RAID Data Loss Causes and Prevention Tips

Summary: This blog acquaints you with RAID servers, causes for their failure, raid data loss prevention tips, as well as RAID data recovery service in case data is lost despite taking precautionary measures.

Table of Contents

• Causes for RAID Failure
• RAID Data Loss Prevention Tips
• Professional RAID Data Recovery Service

‘Redundant Array of Independent Disks’, commonly and popularly known as RAID servers. Raid servers are data storage systems used in businesses and enterprises and used to store a significant amount of data in more than one hard drive. Depending on the number of hard drives and redundancy provided by the technology used, further categorization of the RAID servers into levels such as RAID 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. The purpose is to have multiple and redundant drives are to avoid data loss if any drive fails. If one drive fails, then we can access data from the rest. This results in increased storage capacity, data availability, and reliability, all of which contribute to improved performance.

इस पोस्ट को हिंदी में पढ़ने के लिए यहां क्लिक करें।

Well! There can be several approaches to redundancy such as power, storage, network, server, data backup and replication, load balancing, disaster recovery, site redundancy, etc. Nonetheless, RAID is all about withstanding drive failure without losing access to data. This is because if a drive without RAID fails. You have lost your data forever except in cases wherein you have a backup created in external drives. However, RAID servers can fail which may lead to data loss. Know the possible RAID Data Loss Causes and Prevention Tips in the section below:

Causes for RAID Failure & Data Loss Situations

Here are the  Most Common Causes of RAID Failure and Data Loss

• Virus Attack – Although all the RAID servers are protected with a strong and powerful antivirus program. (But sometimes the attack by malicious code is so intense and may cause RAID failure and hence loss of data.)
• Mishandling by Users – This is one of the most common causes of data loss. For instance, data deletion or formatting, partition deletion or formatting, partition overwriting issue, incorrect reinstalling, accidental reconfiguration of RAID partition, etc.
• Power Surge or Outage – Electrical power issues is yet another cause for failed RAID servers and data loss. Here, in this case, specific utilities and advanced techniques are necessary to restore the lost information.
• Natural Disasters – Water and fire from natural disasters such as floods, the explosion of lava, or any other reason leave the RAID systems useless. The reason being, these can affect and damage hardware, software, or both components. Rebuilding them means reconstructing the file systems with specific techniques and solutions, to restore data from the failed RAID systems.
• Other Causes – Failed RAID Controller, damage in RAID Stripe, failure of RAID array, loss of RAID system registry or configuration settings, error while rebuilding RAID or issue in volume reconstruction, wrong replacement of hard drive element to a working RAID, multiple drive failure, application upgrade, etc. are the other causes of RAID failure and loss of the stored data.

Additional Reading – Know here what are the popular Raid Systems 

RAID Data Loss Prevention Tips

As you are now aware of data loss reasons in RAID servers, you should know RAID data loss prevention tips.

• Keep a powerful antivirus that updates to the latest release
• Avoid mishandling such as do not delete or format drive data/drive partitions
• And do not overwrite, do not install in the wrong manner, do not reconfigure RAID partition,s and others.
• Check that there is no power outage and that your RAID servers have an uninterrupted power supply.
• Protect your RAID systems from natural disasters, fire, water, etc.
• You should label the drives in the array on their positions.
• Do not try to repair a damaged drive on an inaccessible partition with a repair utility.
• Before rebuilding RAID, always ensure that the drives are in a healthy state.
• Immediately stop the RAID rebuilding process, if multiple drives have failed simultaneously.
• Do not run any defragmented utility until you check the health of the individual drives
• In case if any of the drives in RAID 5 or above is in a corrupt state, assure that the new drive is filled with zeroes that have more or equal sectors in the drive that is damaged, while you replace it with a new one.

Note – Despite RAID data loss prevention steps, RAID servers can become corrupt or damaged to the extent that professional RAID recovery solutions become essential.

Professional RAID Data Recovery Service by Stellar Data Recovery

Now, the usage of RAID servers in high demand across the globe. And there are some instances when the RAID server fails and results in loss of data. To recover data from failed RAID servers, you should obtain professional RAID data recovery services from a reputed service provider. For Raid Data Recovery Services, you should contact RAID server specialists of Stellar Data recovery. Moreover, with 27 years of rich experience in data recovery, top-class Class 100 Clean Room facility, well-conversant, and experienced professionals, it guarantees 100% RAID data recovery service without fail.