Are you unable to access your hard drive? Do you believe that your hard drive has failed? Data loss can be a crushing blow to any company or individual. It can cost money, lost hours, and manpower. Ultimately if it is not fixed quickly, it may cost you your business and the information contained on the hard drive forever. This can be catastrophic to your life, but I don’t need to tell you that, do I?
A study done of businesses in the wake of Hurricane Katrina showed that companies who experienced a data loss lasting longer than seven days would go out of business within a year.
Having said that, you should ALWAYS under no circumstance have some type of backup plan in the event something happens to your RAID array. This eliminates a whole host of nonsense issues that could be avoided entirely in the event your system fails. If you have invested in a Dell PowerEdge RAID array, it makes sense to make the investment in a backup right?
If you have not made a backup, then the first order of business is to NOT conduct your own diagnosis of the disk system. It can be recoverable, but if you mess with the system, you may lose your information forever. Losing one drive in your array will result in RAID degradation to the other drives. If you continue to run your server in this condition will either diminish or eliminate the ability to recover the array.
Dell PowerEdge Servers can have a wide variety of RAID configurations, however typically they are set up as a RAID 5. They are an extremely popular data storage and networking solution for both large and small businesses. Regardless of the configuration you may have, Dell PowerEdge disk and RAID failures can and will occur more often than not. In most cases, these can originate from the PERC controller, or the condition that the hard disks are in. Regardless of the issue you may be facing, you must take the utmost care when your disks begin generating error messages.
Your best option may be to find a professional that is qualified to not only recover your data but write custom software to fix your individual situation. This will yield the highest recovery rates of multiple drive failures or failed rebuilds. If your DELL PowerEdge has failed, consult with a Dell specialist who can guide you to the right step for your individual problem or situation. They have a directory of qualified professionals and can search for AND recommend someone in your local area. This is advantageous to you because you don’t have to rely on finding someone yourself.
Experience is what counts in the RAID recovery business. Dell PowerEdge servers have a unique susceptibility to the following issues.
- Drive drops: These systems have a reputation for dropping two or more drives from the array container. Depending on your array, this can be a difficult problem to overcome.
- Single hard drive failures: If you lose one drive, it will not ruin your RAID 5 system. However, it can lead to a compromised system, or system failure over time.
- Reconstruction Failures: If your RAID system has been running with a failed hard drive and you attempt to rebuild it, this can be a catastrophic error and should be avoided at all costs.
If your Dell PowerEdge RAID server has crashed or is exhibiting any of the above issues, seek professional help first. You can then decide how to best proceed to recover your system. Good luck!