RAID 10 is often chosen for its balance of speed and redundancy, but even with its fault tolerance, catastrophic failures can still occur. This case study explores the recovery of a 16-disk HPE ProLiant RAID 10 server, which suffered a failed rebuild due to bad sectors, preventing full restoration.
Our team, Ireland’s oldest and most experienced data recovery specialists, successfully tackled this complex case using advanced recovery techniques, cutting-edge cleanroom facilities, and years of expertise.
The Challenge: RAID 10 Failure Due to Bad Sectors
A long-term business client reached out to us when their HPE ProLiant server (16-disk RAID 10 array) failed unexpectedly. Initial diagnostics revealed that multiple drives had developed bad sectors, which led to:
- RAID rebuild failure – The array couldn’t reconstruct missing data.
- Partial data corruption – Some files were unreadable, making business operations impossible.
- System downtime – The company faced severe disruptions in their workflow.
The client had attempted an internal recovery but found that standard tools couldn’t overcome the bad sectors, and further attempts risked worsening the data loss.
Initial Diagnosis & Evaluation
When the RAID system arrived at our cleanroom lab, we performed a sector-level analysis on all 16 disks. Our findings:
- Two drives had completely failed – making it impossible for the RAID to rebuild automatically.
- Four drives had significant bad sectors – preventing standard recovery software from reading crucial data.
- The RAID metadata was partially corrupted, making it unclear how data was originally structured.
These issues meant that conventional RAID recovery methods wouldn’t be effective.
The Recovery Process: Overcoming Bad Sectors & RAID Metadata Corruption
1. Imaging the Drives with Bad Sectors
We cloned all 16 drives using proprietary imaging tools that specialize in reading around bad sectors. This allowed us to extract as much data as possible without further damaging the disks.
2. Manual RAID Reconstruction
Because the RAID metadata was corrupted, we manually rebuilt the RAID 10 configuration using advanced forensic techniques. Our team:
- Analyzed parity and stripe structures.
- Identified missing or corrupt sectors.
- Reconstructed the RAID manually to restore the data flow.
3. Extracting and Verifying Data
Once the array was rebuilt, we extracted the data and performed integrity checks to ensure everything was functional.
The Results: Successful Data Recovery & Business Continuity
After 72 hours of intensive work, we successfully recovered over 98% of the lost data, allowing the client to restore their critical business files.
✅ Rebuilt RAID 10 structure manually
✅ Extracted data from bad sectors
✅ Recovered key business data, minimising downtime
Why Choose Us?
With 25 years of experience and tens of thousands of successful recoveries, we are the leading data recovery specialists in Ireland and the UK. We handle all types of failures, from RAID arrays to individual hard drives, using:
- State-of-the-art facilities
- Advanced chip reading technology
- Custom recovery tools
If you’re facing RAID failures, bad sectors, or drive corruption, contact us today for the most reliable and cost-effective data recovery service.
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