Why RAID data recovery?
As we know, RAID recovery is one of the most complicated and challenging recovery procedures, and therefore, the cost is always very expensive. RAID systems are susceptible to the same ailments that plague single hard drive like logical problems, human error, viruses and physical damage. Otherwise, they may suffer from RAID array failure, controller failure, server
registry configurations lost, accidental reconfigurations of RAID drives, multiple drive failure, and so on.
Well, any RAID system may be fault-tolerant, but they are not fault proof. More often than not, most commercial RAID implementations can tolerate the loss of a single hard drive by providing increased data security. In case bad things happen to the RAID controller or configuration (lost, damaged and rebuild by mistake...), your data may be compromised, thus data recovery is necessary.
How RAID data recovery works?
The utility will extract the data from multiple HD in a RAID system, and work to rebuild the correct data according to a variety of RAID data array, independent from hardware array card or server system. The essence of the RAID recovery procedures is to crack the algorithm of a variety of RAID cards, or simulate the RAID card to read data scattering among multiple segment hard drives and recompose it in a correct form to a new storage medium by analyzing the data structures of the multiple segment hard drives in the RAID system directly.
Many RAID recovery companies out there claims to recover lost or deleted data when RAID servers are down using their tools. Several excellent RAID recovery software utilities currently available in the market like WINHEX, Run Time, and R-Studio for example, are prominent at some points.
The merits of these software utilities are well talked most of the time amongst professionals and common users worldwide. Here the list of reviews collected based on in-depth analysis.
WINHEX
With manual analysis available only; complicated operations are always in need of experience and expertise.
Run Time
With automatic analysis available only; users can not have DirectView of the rebuilt data; inconvenient operation.
R-Studio
With manual analysis available only; complicated operations are always in need of experience and expertise.
It is worth mentioning that above software utilities do not support RAID 5E and RAID 5EE.
It is currently discovered by data recovery practitioners and professionals worldwide that the new version of Data Compass with RAID recovery add-on will soon be released in early April. The vendor engineered the cutting edge RAID recovery technology as a built-in utility in Data Compass for the purpose of RAID system diagnosis and recovery, despite the capability in handling physical and logical defective hard drives. It is also said that this utility is designed for automatic analysis and reconstruction of RAID disk array, starting position of the data and stripe size and stripe order. Fully support RAID 0/5/5E/5EE.
What’s more, according to the vendor, their previous users will be able to upgrade from them free of charge. As you may probably know, upgrade version is more likely than not charged by every single vendor, as always, so we will see how it grows; otherwise, make sure you have done your homework with a list of solutions you may interested in before you get some action.
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/data-recovery-articles/list-of-raid-data-recovery-solutions-829346.html#ixzz0mE7yRkyU
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Salvationdata - About the Author:
SalvationDATA develop and manufacture specialized Data Recovery Equipment and HDD Repair Tools!
Monday, April 26, 2010
RAID Data Recovery
RAID data recovery is the salvaging of data originally stored on RAID configured media and which has become damaged or inaccessible. RAID data recovery is probably one of the most complex processes any data recovery firm can perform. More often than not, the problems are compounded by the actions of the client prior to sending the drives in for recovery. Many users feel that it is important to try and recover the data themselves or repair the array through various system utilities, and this may be fine if the data is not critical. However, it has been our experience that when you have a RAID failure that has resulted in substantial data loss, more often than not, somebody's job is on the line if that data is not recovered. The biggest piece of advise this article can provide in the event of a RAID failure: LEAVE IT ALONE.
IT professionals have a lot of pressure placed on them when a catastrophic system failure occurs. It is their job to make sure that all systems are up and running. Many times, out of panic, troubleshooting processes are initiated in order to correct the problem. Often times these data recovery processes only make a bad situation even worse, and in many instances they can render the data unrecoverable. Let's keep in mind what this data can consist of in an average corporate environment. You are probably dealing with information that cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars in labor and resources to create. Much of the data probably can't be duplicated. The intellectual value alone could be in the many millions of dollars. Corporate executives really don't care to hear about how the failure occurred, or what unbelievable string of events led up to the server crashing. They don't care to hear the technical jargon as you try to explain to them what happened, and hope they understand that it wasn't your fault. They only want to know one thing..."why was this data not backed up, and how can we get it back?"
Instead of taking chances on your own, call a data recovery professional. RAID data recovery can be expensive, but in most cases it is much less costly than trying to recreate the data that has been lost. There is a set procedure that most data recovery professionals follow when it comes to performing any recovery work. These procedures are followed and expanded upon when dealing with a RAID recovery. The first step of any RAID recovery is to make sure all of the drives are functional. In order to properly complete the recovery it is essential that all drives are fully functional (this is especially true with a RAID 0). This may involve taking any physically damaged drives into the clean room, in order to make the necessary repairs so that they function normally again. Once that is completed the next step is to make complete, sector-by-sector clones of every drive. This is not "Ghosting", but a very low-level process that allows the recovery technician to work around bad sectors, and have complete control over how the drive functions. During the cloning process, the original source drive that you sent in, is generally put in a "write protect" mode so that no data can be written to the drive. This insures that the original source data is not altered in any way.
Once the cloning process is complete, the original drives you sent in are set off to the side and are no longer touched. The actual recovery process is performed on the cloned copies, so nothing that is done during recovery can make the situation worse. After the drives are cloned, they will be loaded into an emmulator and destriped. Destriping is like taking the scattered pieces of a puzzle and putting them together neatly. Simply stated, destriping is taking the data scattered among the multiple drives that make up array and placing it onto a single destination drive. From there we have a single drive in which we can complete what we would consider to be a "normal" recovery. We can complete this process even at the multi-terrabyte level. If the damage to the stripe is not too severe, in most cases a complete rebuild of the directory structure and all associated data can be completed.
As mentioned earlier, RAID data recovery can be expensive. Depending on the company you contact the prices can vary considerably. Typically a RAID recovery can be priced anywhere from $800 to $3,000 per drive. A number of factors influence the cost, such as RAID type, file system, total size, situation of failure, etc. Many times attempt fees and evaluation fees are charged if the data is unrecoverable. This is understandable due to the amount of time and resources required to perform a single RAID recovery. However, in most cases the costs involved in recovering the data are not even 1% of the data's overall value. If you are reading this article and you haven't suffered a RAID failure, what are you waiting for? Back up your data NOW.
Greg Duffield is the founder of ACS Data Recovery, a premier provider of hard drive data recovery services. You can reach them toll free at 1-877-646-0546 or on the web at http://www.acsdata.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Duffield
IT professionals have a lot of pressure placed on them when a catastrophic system failure occurs. It is their job to make sure that all systems are up and running. Many times, out of panic, troubleshooting processes are initiated in order to correct the problem. Often times these data recovery processes only make a bad situation even worse, and in many instances they can render the data unrecoverable. Let's keep in mind what this data can consist of in an average corporate environment. You are probably dealing with information that cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars in labor and resources to create. Much of the data probably can't be duplicated. The intellectual value alone could be in the many millions of dollars. Corporate executives really don't care to hear about how the failure occurred, or what unbelievable string of events led up to the server crashing. They don't care to hear the technical jargon as you try to explain to them what happened, and hope they understand that it wasn't your fault. They only want to know one thing..."why was this data not backed up, and how can we get it back?"
Instead of taking chances on your own, call a data recovery professional. RAID data recovery can be expensive, but in most cases it is much less costly than trying to recreate the data that has been lost. There is a set procedure that most data recovery professionals follow when it comes to performing any recovery work. These procedures are followed and expanded upon when dealing with a RAID recovery. The first step of any RAID recovery is to make sure all of the drives are functional. In order to properly complete the recovery it is essential that all drives are fully functional (this is especially true with a RAID 0). This may involve taking any physically damaged drives into the clean room, in order to make the necessary repairs so that they function normally again. Once that is completed the next step is to make complete, sector-by-sector clones of every drive. This is not "Ghosting", but a very low-level process that allows the recovery technician to work around bad sectors, and have complete control over how the drive functions. During the cloning process, the original source drive that you sent in, is generally put in a "write protect" mode so that no data can be written to the drive. This insures that the original source data is not altered in any way.
Once the cloning process is complete, the original drives you sent in are set off to the side and are no longer touched. The actual recovery process is performed on the cloned copies, so nothing that is done during recovery can make the situation worse. After the drives are cloned, they will be loaded into an emmulator and destriped. Destriping is like taking the scattered pieces of a puzzle and putting them together neatly. Simply stated, destriping is taking the data scattered among the multiple drives that make up array and placing it onto a single destination drive. From there we have a single drive in which we can complete what we would consider to be a "normal" recovery. We can complete this process even at the multi-terrabyte level. If the damage to the stripe is not too severe, in most cases a complete rebuild of the directory structure and all associated data can be completed.
As mentioned earlier, RAID data recovery can be expensive. Depending on the company you contact the prices can vary considerably. Typically a RAID recovery can be priced anywhere from $800 to $3,000 per drive. A number of factors influence the cost, such as RAID type, file system, total size, situation of failure, etc. Many times attempt fees and evaluation fees are charged if the data is unrecoverable. This is understandable due to the amount of time and resources required to perform a single RAID recovery. However, in most cases the costs involved in recovering the data are not even 1% of the data's overall value. If you are reading this article and you haven't suffered a RAID failure, what are you waiting for? Back up your data NOW.
Greg Duffield is the founder of ACS Data Recovery, a premier provider of hard drive data recovery services. You can reach them toll free at 1-877-646-0546 or on the web at http://www.acsdata.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Duffield
RAID Data Recovery Simple Guide
RAID RECOVERY - What actually it is?
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks which is is a method of combining several hard drives into one unit. This method offers fault tolerance (the ability of a system to continue to perform functions even when one or more hard disk drives have failed) and higher protection against data loss than a single hard drive.
Why Do We Need For RAID RECOVERY?
RAID provides real-time data recovery when a hard drive fails, it increasing system uptime and network availability while protecting against data losses. The other advantage of the system is that multiple disks working together to increase the overall system performance and that's why any individual or company could benefit from having a RAID RECOVERY system in place.
Different Levels RAID Data Recovery
There are several different levels of RAID recovery processes available. Each level offers various advantages in terms of data availability, cost and the performance. Your best bet is to assess what your needs in order to identify which level is most suitable for you. The most popular RAID systems are the following:
RAID 0 - Data striping (no data protection). The benefit of this system is that it offers the highest performance.
RAID 1- Disk Mirroring (provides data protection by duplicating all data from a primary drive on a secondary drive). The benefit of this system is it offers the highest data protection.
RAID 0/1- This combines both Raids 0 and 1. The benefit here is highest performance + highest data protection.
RAID 5 - Data striping with distributed parity (a form of data protection that recreates the data of failed drive in a disk array). This system offers the best cost performance for multidrive environments.
Having a RAID system installed can provide a greater data security over potential loss of data. With RAID installed you can rest assured that even in the event of a system failure your important data will be safe and can be recovered back.
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks which is is a method of combining several hard drives into one unit. This method offers fault tolerance (the ability of a system to continue to perform functions even when one or more hard disk drives have failed) and higher protection against data loss than a single hard drive.
Why Do We Need For RAID RECOVERY?
RAID provides real-time data recovery when a hard drive fails, it increasing system uptime and network availability while protecting against data losses. The other advantage of the system is that multiple disks working together to increase the overall system performance and that's why any individual or company could benefit from having a RAID RECOVERY system in place.
Different Levels RAID Data Recovery
There are several different levels of RAID recovery processes available. Each level offers various advantages in terms of data availability, cost and the performance. Your best bet is to assess what your needs in order to identify which level is most suitable for you. The most popular RAID systems are the following:
RAID 0 - Data striping (no data protection). The benefit of this system is that it offers the highest performance.
RAID 1- Disk Mirroring (provides data protection by duplicating all data from a primary drive on a secondary drive). The benefit of this system is it offers the highest data protection.
RAID 0/1- This combines both Raids 0 and 1. The benefit here is highest performance + highest data protection.
RAID 5 - Data striping with distributed parity (a form of data protection that recreates the data of failed drive in a disk array). This system offers the best cost performance for multidrive environments.
Having a RAID system installed can provide a greater data security over potential loss of data. With RAID installed you can rest assured that even in the event of a system failure your important data will be safe and can be recovered back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)