RAID recovery may seem like a bit of an oxymoron to most of us. After all, isn't that expensive RAID system we almost blew the whole IT budget on, supposed to eliminate the risk of data loss?
Well, not exactly. RAID systems may be fault-tolerant, but they are not fault proof. While most commercial RAID implementations can tolerate the loss of a single hard drive, if multiple hard drives fail, or other serious problems occur, RAID data recovery may be necessary.
So what's the point of an expensive array if the need for RAID data recovery isn't eliminated?
The point is that even if the need for RAID recovery cannot be totally eliminated, depending on the RAID solution you use, it can be greatly reduced. Moreover, RAID can offer redundancy and significant performance gains over single, non-arrayed hard drives.
With hard drives becoming increasingly affordable, and RAID controllers -- many of which are now being built into motherboards -- becoming increasingly available, RAID is more accessible than ever.
With this new accessibility however, it is becoming more and more important that we understand exactly how RAID works, how RAID levels differ, and how RAID recovery is done.