Norwich Data Recovery — No.1 RAID 5, RAID 6 & RAID 10 Recovery Specialists

25+ years of RAID expertise. We recover parity (RAID 5/6) and mirrored–striped (RAID 10) arrays for home users, SMEs, global enterprises and public-sector teams. Free diagnostics and clear options before any work begins. Best-value, engineering-led recoveries.

Note: Your text mentioned “RAID 1 engineers” in places. We’ve aligned the content to RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10, as per the heading.

Platforms & Environments We Recover

• Hardware & software RAID: Dell PERC, HPE SmartArray, LSI/Broadcom/Avago, Adaptec/Microchip, Areca, Intel RST/e, mdadm/LVM, Windows Dynamic Disks/Storage Spaces, ZFS/Btrfs, Apple/macOS.

• NAS & rack servers: Synology, QNAP, Netgear, WD, Buffalo, Asustor, TerraMaster, TrueNAS/iX, Promise, LaCie, Drobo*; Dell EMC, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro, Cisco, Fujitsu, etc.

• Filesystems: NTFS, ReFS, exFAT, FAT32, ext2/3/4, XFS, Btrfs, ZFS, APFS, HFS+.

• Media: 3.5″/2.5″ HDD, SATA/NVMe SSD (M.2/U.2/U.3/PCIe AIC), SAS, mixed 512e/4Kn.

Top 15 NAS / External RAID Brands in the UK & Popular Models

1. Synology — DS923+, DS1522+, DS224+, RS1221+/RS2421+

2. QNAP — TS-464/TS-453D, TVS-h674, TS-873A, TS-451D2

3. Netgear ReadyNAS — RN424/RN524X, 2304, 528X

4. Western Digital (WD) — My Cloud EX2 Ultra, PR4100, DL2100

5. Buffalo — TeraStation TS3410DN/5410DN, LinkStation LS220D

6. Asustor — AS6704T (Lockerstor 4), AS5304T (Nimbustor 4)

7. TerraMaster — F4-423, F5-422, T9-423

8. LaCie (Seagate) — 2big/6big/12big (often RAID 5/10 in DAS/NAS use)

9. TrueNAS / iXsystems — Mini X/X+, R-series

10. Drobo — 5N/5N2 (BeyondRAID redundancy modes; legacy)

11. Lenovo/Iomega — PX4-300D/PX6-300D (legacy)

12. Zyxel — NAS326, NAS542

13. Promise — VTrak/Pegasus R-series (DAS shared as NAS)

14. Seagate — Business Storage/BlackArmor (legacy)

15. OWC — ThunderBay 4/8 (host-managed RAID 5/10)

Top 15 Rack / Server Platforms with RAID 5/6/10 & Popular Models

1. Dell EMC PowerEdge — R650/R750/R760, R740xd

2. HPE ProLiant — DL360/DL380 Gen10/Gen11, ML350

3. Lenovo ThinkSystem — SR630/SR650, ST550

4. Supermicro — 1029/2029/6049, SuperStorage 6029/6049

5. Cisco UCS — C220/C240 M5/M6

6. Fujitsu PRIMERGY — RX2530/RX2540

7. Inspur — NF5280 M6/M7

8. Huawei — FusionServer Pro 2288/5288

9. QCT (Quanta) — D52B-1U/D52BQ-2U

10. ASUS Server — RS520/RS700 series

11. Tyan — Thunder/Transport 1U/2U

12. IBM System x (legacy) — x3550/x3650 M4/M5

13. Areca — ARC-1883/1886 controller builds

14. Adaptec by Microchip — SmartRAID 31xx/32xx

15. NetApp/Promise/LSI JBODs — behind HBAs with RAID 5/6/10 on host

Our Professional RAID Recovery Workflow

1. Intake & Free Diagnostic
   Capture controller/NAS metadata, disk order/slots, SMART and logs; preserve evidence if needed (chain-of-custody available).

2. Image Every Member (Never Work on Originals)
   Hardware imagers with per-head zoning, timeout budgeting, ECC controls; SSD/NVMe with read-retry/voltage stepping and thermal management. If a controller is dead (SSD), proceed to chip-off + FTL reconstruction.

3. Virtual Array Reconstruction
   Infer/confirm chunk size, member order, start offsets, parity rotation (RAID 5), dual parity P/Q (RAID 6), mirror pairing/striping (RAID 10). Build a virtual RAID over the cloned images only.

4. Filesystem Repair & Export
   Repair superblocks, journals and B-trees (e.g., NTFS $MFT/$LogFile, ReFS object table, APFS checkpoints/omap, ext4 backup superblocks, XFS log). Mount read-only and export validated data.

5. Verification & Delivery
   Per-file hash verification (MD5/SHA-256), sample testing, and secure hand-off (encrypted drive or secure transfer). Optional recovery report and IOCs for IR teams.

Overwrites: Truly overwritten blocks (e.g., long rebuilds or circular CCTV overwrites) cannot be “decrypted.” We focus on pre-overwrite regions, snapshots, journals and replicas.

Top 40 RAID 5/6/10 Failures — With Technical Recovery Approach

Format: Issue → Diagnosis → Lab Recovery (on cloned members/virtual array)

1. RAID-5: second disk fails before/ during rebuild → Controller logs/SMART → Clone all survivors; parity reconstruct missing stripes; validate against FS signatures; salvage partials if some stripes unrecoverable.

2. RAID-6: triple drive fault → Event timeline/epoch → Use P/Q Reed–Solomon on stripes with ≤2 erasures; carve data where parity math insufficient.

3. RAID-10: both disks in a mirror-leg failed → Heatmap/date codes → Build composite leg from best sectors across both; re-stripe with healthy legs.

4. Controller cache/BBU failure (write-back lost) → Dirty journal → Prefer member(s) with coherent journals; replay FS log on assembled LUN.

5. Write-hole/unclean shutdown (parity mismatch) → Parity scrub on images → Majority vote per-stripe; journal-first FS repair; exclude contaminated extents.

6. Wrong disk order inserted → Entropy/stripe signature solver → Brute-force order/rotation; choose geometry with highest FS consistency score.

7. Unknown chunk size after NVRAM reset → Heuristic detection via $MFT runs/APFS blocks → Rebuild with detected chunk; confirm by path count/hash spot checks.

8. Foreign import changed geometry → Compare on-disk metadata → Use earlier consistent epoch; avoid controller auto-initialise.

9. Stale metadata across members → Superblock epoch voting → Assemble with highest common event count; mount read-only.

10. Accidental initialise/recreate array → Metadata wiped → Recover backup superblocks (mdadm/LDM); reconstruct array map from survivors.

11. Expansion/migration failed mid-op → Mixed sizes/partial reshape → Rebuild pre-reshape set; carve/merge post-reshape extents only if consistent.

12. Hot-spare promoted onto failing disk → New errors post-rebuild → Image old+new; construct composite per-LBA “best-of”; ignore later poisoned writes.

13. Sector size mix (512e/4Kn) → Mount refuses → Normalise logical sector size in virtual model; adjust offsets; repair FS.

14. SAS backplane/cable CRC storms → Link errors in logs → Image via stable HBA/port; small-queue, small-block passes; reconstruct array.

15. SMR disks under parity load → Long GC stalls → Very long timeouts; multi-pass imaging; fill holes with parity & FS awareness.

16. Bad sectors peppered across multiple members → Error heatmap overlay → Targeted re-reads; use parity where possible; carve for non-parityable holes.

17. Firmware bug shifts LBA bands → Translator anomaly on one member → Build corrective translation layer; re-align stripes before FS repair.

18. Controller dead (PERC/LSI/Areca) → No init → Clone members; emulate layout in software; proceed with parity/mirror logic.

19. mdadm metadata mismatch (RAID-5/6) → Different event counters → Select consistent set; force-assemble virtually; ignore lower epoch images.

20. Windows Dynamic Disks (RAID-5) DB corrupt → LDM lost → Recover LDM backups at disk ends; if absent, infer from FS runlists.

21. Storage Spaces parity/mirror unhealthy → Slab map broken → Rebuild column/stripe map; export virtual disk RO; fix guest FS.

22. ZFS: missing vdev(s) in RAID-Z2/ mirror-striped → Pool won’t import → Import with rewind/readonly; scrub; export datasets or send/recv.

23. Btrfs RAID-5/6 metadata errors → Superblock triplets → Select best pair; tree-search for root; export subvolumes/snapshots.

24. ReFS integrity stream mismatches → Copy-on-write artefacts → Prefer blocks with valid checksums; export verified files only.

25. NTFS $MFT/$LogFile damage → Dirty shutdown → Replay $LogFile; rebuild MFT; relink orphans.

26. APFS container/omap divergence → Checkpoint walk → Choose latest coherent checkpoint; mount RO; copy data.

27. ext4 superblock/inode table loss → Use backup superblocks; fsck-like offline rebuild on image.

28. XFS journal corruption → Manual log replay; directory rebuild on virtual LUN.

29. iSCSI LUN on NAS corrupted → LUN sparse file damaged → Carve from underlying FS; reconstruct guest VMFS/NTFS/ext FS inside LUN.

30. VMFS datastore header loss on RAID-10 → ESXi can’t mount → Rebuild VMFS metadata from copies; recover VMDK chain; mount/export.

31. BitLocker/FileVault/LUKS atop RAID → Encrypted LUN → Full-image first; valid keys required; decrypt; export RO.

32. Parity drive marked “failed” but data path OK → False positive → Validate by raw reads; if consistent, use as data source in virtual array.

33. Rebuild started on wrong member → Overwrite good data → Roll back to pre-rebuild clones; exclude contaminated ranges; reconstruct from clean epoch.

34. Accidental disk reorder during hot-swap → Slot mapping lost → Recover by content signatures; rebuild correct order before FS repair.

35. NVMe member with controller death → No admin cmds → Chip-off + per-die dumps; FTL rebuild (BCH/LDPC, XOR, interleave); integrate image.

36. NVMe link flaps/thermal throttling → PCIe resets → Clamp link; active cooling; staged imaging with dwell periods.

37. Mixed TLER/ERC settings → Timeouts during parity → Image each drive independently; reconstruct virtually (no hardware rebuild).

38. Battery-less cache after power event → Corrupt last writes → Journal-first file-system restore; parity reconcile at stripe boundaries.

39. NAS OS upgrade changed md/LVM stack → Auto-repair attempted → Stop; image; re-assemble manually with pre-upgrade geometry.

40. Long-running parity scrub on failing disk → Accelerated decay → Halt on arrival; image weak member first with fast-first strategy; then parity rebuild on images.

Why Choose Norwich Data Recovery

• 25 years in business with thousands of successful RAID/NAS recoveries

• Multi-vendor expertise across controllers, NAS OSs, filesystems and HDD/SSD/NVMe media

• Advanced tooling & donor inventory to maximise recovery outcomes

• Free diagnostics with clear options before any paid work begins

• Optional priority turnaround (~48 hours) where device condition allows

Speak to an Engineer

Contact our Norwich RAID engineers today for a free diagnostic. We’ll stabilise your members, rebuild the array virtually, and recover your data with forensic-grade care.