragments. Its like a paper shredder. If the pieces are big enough then you can salvage out some good files as long as they are smaller than 512kb and 'live' entirely in a good 512kb chuck. So Word docs are usually 50kb or less so lots of them will be recoverable. Movie and pictures are usually megabytes and compressed so they dont recover well at all. Although many pictures contain an embedded thumbnail that may be good. So it depends on how big the files are that you want back.
The phases of RAID data recovery
The recovery occurs in 7 phases.
1.Copy original drives to work images. Working images are created in order to protect the original condition of the drives.
2.Scan and map work images. We have developed COPYRAID analysis software which we will run on all the working images. This software maps out the required filesystem markers of interest.
3.Analyze maps and estimate prognosis and best approach.
Our system engineer will analyze the maps and determine:
1.What the original configuration was.
2.What the new configuration is.
3.What areas have been damaged and overwritten.
4.Which areas are undamaged and estimate how much is recoverable.
5.De-raid to new array. The previous configuration determines how the RAID will be recreated to its original configuration.
6.Clear undesired areas. The 'new' areas are purged to prevent recovering undesired new data.
7.Extract recoverable files to new 'copy-to' drives. Analysis of the damage will determine which are the best methods to use to recover the maximum data. Multiple approaches may be needed.
8.Generate file listings and report on quantity and quality of recovered data. We will produce file listing reports showing the files that were recovered and the amount of data located. We will also randomly test files to gauge the integrity of the files and the overall quality of the recovery.