Not long ago, I came across a RAID recovery case that highlighted some critical things maintenance staff should be aware of after a server failure. On July 15th, the Darth Data Recovery Center received a case where data recovery had been unsatisfactory due to improper handling. The user, a national institution, was concerned about internal data security and required our engineers to perform the recovery on-site.
The server in question was an older HP model with four SAS hard drives—model EG0146FAWHU. It stored shared data from 12 different departments. When the server failed, the IT team found that it couldn’t boot up normally. Error messages indicated a system fault, so they replaced the power supply, but the issue remained unresolved. Without recording the original disk order, the staff tried changing the sequence multiple times, hoping to get the system running again. Unfortunately, this led to inconsistent boot sequences and further complications.
After several unsuccessful attempts, they reached out to a data recovery company, which managed to recover only 60GB of data out of a total of 200GB. Many files were corrupted or unopenable, leaving the user highly dissatisfied.
Upon arrival, our engineers conducted an on-site inspection and discovered that the third and fourth hard drives were not performing well. They experienced frequent disconnections, which led to inconsistencies in the RAID array’s data distribution. This irregularity caused the data structure to become fragmented, explaining why most of the recovered files were unreadable.
According to our analysis, there were two possible causes for the problem. First, the instability of the third and fourth drives may have led to intermittent dropouts. Second, the repeated changes in disk order and restarts likely triggered automatic synchronization, further damaging the data layout. In both cases, the damage was irreversible, and once certain areas of the drive were overwritten or corrupted, no recovery method could fully restore them.
Despite the challenges, our engineers worked closely with the client to extract as much data as possible. From the initial 60GB recovered, we analyzed the Master File Table (MFT) and found numerous file record fragments. Although the MFT was damaged, we manually located and repaired key sections, then used our proprietary recovery software to extract an additional 110GB of data. While many files were still damaged, a significant portion of the data was successfully retrieved.
Although the outcome wasn’t perfect, our team remains committed to doing everything possible to recover lost data. Every successful recovery brings a sense of achievement, even if only a fraction of the files can be restored.
If your server fails, it's best to avoid making random changes unless you're highly trained. For critical data, always seek help from a professional data recovery service before attempting any repairs.
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