Raid 5 Failure

The raid level 5 is widely used for its high fault tolerance. But when a disk fails, its fault tolerance goes down. As the raid 5 can take maximum of a single disk error/failure, if by chance another disk fails the entire raid array collapses.

Raid 5 failure can be of two type- disk failures and system failures. A system failure is when the system fails to operate due to reasons such as power failure. Whereas a disk failure is when suddenly the disk data becomes inaccessible due to reasons such as drive or controller failure.

There is ample number of reasons, which might cause RAID 5 to fail. Damaged files, corrupted data, bad sector, overwritten files, missing partitions, virus attack on the disk array are just some of them. But no matter what kind of failure it is, raid recovery is the only solution.

The main idea behind raid recovery is to get back the data in the drives. Raid data recovery can be done in matter of minutes or it might take a few days depending on the problem. There is raid data recovery software, which even has trial versions that can be easily downloaded for free. These help in detection of your problem. Once you are satisfied with its service, you can buy the actual version. Raid 5 failure can be recovered by the various recovery teams who solve your raid problem in return for a fee. The amount of fee is decided on the number of disks recovered or the criticality of the problem.

Recovering raid 5 is important but equally important is to take proper care in order to execute it correctly. Obviously, being a layman if you try raid 5 data recovery, there are high chances of you failing. Moreover, the data that needs to be recovered can be further harmed if any other data is overwritten on it.

As soon as you sense any kind of raid 5 failure, shut down the server immediately. A small note on the problem will be helpful in explaining to the recovery team. If at all you remove the disks, label it in the right order. Although the recovery team will make you spend a lot of money but it is still the safest and tested. The sooner you recover your files after raid 5 failure, the better it is in order to retrieve back all your data.