One of the simplest and widely used RAID setups is RAID 1, which is also known as disk mirroring. Because your data is replicated across two or more disks, your data is better protected. But that doesn’t mean our RAID data recovery team don’t see RAID 1 configured arrays in the lab.
RAID 1 is perfect if you need high levels of performance along with data redundancy. In a RAID 1 array there are typically two hard disk drives, although some arrays use more. Whenever data is written to the array, it gets copied to both (all all) drives. While data can be read incredibly fast due to two sets of read/write heads, write operations will be slower because they have to be done twice; it’s for this reason that RAID 1 configured arrays rarely feature more than two drives. With RAID 1, all of the drives have to fail before you lose your data and have to start thinking about RAID data recovery.
If something happens to one drive in your array, you’re fine – you’ve got your own backup in the form of the secondary drive. On the other hand, this backup is also susceptible to data loss. Anything that can affect a hard drive is automatically a risk for both disks in your RAID 1 array. A natural disaster like a fire or flood could damage both drives, and if you drop your external enclosure, there’s a high chance both drives will be damaged. In addition to this, if your array is composed of two hard drives manufactured in the same batch, they’ll likely have the same lifespans and will fail at a similar time, which is something our RAID data recovery team see a lot. This isn’t to say that both drives in the array will definitely fail at exactly the same time, though. But if one of the drives in the RAID 1 setup fails, it’s no longer a RAID setup anymore, and the faulty drive needs to be replaced as soon as possible. In a RAID 1 system, there is also no protection against accidental file deletion; changes are made to both hard drives. This is something that’s constant across all RAID setups, as no configuration safeguards against human error.
Our RAID data recovery team can recover data from hard drives in a RAID 1 configured array, with a no-obligation quote before any work is completed. As soon as your array is received into the RAID data recovery lab, it’s handed over to the engineers who complete the initial diagnosis. Data recovery from a failed RAID 1 system isn’t typically any more difficult than data recovery from a regular hard disk drive.
