RAID Systems are an array of hard drives that work in front of the operating system as one unit. They are very reliable and provide a huge amount of storage space. They are considered a system that hardly fails, yet if there is a problem with them, a chain reaction or human errors might affect the access to the data.
We have recovered data from all different types of RAID systems, levels 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 53 among others. Each system has its peculiarities, yet the common causes of failure are physical damage in the disks or in the parity stripes.
Damage to the stripes is not seen frequently, however, it does happen and it is a software issue which the system is not capable to solve on its own. External intervention to find and rebuild the stripes is needed.
Physical damage in RAID systems is not frequent, at least not more frequent than in normal hard disks, probably between 2 to 3% of hard drives a year fail due to physical damage. The problems that affect hard drives in RAID systems are the same as the ones that affect any other type of hard drive: virus attacks, erased data, mechanical failure or extreme temperatures among others.
If one of the hard drives in a RAID 5 fails, we simply have to replace the damaged drive and the system will automatically rebuild the information in that drive. However, if another hard drive gets damaged in the process, or 2/3 of the system fails, self correction will not take place.
Human errors are also another major problem that could account for additional damage in the RAID 5. We should always change a wrecked unit immediately; otherwise, procrastination could be costly.
Please consult our experts about any problems with your RAID, we will put all of our efforts and experiences into helping you resolve the problem in the least possible time.