Leicester Data Recovery – No.1 RAID 0 Data Recovery Specialists (25+ Years)

With over 25 years’ experience, Leicester Data Recovery recovers complex RAID 0 (striped) systems for home users, SMEs, large enterprises and public sector teams across Leicester, Coventry, the Midlands and Wales. We handle software and hardware RAID, NAS and rack servers, external multi-bay enclosures and direct-attach arrays.

Platforms & File Systems We Handle

• RAID types: RAID 0 (2–32 disks), JBOD/Big, striped NVMe pools, striped SSD/HDD hybrids.

• File systems: NTFS, ReFS, APFS/HFS+, ext3/ext4, XFS, Btrfs, ZFS (striped vdevs), VMFS, exFAT.

• Controllers / software: mdadm/LVM, Windows Dynamic Disk/Storage Spaces (striped), Broadcom/LSI MegaRAID, Adaptec/Microchip, Areca, Dell PERC, HPE Smart Array, Synology/QNAP mdadm, TrueNAS/ZoL.

• Encryption (lawful): BitLocker, FileVault, LUKS, VeraCrypt (requires valid keys/passwords).

15 Major NAS Brands in the UK (with representative popular models)

1. Synology – DS923+, DS423+, RS3621xs+, DS220+

2. QNAP – TS-453D, TS-673A, TVS-h874, TS-431K

3. Western Digital (WD) – My Cloud PR4100, EX2 Ultra, My Cloud Home Duo

4. Netgear ReadyNAS – RN424, RN524X, RR2304

5. Buffalo – TeraStation TS3420DN/TS3420RN, LinkStation LS220D

6. Seagate / LaCie – LaCie 2big/6big/12big, Seagate NAS Pro (legacy)

7. Asustor – AS5304T, Lockerstor 4/8 (AS6704T/AS6708T)

8. TerraMaster – F4-423, F2-423, T9-423

9. Thecus – N5810PRO, N7710-G (legacy)

10. ioSafe (Synology-based) – 218/1522+ derivatives

11. TrueNAS / iXsystems – TrueNAS Mini X, R/X-series

12. Drobo (legacy) – 5N/5N2, B810n

13. LenovoEMC / Iomega (legacy) – ix2/ix4/px4-300d

14. Zyxel – NAS326, NAS540

15. D-Link – DNS-320L, DNS-340L

(If your NAS isn’t listed, we still support it.)

15 Rack-Server Vendors Used for Striped Arrays (with example models)

1. Dell EMC – PowerEdge R740/R750/R760, R540, R640

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

3. Lenovo – ThinkSystem SR650/SR630, SR645

4. Supermicro – SuperServer 2029/6029/1029 families

5. Fujitsu – PRIMERGY RX2540/RX2520

6. Cisco – UCS C-Series C220/C240 M5–M7

7. Gigabyte Server – R272/R282 series

8. ASUS Server – RS520/RS720, ESC workstations

9. Tyan – Thunder/Transport 1U/2U ranges

10. QCT (Quanta) – D52BQ/D43K series

11. Inspur – NF5280M6/M7

12. Huawei – FusionServer Pro 2288H

13. IBM (legacy System x) – x3650/x3550 M4/M5

14. Intel (legacy platforms) – S2600-based racks

15. Apple (legacy) – Mac Pro with external striped DAS (ATTO/Areca HBAs)

Our Professional RAID 0 Recovery Workflow

1. Evidence-safe intake & per-disk imaging – Hardware imagers (PC-3000, Atola, DeepSpar) with head-maps, timeouts, power-cycle strategies; never operate on originals.

2. Geometry discovery – Infer disk order, stripe/block size, start offsets, interleave and any controller-specific alignment.

3. Virtual reconstruction – Rebuild the array in software from images; no live rebuilds on the originals.

4. File-system repair – Read-only mount and repair NTFS/ReFS/APFS/ext4/XFS/Btrfs/VMFS as needed; metadata and journal fixes.

5. Verification & hand-over – Hash checks, spot-open key files, structured delivery.

40 RAID 0 Errors We Recover From – With Technical Recovery Notes

RAID 0 has no parity or redundancy; any lost member affects stripes across the whole set. Recovery hinges on robust imaging and accurate geometry reconstruction.

Geometry / Layout / Controller

1. Unknown disk order – Fix: entropy and marker analysis across stripes, controller metadata parsing, serial/WWN correlation to derive order.

2. Unknown stripe size (block size) – Fix: heuristic trials (16–1024 KB) validated by file-system continuity and header alignment.

3. Unknown start offset – Fix: locate FS signatures (NTFS $MFT, APFS NXSB, XFS superblock) to anchor array offsets.

4. Controller changed stripe settings – Fix: compare old logs/artefacts; test candidate geometries; choose configuration yielding consistent FS structures.

5. Mixed alignment after migration – Fix: normalise offsets per member in virtual space; reassemble with correct alignment.

6. Member capacity mismatch (one disk smaller) – Fix: trim larger images to common size boundary; salvage up to shortest member.

7. HPA/DCO set on a member – Fix: detect hidden areas in images; remove HPA/DCO virtually; re-equalise capacities.

8. 512e vs 4Kn sector mismatch – Fix: normalise logical sector size during imaging; re-stripe with consistent geometry.

9. Write tearing during power loss – Fix: conservative imaging; file-system journal/log repair; reconstruct incomplete writes where possible.

10. Foreign config import scrambled order – Fix: ignore controller metadata; rebuild from raw images using parity-free pattern analysis (filename/structure anchors).

Member Disk Failures / Media Problems

11. One member fully dead – Fix: invasive imaging (head-map, adaptive timeouts, power cycles); rebuild virtual array with best-effort image; expect partial gaps in affected stripes.

12. Widespread bad sectors on a member – Fix: multi-pass soft→hard reads with skip/late-fill; reconstruct missing ranges via file-system knowledge (no parity in RAID 0).

13. HDD head degradation – Fix: selective head imaging; donor head stack if necessary; throttle duty cycles to stabilise reads.

14. SSD uncorrectable errors (NAND wear/retention) – Fix: ECC-aware reads, voltage/temperature tuning, soft-decoding to maximise salvage.

15. NVMe link instability – Fix: lock lanes/speeds; reset flows between passes; image direct to stable HBA.

16. USB-SATA bridge failure in multi-bay DAS – Fix: bypass bridge; attach members directly; if hardware-encrypted, repair/match same bridge before imaging.

17. SAS expander/backplane faults – Fix: move to direct HBA ports; image each member independently.

18. Firmware timeouts on specific HDD models – Fix: vendor-specific quiesce/feature disable; short read windows; staggered cool-downs.

Controller / Metadata / Human Factors

19. Controller NVRAM reset (lost array definition) – Fix: harvest on-disk metadata; compute geometry by signature testing; reconstruct virtually.

20. Accidental “create new array” over existing – Fix: prior layout often preserved beyond metadata; scan for historical FS anchors; rebuild previous mapping.

21. Quick initialise overwrote first/last MB – Fix: recreate partition table/boot areas from backups/mirrors; infer missing headers from FS context.

22. Controller swap between models – Fix: disregard new metadata; use raw images to recover original layout.

23. Cache module/BBU failure causing torn stripes – Fix: journal/log replay at FS level; where journals absent, validate by content structure (e.g., MFT/USN consistency).

24. Foreign import with incorrect block size – Fix: re-derive correct block; rebuild and validate against file-system alignment.

Handling / Operational Mistakes

25. Wrong disk order after maintenance – Fix: reconstruct via content markers and stripe boundary testing; re-map order without writes.

26. Removed/reinserted disks to different bays – Fix: derive order by serials/WWNs; confirm by FS header alignment.

27. Clone written over a different member – Fix: image all survivors; identify overwritten LBA ranges; salvage unaffected regions.

28. Mixing old clone with current member – Fix: choose coherent generation based on timestamps/SMART; discard stale member in virtual build.

29. OS reinstalled onto the array – Fix: deep scan for pre-existing FS structures and carve old volumes; mount virtually for export.

30. Disk formatted by mistake – Fix: image; reconstruct prior partition map; recover directory structures from metadata remnants.

File-System on Top of RAID 0

31. NTFS $MFT / $MFTMirr corruption – Fix: rebuild from mirror and $LogFile; recover orphaned records.

32. ReFS integrity stream damage – Fix: salvage block-cloned data; export intact objects; repair catalogues.

33. APFS container/volume tree corruption – Fix: parse checkpoints; rebuild B-trees; restore volume groups; recover user data.

34. HFS+ catalog/extent failures – Fix: rebuild from extents + journal; recover directory hierarchy.

35. ext4 superblock/journal loss – Fix: alternate superblocks; journal replay; inode table rebuild.

36. XFS log corruption – Fix: xlog replay; inode btree rebuild; directory leaf repair.

37. VMFS datastore header loss – Fix: reconstruct partition map; stitch extents; mount VMFS read-only and export VMs.

38. BitLocker/FileVault over RAID 0 (with keys) – Fix: decrypt from recovery key/password after imaging; then perform FS repairs.

39. iSCSI LUN header corruption on striped LUN – Fix: rebuild LUN headers/extent maps; mount guest FS for export.

40. ExFAT on striped removable DAS – Fix: rebuild VBR/BPB, allocation bitmap and directory table from remnants; repair large video containers.

What We Recover From (Hardware & Brands)

• Disk vendors frequently present in arrays: Seagate, Western Digital (WD), Toshiba, Samsung, HGST, Crucial/Micron, Kingston, SanDisk (WD), ADATA, Corsair, Fujitsu, Maxtor (legacy) and others.

• Appliances & HBAs: Dell EMC, HPE, Synology, QNAP, NetApp, WD, Seagate/LaCie, Buffalo, Drobo (legacy), Netgear, Lenovo, Intel, ASUS, Promise, IBM, Adaptec/Microchip, Areca, Thecus—among others.

Packaging & Intake

Please package drives securely in a padded envelope or small box, include your contact details inside, and post or drop off during business hours. For NAS/rack servers, contact us first—we’ll advise the safest imaging plan to maximise recovery and preserve evidence.

Why Leicester Data Recovery?

• 25+ years of RAID and multi-disk recoveries

• Per-disk hardware imaging and non-destructive virtual rebuilds

• Deep expertise in geometry inference, controller metadata analysis and file-system reconstruction

• Clear engineer-to-engineer communication and accelerated options for urgent cases

Contact Our RAID 0 Engineers – Free Diagnostics

Tell us what happened (brand/model, drive count, symptoms, any changes attempted). We’ll advise the safest next step immediately.