There’s a business that is just on the cusp of large-scale expansion. They deal with multiple customers, routes, products, and more, all being managed by their many employees, and all of this is about to start increasing by the year. They have an online system that they use to track their data, but they want to bring it all in-house and keep it secure. So, they do what most businesses do.

They get a RAID System.

For those unfamiliar with RAID systems, RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. It is a complex system of multiple hard drives that balance out how they write, store, and retrieve data. The most standard of RAID systems exist on a spectrum of 0 to 9, each utilizing different numbers of drives and storage methodologies like mirroring or parity to ensure redundancy. However, to achieve a greater range of RAID abilities, there is RAID Nesting.

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Nested RAID, often also referred to as Hybrid RAID, is when two raid levels are combined together to create a new level with the aim of improving redundancy ability, performance speed, or both. This creates two-digit RAID systems, like 01, where the first number represents the lowest level of the system while the second represents the highest level. For common purposes this is written as a single number (01), but in technical writing it is often visualized as a simple addition equation (0+1). The primary Nested RAID systems are 01, 03, 10, 50, 60, and 100 with each having their own unique functions and abilities. Here is a brief overview of each Nested RAID level. 

  • RAID 01: This Nested system uses four, paired disks where the data is mirrored. Half of the disks have the data while the other half mirrors it.
  • RAID 03: Like 01, 03 utilizes paired disks. This system however uses a minimum of six disks, where data is back up using parity. Parity essentially means that if data is lost, parity data across data elsewhere can be recombined to recreate the lost data.
  • RAID 10: This system, like 01, uses four disks, but instead of mirroring it uses stripping to store data. This means data is stored in consecutive order across multiple disks, as opposed to one disk mirroring another. Each stripe is then mirrored on another disk. 
  • RAID 50: 50 uses a more complex system of data stripping and parity. Across at least six disks, data is striped and stored. Then is one array of drives go down, other arrays can immediately begin rebuilding the lost data. This is generally a far more complex system that requires more components than the previous Nested RAID levels.
  • RAID 60: 60 is not dissimilar from 50, using striping and parity. This however requires eight disks as opposed to six. Though this increases on the redundancy of 50, it has less capacity given the heavy reliance on parity across so many disks.
  • RAID 100: RAID 100 is essentially a wide array of RAID 10. This elaborate form of storage is when software data striping is overlaid onto hardware stripping in order to spread the data more evenly across the system. This process is referred to as “Plaid RAID” given it being striped multiple ways. 

Though these systems are very well equipped for data security, things still can go wrong. Here at Carolina Data Recovery we are experts at handling RAID repair and recovery.

Our data recovery engineers routinely recover data from RAID systems that have: 

  • Multiple hard drive failures / Hard drives offline
  • RAID volumes or arrays that won’t mount
  • Configuration corruption or damage
  • Addition of incompatible drives
  • Software corruption/Hardware conflicts
  • Controller Card Failure
  • Controller Card Set-up Corruption
  • Server won’t boot
  • Server registry configuration lost
  • Rebuild failure
  • Accidental Formatting or Re-initialization
  • Electronic Damage
  • Fire/Flood
  • Missing data 

In most situations Carolina Data Recovery can have your mission critical data back in as little as 4-6 hours and the remainder within 24-36 hours, depending upon the severity of hard drive/data damage. 

We offer risk-free RAID evaluations and we provide a no recovery, no charge guarantee with every case. Contact our customer service team today to get started.

Our Carolina Data Recovery recovery specialist are also well versed in recovering data from the following NAS manufacturers: LaCie, Buffalo TeraStation™, Cisco Linksys, SNAP server, QNAP, FreeNAS, Adaptec, Western Digital, etc.

Carolina Data Recovery Raid Data Recovery Expert

You have enough to worry about. Let us handle your precious data.

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