RAID refers to an architecture whereby a large number of inexpensive disks are grouped together to form a single high storage system which offers superior performance in terms of capacity and reliability. Redundancy is a major factor in a RAID array which allows a form of data backup in event of failure. RAID 0, is however, not a valid type of RAID as it doesn't offer any level of redundancy and thus, if one drive fails, the data gets damaged. In such unfortunate cases, a regular backup can come to your rescue. But if you are not able to recover required data from a failed RAID 0 array, you still have a hope in data recovery services.

Understanding RAID 0 failure

A disk failure in RAID 0 can amount to severe data loss as it uses 'striping' technique to write data. Through stripping, data is broken into fragments while it gets written to the drive. The fragments are then written to their respective disks simultaneously on the same sector. During the read process, the data is read off the drive in parallel and so, this type of arrangement delivers huge bandwidth.

The disadvantage of using a RAID 0 array is that a single drive failure can destroy the entire architecture which is not fault tolerant in this case. Moreover, RAID 0 doesn't even have the provision of error checking.

Factors responsible for RAID 0 failure

A RAID 0 architecture can succumb to any of the following circumstances and in order to recover data, one has to completely rely on companies providing data recovery services. Let's have a look at some of the circumstances which can lead to RAID 0 failure

• RAID controller failure

• Natural disaster (fire or water damage)

• Volume reconstruction problem or RAID rebuilt error

• Power spikes and outages

• Virus attacks and many others

Preventive steps to be taken

If and when you witness a RAID 0 failure, do not attempt to rebuilt yourself as you may end up marring the chances of data recovery. As precautionary measures you can undertake the following steps:

• Turn off the system without any further delay

• Refrain from using any disk repair utility

• Do not run any volume repair utility

• Contact data recovery experts immediately

Stellar Data Recovery Inc., an Edison based company, is a leading name when it comes to acquiring safe, reliable and cost-effective data recovery New Jersey. RAID recovery, in case of physically damaged hard drives, is performed in Class 100 Clean Rooms by highly-trained RAID engineers. Stellar provides data recovery NJ for different RAID levels (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 2, RAID 6) and hard drive makes (SATA, IDE, EIDE, SCSI etc).