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RAID Recovery: The Challenges
A “Redundant Array of Independent Drives” is a popular technique today for people working with several hard drives at once. RAID is a data storage scheme which divides or replicates data among the hard drives used, and is thus capable of offering higher data reliability and shorter response times than other schemes. This system has been in use for some time in applications that are considered non-critical.
The reason for the use of the scheme within non-critical elements of a business is that unfortunately, when one drive in a RAID system fails all of the data stored on the entire array may also be corrupted, or simply rendered inaccessible. For a business without knowledgeable support, this can be devastating. The first challenge to any recovery effort will be the reinstatement of data on not just one, but all of the drives involved in the system. The higher the level, the more complex the RAID data recovery process becomes. Each piece of data on each drive is important, and a recovery system that ensures complete recovery is key.
When it comes to the actual recovery process, the person using a RAID scheme has a few options. Someone trained in the implementation of RAID and its applications could recover the data from the drive, as long as the data required is on the drive involved at the time of the failure. Odds are the user will have to call for help; that means two choices.
First of all, you could contact the manufacturer’s support department. It is likely that they will be able to get your system up and running again, but like many support systems the recovery of your data is only a secondary objective. Basically, the manufacturer will assume that you have backed up your important data in a suitable fashion and the support staff are trained to operate under this assumption. The manufacturer cannot be expected to take responsibility for your data stored on its product.
The second option, and the best one open to the user, is to call in the services of a company that is trained in all manner of RAID data recovery methods, and specifically one that has experience with all the levels of RAID storage. This service can be hard to find, since recovery issues and systems requirements are quite specific, but there are times when it pays to seek out the experts.
RAID schemes may be more reliable when it comes to data management, but in the event of a failure the challenges loom large. Getting the data from each system involved and ensuring that data recovery are at the heart of a support system are two of the most critical issues that a user of a RAID system will face in a failure, and it’s important to find individuals who can handle the challenge.
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Drives)
RAID is an umbrella term for data storage schemes that divide and/or replicate data among multiple hard drives . RAID can be designed to provide increased data reliability or increased I/O performance, though one goal may compromise the other.
RAID 0
(minimum 2 drives) In this type of setup data fragments are stored across multiple drives. Optimal performance but high risk of data loss in the event of a drive failure.
RAID 1
(minimum 2 drives) This setup is known as a mirror set. One drive contains active data while the other contains a copy of the data. This is a great option for data recovery when 1 drive fails. However RAID 1 is not perfect. User actions (i.e. accidental deletion) are duplicated on the mirror drive. As well costs to are doubled with the requirement of additional drives.
RAID 5
(minimum 3 drives) The data is distributed in segments across the array with a parity segment for error correction. This parity block is distributed among the drives, providing a more balanced access load across the drives. The parity information is used to recover data if a single drive fails and is the reason RAID-5 is the most popular method of storing data over multiple drives. RAID-5 is recommended for organizations in which performance is not critical or where there are few heavy write operations. Although RAID-5 is less fault-tolerant than RAID-1, the recovery per drive is typically less expensive.