RAID 5 Data Recovery with Two Failed Drives

In RAID 5 systems data and parity are striped across all the disks, so no single disk is a bottleneck. This RAID level offers a combination of increased speed, storage capacity and fault tolerance.

RAID 5 systems need at least three drives, although we regularly see arrays with up to eight hard disk drives. Like RAID 0, RAID 5 stripes data across multiple hard disk drives. Where it differs from RAID 0, however, is that it also stores parity information to aid with RAID data recovery. RAID 5 also offers the user both speed, as data is accessed from multiple disks, as with RAID 0. A RAID 5 system uses around a third of the available hard drive capacity to store parity information to aid with data recover.

All in all, it seems to be the perfect solution – so why do we see so many RAID 5 arrays in the data recovery lab? The simple answer is that while your data is safe if one drive fails, it’s more complicated when multiple drives fail. In the event of two or more drives failing, you need to get in touch with a RAID data recovery specialist, as attempting to get your data back can risk it becoming lost forever.

Unfortunately, even a well-maintained RAID 5 array isn’t immune from failure. RAID 5 isn’t a logical backup – there is no second copy of your data unless you back it up yourself. RAID 5 doesn’t protect against data loss through human error or malware. It’s this failure to recognise the distinction between RAID 5 and a solid backup that leads to so many RAID 5 systems arriving into our data recovery lab on a regular basis. But the most common cause for needing RAID data recovery for a RAID 5 array is definitely multiple drive failure. Very often, hard disk drives in RAID arrays all come from the same batch, and can fail simultaneously.

Our RAID data recovery team have the tools, skills and experience to help you get your data back. When your RAID 5 system arrives into the lab, one of our engineers will inspect it and figure out why you can’t access your data. Crucially, we’ll need to figure out which drive (or drives) are damaged. We provide a free evaluation for all RAID data recovery work, and a no-obligation quote to complete the work. We aim to get all RAID data recovery evaluations and quotes back to clients within 48 hours.

RAID Data Recovovery