RETRODATA. RAID data recovery from all storage devices.

recover corrupt raid data

Retrodata engineers have developed a unique RAID recovery technique that has completely transformed the recovery of RAID systems, enabling high-capacity enterprise storage failures to be rectified in as little as 18 hours. Even from catastrophic, multiple drive failure.

With standard methods, data recovery from arrays means repairing and rebuilding the array. Following that, the entire data volume needs to be copied out. This takes anything from a couple of days for a few Terabytes of data, to a number of weeks for large-scale storage networks.

Once the data has been secured, the server needs to be repaired and rebuilt. Then it needs to be configured. If it forms an integral component of a SAN or Xsan or any other clustered storage network, the server has to be configured so that, once brought back online, it will communicate with the rest of the storage servers. This in itself is complex. Only then can the recovered data be copied back, following the same, lengthy process.

Our technique eliminates both data transfers and server reconfiguration. There is no need for data transfers. The server configuration forms an integral part of our process. This means we can completely restore any RAID array. From a small, 16-disk array to a storage network consisting of hundreds of drives.

SAN and Xsan recovery

Our engineers work below the level of the file system, and below that of the operating system. One advantage of this is we usually require only the failed server – and not the entire system which in itself is a mammoth undertaking. The other is that you can be running any file system, and it will be transparent to them. Of course, it also means that with Xsan we do not need the metadata to perform a recovery. Also, we can recover a corrupt metadata server without having access to the actual data.

As industry leaders in RAID Data Recovery, our engineers consistently recover data from failed or corrupt RAID arrays that other data recovery providers have declared non-recoverable. Since June 2009, they have achieved a completely successful recovery for every failed RAID device received. This includes a 56-drive Apple XSan Storage Area Network with four drive failures from which everyone said recovery was impossible. They were wrong.

If no data recovery attempts have been made whatsoever, (including multiple reboots, swapping drives etc) we can practically guarantee a completely successful recovery from a Virgin RAID failure.

Server Recovery • Why choose Retrodata? • Emergency Recovery • Why RAID fails

We’ve spent years researching RAID recovery and RAID storage, and we continue to do so. As a result, we have a bespoke RAID Recovery System capable of extracting data from any RAID array, regardless of the operating system, and any file system from Apple HFS to ZFS. Moreover, we are able to work with non-standard RAID levels, including multi-nested RAID, and proprietary RAID levels used by some manufacturers.

We recover corrupted RAID with any file system:

NTFS RAID
HFS and HFS+ (Apple RAID)
Ext2, Ext3, Ext4 (Linux and linux RAID derivatives)
JFS RAID (Journaling file system)
NWFS and NSS (Novell RAID)
UFS (UNIX RAID)
XFS RAID (Silicon Graphics)
ZFS RAID (SUN)
And all others. Our current research indicates that there are no file systems we are not able to support.