RAID Recovery: How to Recover Data from RAID Drives

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drives to enhance performance and increase data redundancy by distributing data across the array. Depending on the specific RAID configuration used, it aims to provide fault tolerance, faster read/write operations, or larger storage capacities.  RAID mainly employs RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10. 

When the RAID is damaged, the volume becomes inaccessible, and the data is lost. You can't access or recover data from RAID hard drives directly. You need to reconstruct or rebuild the RAID configuration to get back lost data, which ordinary users find the most difficult. In this article, we provide professional RAID data recovery software and services to help you restore lost data at any RAID level. 

What Are the Symptoms of RAID Failure

Different RAID levels and configurations have different fault manifestations. Early detection of these symptoms can help prevent or take action as soon as possible to reduce data loss. Here are some common RAID failure signs:

Error Messages: RAID disk drive problems, parity issues, controller failures, and data access faults will display different error codes or messages, which can help us diagnose the problem. 

Inaccessible data or missing drives: File system or RAID configuration corruption will result in missing volumes or files or folders that are inaccessible. 

System crashes or freezes: System hangs or crashes can indicate a RAID problem. This can be caused by disk errors, controller issues, or an ongoing but undetected rebuild process. 

RAID rebuild failure: If RAID reconstruction fails repeatedly, stops midway, or takes a long time, it may indicate a problem with the drive or RAID controller.

Degraded RAID status: A RAID controller reporting a degraded status is also a sign of a RAID problem. This indicates that one or more disks have failed or are damaged and that the RAID's redundancy is compromised.

Slow performance: When the read/write speeds decline, you may likely encounter RAID failure. 

Strange noises: If a RAID drive makes abnormal sounds when it is working, such as clicking, grinding, or beeping noises, it often signifies hardware failure. This is mostly related to head collisions, motor failures, or other machines in the drive. 

Overheating: The increasing temperature of elevated operating might suggest a drive or system component is working harder than usual, potentially due to impending failure.

Unexpected and repeated restarts: If the system restarts unexpectedly or repeatedly during access, especially during I/O-intensive tasks, this signifies a RAID disk hardware problem.

If you encounter any of these symptoms, you must act promptly. Stop using your devices, check your RAID drives thoroughly, verify drive statuses, and apply RAID data recovery tools and services in complex scenarios to restore important files. 

What Are the Common Causes of RAID Data Loss

Users need a RAID recovery for the same reasons as they need a normal hard disk data recovery. A broken or corrupted RAID can result from human errors, hardware or software failure, malware infection, mechanical errors, power outages, bad sectors, abrupt system shutdown, etc.

File system corruption: The Ext4 and BRTFS are two core file systems of RAID drives. An internal error in the file system can cause data to become inaccessible, even if the RAID disk is not physically damaged.

Software failure: Software-related issues such as configuration errors, system problems, and driver compatibility issues may cause data loss. Misoperations can damage or change the RAID configuration. An operating system error or update problem may affect the normal running of the RAID array. Outdated or incompatible drivers and firmware may also cause RAID arrays to fail to work properly.

Hardware failure: Many hardware issues cause RAID data loss, including controller card failure, incorrect RAID physical component setups, head crashes, and firmware corruption.  

Bad sectors: Over time, the hard disk may have bad tracks, and the data stored on the bad tracks may be damaged or lost.

Human errors: Deleting or overwriting files or volumes in a RAID array may result in significant data loss. Besides, RAID rebuilding and errors made during RAID arrays' installation, maintenance, or expansion may cause data loss.

Floods, fires, or other natural disasters: Physical disasters such as fire, flooding, or other object impact can cause devastating damage to the RAID array, rendering data inaccessible.

Electrical surges or power outages: Power supply interruption, Sudden power loss, or electrical surges can corrupt components within the RAID system, leading to data corruption or loss. The RAID system may encounter store fluctuations during read/write operations, which may damage data and cause the disk to become inaccessible.

Temperature and humidity: High temperatures can degrade the performance and lifespan of hard drives, eventually resulting in data loss. Moisture and contaminants can corrode connectors, circuit boards, or other hardware components, leading to intermittent or complete failure.

Virus or malware attacks: Viruses or malware may corrupt or even encrypt data stored in RAID arrays, resulting in data loss.

In all the above cases, stop all the operations. Preventive measures such as using high-quality hardware, maintaining proper cooling and ventilation, implementing a reliable power backup system, regularly monitoring RAID health, and having a robust disaster recovery plan are essential to minimize these risks. To maximize the chances of successful data retrieval, conduct RAID recovery software and specialized data recovery services with expertise in RAID systems.

How to Recover Data from RAID Drives with RAID Recovery Software 

Choosing professional RAID recovery software is greatly helpful for recovering data from RAID drives! EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard provides complete RAID data recovery solutions under Windows and Linus. Be it RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10, EaseUS RAID recovery software will help you recover data from any RAID hard drive, as long as your computer system can recognize it.

• Recover deleted, lost, or formatted data from RAID drives
• Restore lost data from RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10
• Recover data from enterprise RAIDs such as QNAP, Synology, WD, Buffalo, etc.

Don't hesitate to equip your computer with such a powerful tool. With this software, you can get files back from a RAID hard drive with the 3-step process: Scan disks > preview and select wanted files > recover data. Now follow the steps below to recover RAID data with the help of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard:

Step 1. Scan the RAID drive

Choose the RAID drive from which you wish to recover data, and then click "Search for Lost Data". Wait for the scanning process to finish, the deleted files will show up one by one.

Step 2. Find and preview lost RAID files

You can use "Filter" as quick navigation to find deleted or lost files. Besides, you can also use Search to find your lost RAID drive files via its file name or file extension.

Step 3. Restore lost RAID drive files

Select the wanted files and click "Recover". Browse to save these files to another secure location.

💡Tip: You can restore data on the local disks, external hard drives, and also the cloud storage.

Also, watch this video tutorial to learn how to recover RAID data with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

Recover Data with RAID Data Recovery Services and Solutions

RAID data recovery software can restore lost data well when the device has logical problems. However, if your RAID drive loses data in a very complex situation, you need to consult a data recovery service. EaseUS data recovery services offer advanced techniques and solutions to repair, recover, and reconstruct RAID data that has become inaccessible. 

Our engineers have 20 years of experience in data recovery and disk repair. We can provide you with real-time remote recovery services; you do not need to mail your device, and we restore RAID data for you with minimal impact.

EaseUS RAID Data Recovery Services

Click here to contact our experts for a free evaluation

Consult with EaseUS data recovery experts for one-on-one manual recovery service. We could offer the following services after a FREE diagnosis. Our decades-experienced engineers are knowledgeable and can repair the damaged RAID structure and restore data from all RAID levels.

• Restore data from all RAID levels, including RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, etc.
• Recover data from enterprise RAIDs such as QNAP, Synology, WD, Buffalo, etc.
• Retrieve data from broken RAID in severe situations.
• Recover data from RAID remotely. No need to ship.

3 steps for RAID data recovery with our services:

Step 1. Request a free consultation

Contact our engineers for a free data recovery consultation. Our engineers will immediately check the condition of your device and evaluate the possibility of data recovery.

Step 2. Evaluation

 Depending on the damage to your device and the difficulty of data recovery, we will conduct a quick and transparent assessment. Then, we will send you a written price quote. 

Step 3. RAID Recovery

We will recover your data according to your chosen service level with our mutual agreement and your consent. You can track the data recovery process throughout.

General Knowledge About RAID

Before introducing the professional RAID data recovery software, let's learn some basic knowledge about RAID.

Definition of RAID

RAID, Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a data storage virtualization technology that provides a way of storing the same data in different places on multiple physical hard disks for the purpose of increasing your system performance or providing fault tolerance.

Different Levels of RAID

Data is allocated on RAID hard drives in different ways, referred to as RAID levels, including RAID 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10. The explanations of commonest RAID levels:

Advantages of RAID

Generally, RAID uses multiple disks working together to increase overall system performance for computer users, especially server users. Besides, it also has the following benefits:

• Higher data security
• Higher fault tolerance
• Increased parity check and regularly check for any possible system crash
• Simultaneous reading and writing process

However, although RAID provides higher data security, data loss on RAID hard drives happens. You may suffer data loss on RAID disks or drives due to system crash, virus attack, power failure/surge, or other unexpected errors. You may think that RAID data recovery is complicated. As long as you get the right RAID recovery software, you can recover data from your RAID hard drives safely and effectively with ease.