One of the common methods of storing data involves a RAID system. The term RAID is an acronym for redundant array of independent disks. It was first designed in 1987 and is now used to refer to any method of data storage that separates and duplicates information among a series of disk drives.
RAID technology improves the reliability of your data storage by creating a network of disk drives on which your data is stored. That way, if one drive fails, your data is still protected, since it is stored on another drive in the array. This redundancy is in place to protect you against loss of your information. The likelihood that each drive in your array will fail simultaneously is quite small. As an added benefit, RAID data systems increase the speed and availability of your data.
Despite the relative safety of RAID data storage, the system can sometimes fail due to a number of problems such as:
Computer viruses
Power surges
Physical damage, such as fire, water or impact damage
Controller failure: Most RAID systems have multiple drives but only one controller. If the controller goes, so does the whole array
Multiple drive failure: It doesn’t happen very often, but since the drives in your system all experience about the same amount of working stress, once one drive fails, the other or others may not be far behind
Loss of or incorrect configuration of the drives
Reformatting problems
Occasional failure of one or more of the drives, which can cause deterioration in the RAID array over time
When a RAID failure happens it can have a catastrophic effect on your business. It goes without saying that the best defence against RAID data failure is to regularly back up your system. The relative safety of a RAID array can give you a false sense of security in the safety of your data, making you feel that backups aren’t needed – but this lack of forethought can spell disaster.
If and when disaster strikes, you have two options. You can purchase RAID data recovery software and have it installed prior to experiencing any problems. These data recovery programs can access your drives, assess and possibly repair the potential problem, provided that you don’t have a physical problems with array.