At Cardiff Data Recovery, we are Wales’s No.1 provider of expert raid 5 data recovery solutions. With over 25 years of experience in complex RAID diagnostics and recovery, our team is regularly trusted to recover critical data from failed servers across enterprise and manufacturing environments.
In this case, we were contacted after an HP RAID 5 file server supporting 100 staff and housing 2TB of business-critical data failed to reboot following a RAID rebuild. After further intervention by the client and their IT maintenance provider, the RAID suffered further degradation. Our team was called in to carry out professional data recovery from all 10 drives in the array.
🖥️ Case Overview
- Client System: HP Server with 8 primary disks in a RAID 5 array, plus 2 hot spares
- RAID Configuration: RAID 5 with automated hot spare
- Operating Environment: Windows Server (used as a shared file server)
- Data Volume: 2TB of business data accessed by 100 factory staff
- Initial Fault: System froze and would not reboot. One disk was shown as failed.
- Client Action: Manual rebuild with hot spare initiated from RAID BIOS
- Result: Rebuild completed but server would not boot; client escalated to IT provider
- Further Damage: 2 additional disks degraded during handling, leaving 3 failed drives total
- Outcome: RAID 5 inaccessible; server would no longer boot; data unavailable to business
🛠️ Step-by-Step RAID 5 Recovery Process
1. Drive Receipt, Labelling & Imaging
- All 10 drives were received, securely labelled, and entered into our lab chain of custody
- Each drive was write-blocked and imaged using forensic hardware tools (PC-3000, Deepspar Imager)
- 3 drives showed serious degradation: SMART errors, slow-read heads, and unreadable sectors
- Imaging of unstable drives was prioritised using adaptive ECC read techniques and head-mapping logic
No work was carried out on original disks. All recovery was performed on cloned images to avoid data loss.
2. RAID Configuration Analysis
To reconstruct the original RAID 5 array, we identified:
- Disk order in the array
- Block size / stripe size (typically 64 KB or 128 KB)
- Parity rotation pattern (left-symmetric, left-asymmetric, etc.)
- Offset values and logical volume structure
- Sector misalignment caused by failed rebuild
This was done using hex-level inspection of volume headers, parity comparison tools, and RAID emulation software.
3. Virtual RAID Reconstruction
Once configuration details were confirmed:
- A virtual RAID 5 array was created using the 7 best disk images
- A disk suspected of faulty rebuild data was excluded to test alternative array states
- Parity blocks were reconstructed and corrected using redundancy logic
- The file system (NTFS) was successfully mounted within the virtual RAID
4. Data Extraction and File System Repair
After achieving stable access:
- File system integrity was validated — folders, file metadata, and permissions restored
- Damaged areas were repaired using journal rollback and file carving techniques
- 100% of high-priority business files were recovered, including:
- Shared documents
- Project folders
- HR records and accounting data
- Application files and configuration archives
Recovered files were transferred to a new enterprise-grade external USB-C storage device, fully verified and structured.
💼 Supported Systems & RAID Platforms
We support RAID 5 recovery on:
- HP ProLiant DL & ML Series Servers
- HP Smart Array RAID Controllers (P400, P420, P800, etc.)
- Dell, IBM, Lenovo, and custom-built rackmount servers
- Windows Server 2008/2012/2016/2019/2022
- Linux/UNIX-based file servers (EXT3/EXT4, XFS, ZFS)
- Virtualised environments (VMware, Hyper-V)
- Software and hardware RAID implementations
🧩 Why Choose Cardiff Data Recovery?
- 25+ Years of RAID and Server Data Recovery Expertise
- Specialists in Failed RAID Rebuilds and Multi-Disk Failures
- Advanced Tools for Parity Rebuilds and Disk Emulator Testing
- Emergency 48-Hour RAID Data Recovery Service Available
- Free Diagnostics and Clear Recovery Reporting
- Full Confidentiality for Business and Compliance Needs
We are the trusted recovery partner for manufacturing businesses, IT departments, and enterprise clients across the UK.
📞 Contact Cardiff Data Recovery Today
If your RAID 5 server has failed to rebuild, shows degraded disks, or is no longer accessible, do not run further rebuilds or formatting attempts — they can permanently overwrite recoverable data.
Contact Cardiff Data Recovery now for a free diagnostics, and let our RAID experts recover your data safely, securely, and with the precision required in business-critical environments.
We are your trusted professionals for raid 5 data recovery – no matter how complex the failure.