If you have a “Degraded” or “Critical” RAID please read below for instructions on how to proceed with getting your RAID back to an “Optimal” or “Online” state.

 

If your RAID is in a “Failed”, “Offline”, or “Dead” state please STOP and continue reading.  It is critical that you do not force a failed RAID 5 Array back online as this can cause irreversible damage leading to total loss of data.  The following link RAID Backup Procedures is an article that will describe how to backup and protect your data from irreparable stripe damage and will explain why forcing drives back online will cause loss of data.  If done properly you may be able to restore your array back to an optimal or online state with no loss of data but you must perform a sector by sector backup of all drives first.  If after following the procedures in the article you need our Data Recovery Services please call us at 800-625-6451.  Our 24/7 Help Line is here to help.

If your RAID 5 is in a “Critical” or “Degraded” state you should still be able to read and write to the array, however, it is imperative that your proceed with caution when removing and replacing the failed drive.  A critical or degraded state is usually caused by one failed drive in the array.  In most controllers there is a “blink” or “identify” drive option that will help you find the drives that are good and also to locate the failing hard drive.  If you are unsure how to identify the failed drive please contact your array controller manufacturer for support in finding the correct drive to replace.  If the wrong drive is removed from the array the controller state will go to failed, offline, or dead and you could cause data loss.  Replacing a failed drive in a RAID 5 array is common practice and if done properly will return your array to an “Optimal” or “Online” state.