How to Recover Data After RAID Controller Failure?

In this blog, we’ll discuss about RAID data recovery in the event of RAID controller failure. Additionally, we’ll discuss about the importance of RAID controller and the consequences of its failure— most importantly, data loss and how to recover the lost data from the RAID.

RAID controller plays a vital role in configuring and functioning of RAID server. It acts as an interface between the host system and physical disks, configures RAID, and performs all RAID operations. Given below are some of the major tasks that a RAID controller performs:

• It configures multiple physical disks in a way that they behave as a single logical disk.
• Arranges the data on multiple disks to provide data redundancy, enhanced performance and storage capacity.
• Helps in Read/Write operations.

This implies that RAID controller failure has serious implications on your RAID server operations. Here are a few consequences of a failing or failed RAID controller:

• You lose all the logical parameters—disk order in the array, parity/block size, parity order and parity delay/repetition, etc.—of RAID array that are stored on it.
• A failing RAID controller might write incorrect data to your disks.
• You may lose data stored on disks and you may not be able to notice it because of disk redundancy.
• RAID may go in degraded mode, causing disk failure and data loss.
• Data might become inaccessible.

If you’re unable to access data or you’ve lost data after RAID controller failure, read the next section that talks about RAID server data recovery without the risk of permanent data loss.

RAID Server Data Recovery after RAID Controller Failure

As discussed above, RAID controller failure is associated with data loss. Even if you don’t notice or observe data loss, there’s always a possibility that you may have lost your RAID data in the event of RAID controller failure. Attempts to access or recover data on your own may result in permanent data loss due to data overwriting, disk failure, RAID errors, eventual data loss, or any other complications. For instance, if you try to replace the failed RAID controller and use random or incorrect logical parameters—as original array configuration is lost due to RAID controller failure—to rebuild RAID 5 you’ll eventually lose 1/N amount of data in an array of N number of disks.  Therefore, you must NOT try to do anything on your own in such a case. Instead, contact a Professional Data Recovery Service provider such as Stellar® having expertise in data recovery from RAID.  

It’s important for you to know how a Professional Data Recovery such as Stellar® recovers data after RAID controller failure. Here are the steps and process that Stellar® follows:

Step 1: First, the disk is opened for examination in Class 100 Clean Room Lab which has a controlled level of airborne particles. This prevents any inadvertent damage to the platter while performing disk examination.

Step 2: If there is physical damage, the damaged components are replaced with suitable components.

Step 3: Once the disks have become functional, they’re cloned by using specialized software.

Step 4: Once the disks are successfully cloned, the original array configuration is extracted from the clone by using specialized tools, techniques, and expertise.

Step 5: Next, the RAID parameters are used to reconstruct the RAID.

Step 6: Finally, data is recovered from reconstructed RAID.

Tips to Prevent Permanent Data Loss after RAID Controller Failure

Here are a few tips that you may incorporate to prevent permanent data loss in an event of RAID controller failure:

• Don’t try to rebuild RAID on your own as you may end up in entering incorrect RAID array parameters
• Don’t use any hit-and trial method
• Keep the disks labeled
• Contact a Professional Data Recovery Service Provider as soon as you observe imminent failure of RAID controller or a complete failure

Conclusion

RAID controller is an important part of RAID servers. It controls the data stored across the array of physical disks in a RAID configuration. When it fails, you may lose important business data.

In this blog, we mentioned the importance of RAID controller and the implications of its failure in details. It’s recommended to contact a Professional Data Recovery Service provider like Stellar to get secure recovery of data after RAID controller failure so as to prevent any further complications and permanent data loss.

Stellar Data Recovery has been in the recovery industry for over 25 years and has served 3+ million customers worldwide during this period. Further, at Stellar, data recovery is possible regardless of the type and extent of damage, making it the go-to destination for data recovery. Stellar is an ISO certified data recovery company and follows data security and confidentiality. 

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