One of the benefits to a RAID array is the ability for the RAID array to offer redundancy and prevent data loss in mission critical applications. 

If one drive fails in a RAID 1 or higher array, the redundant data is accessible from the other hard drive or hard drivess, and the RAID array can be re-built. IT managers and system engineers can perform a hot swap, replacing a failed RAID hard disk drive with another, similar, drive, with very little performance loss during the swap and minimal risk of complete RAID failure and loss of data. 

Seagate’s RAID Rebuild Technology (http://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/docs/pdf/whitepaper/tp620-1-111…) is designed to help expedite swapping hard drives and rebuilding a RAID array while minimizing downtime and avoiding critical loss of data and a data recovery emergency. 

Key metrics indicating a successful RAID recovery and rebuild include: 

– Low risk/exposure to secondary failure

– Low system-level performance degradation during the recovery and rebuild

– Fast recovery and re-build

Seagate’s RAID Rebuild technology does not use the parity data on the active drives to recover the data on the failed drive and transfer it to a spare drive, as conventional RAID arrays do. Instead, the hosts extracts as much data from the failed drive as possible, and then takes the remaining data off the other drives. With less data to recreate, the RAID recovery and rebuild process goes faster, with less room for errors or failure of the other drives in the array. In conventional RAID arrays, the recovery and rebuild process puts added strain on the remaining drives in the array, which can lead to cascading failure and a data recovery emergency. 

Three Steps to Data Recovery

Seagate’s RAID Rebuild technology works in three steps: 

1. It will first attempt to read from the failed hard disk drive

2. Whatever stripes can be accessed will be recovered first from the failed hard drive

3. Any stripes that cannot be recovered from the failed hard disk will be recovered from other drives in the RAID array. 

If the heads can’t spin at all on the failed hard drive, all data will be read from the other drives and recreated on the hot spare. 

Need Professional RAID Recovery Services?

Not every RAID data recovery can be performed automatically and easily under the oversight of experienced IT professionals. If your failed RAID array experiences cascading failure you may need Seagate hard drive recovery from data recovery professionals.

24 Hour Data has extensive experience in older and newer models of Seagate hard disk drive recovery. Contact us today for expert RAID recovery.