A degraded array limps on until a second drive fails, a rebuild goes wrong, or the controller dies and takes the configuration with it. We recover RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10 arrays from servers, workstations and NAS units across Surrey and west London.
Free diagnostic on every raid array job. One fixed quote in writing before any work begins.
No fix, no fee all jobs except electronic and mechanical failures, chip level work, DVR and Forensic jobs. Full pricing is on the free diagnostic page.
Every raid array job starts by matching the symptoms to the fault — these twelve cover almost everything that reaches the bench.
The defining RAID disaster — the array survives one loss, and the rebuild kills a second, older drive.
Rebuilds onto suspect drives half-complete and corrupt the parity they depended on.
The card dies taking the array definition with it — geometry is re-derived from the drives alone.
An old member rejoins with outdated data and the file system tears itself apart.
A new array created over the old one overwrites metadata — stop before initialisation finishes.
Power events take out two or three members at once; each drive is repaired and imaged individually.
Drives 'fail' in groups because the chassis wiring failed, not the disks — diagnosis first, panic never.
The RAID is fine but NTFS/ext4/VMFS on top is wrecked — parser-level reconstruction.
Deleted definitions are recoverable while the underlying blocks survive.
Dead controller batteries and sudden power loss desync parity from data — solved at image level.
A failed Dell PERC or HP Smart Array controller loses the array definition — the geometry is re-derived from the drives alone.
One member develops failed heads and starts clicking; it's repaired on the clean bench, then imaged like the rest of the set.
Every drive is imaged sector by sector before anything else — the originals are never worked on directly. From those images we determine the array's geometry (order, block size, rotation, offset), rebuild the volume virtually, and then extract the file system sitting on top. RAID 5 with a stale drive, RAID 6 double failures, nested RAID 10 sets and hardware controllers that have lost their configuration are all standard work for our lab.
Don't force drives back online, don't run a rebuild onto suspect disks, and don't let a generic IT fix-it try 'just one more thing' — partial rebuilds destroy the parity that recovery depends on. Power the system down, label the drives by bay, and talk to us. Business-critical array down? Say so when you call and we'll fast-track the diagnostic.
RAID recovery runs on one rule — image everything first — and the bench is built around it:
Every member drive is imaged simultaneously on dedicated hardware before any analysis — originals never join a rebuild again.
Works on the drive images to solve array geometry — member order, block size, rotation, offsets — and mount the virtual array.
Failed member drives get the full hard drive treatment (heads, firmware, PCB) so they can be imaged like the rest.
Entropy and parity analysis to verify the solved geometry, then file-system extraction from the reassembled volume.
NTFS, ReFS, ext4, XFS, BTRFS and VMFS interpreters for whatever sat on top of the array — including virtual machine disks.
All member images are taken through write-blockers; your original drives stay exactly as they arrived.
Hardware, software or somewhere in between — the geometry always lives on the drives, and that's all we need. A failed Dell PERC or HP Smart Array controller loses the array definition, which we re-derive from the members themselves; and where a Seagate or WD member has failed heads or firmware, it's repaired on the clean bench and imaged before the array is rebuilt.
Power the server or array down and remove the member drives, LABELLING each with its slot / bay position — drive order is essential to reconstruction. Send the labelled drives; the controller and chassis can stay with you. A photo of the original layout helps.
Most customers post or courier their media to us.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please remove the internal hard drive or SSD and send us just the drive — we don't provide an internal drive-removal service. We don't recover storage soldered to a motherboard (e.g. Apple Silicon Macs and some thin laptops) — only drives that can be removed and sent to us.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Mark the package for the attention of Guildford Data Recovery and we'll call you as soon as we diagnose your media.
Not sure what to send? Call 0800 689 0668 first or use the free online diagnostic.
Free diagnostic, fixed quote, no fix no fee — start now or call the freephone.