Dell PowerEdge servers can have a wide variety of RAID configurations,
but most PowerEdge Servers are setup as a stripe set with parity ( RAID
5). The default for the RAID stripe is 64k (128 sectors). The data is striped
across all the disks, and a parity block rotates between drives. This way
if one disk fails, the RAID card can default to degraded mode and run without
interruption. A problem arises when there is corruption within some essential
parity blocks, or simply more than one drive fails at about the same time,
not giving the IT professional enough time to replace the first failed drive.
This results in a failed RAID volume.
Our certified Engineers are familiar with the entire PERC Controller family
and have a decade of experience behind them. There are few situations that
are not recoverable. The only exception is when the drives have been rebuilt
in the wrong configuration. In this case, it is possible to overwrite the
data, making data recovery impossible.
The RAID Engineers at ESS Data Recovery have the expertise to recover data
at both a hardware and software level, sometimes writing custom software
on the fly to fit your recovery situation. In many cases we will remove
the platters from a failed drive, create a clone of this drive using custom
equipment, and then recreate your original volume from this clones and the
good drives.
If your RAID has crashed and you are not sure what the next step is consult
with a data recovery engineer. Call us now at 1.800.237.4200 for a free
consultation.
*PowerEdge is a registered trademark of Dell, Inc.
