Data Recovery After Two Drive Failure

This week we did something that we have never been successful to do. Recover data from a Server with RAID-5 after two drive crash. This customer has four drives in a RAID 5 configuration, but two drives had failed. With one failure, RAID systems are able to rebuild and recover from the failures but with two simultaneous failures, the chances seamed bleak. Fortunately, one of two we were able to repair offline and force it online just enough for us to go in and recover some important files before the server crashed again. We actually had to install a 2nd instance of the Operating system -- you cannot do this with OEM disks provided by the manufacturer, you'd need original Microsoft disks. The same week, we had another customer with also two hard drives crash on their server. Unfortunately even the motherboard and the RAID controller were damaged and the customer felt that cost of data recovery exceeded the cost of a new server and purchased a new server instead. Don't let this happen to your business. Invest in a good back-up system. We will be happy to recommend and install one for your business. Viewed 878 Times Date Blogged: 1/18/2009