Offline storage system – Avoid forcing an array or drive back on-line. There is usually a reason for a controller card to disable a hard drive or array. Forcing an array back on-line may expose the volume to file system corruption.

Rebuilding a failed hard drive – When rebuilding a single failed drive, it is import to allow the controller card to finish its process. If a second hard drive fails or goes off-line during this process, get professional data recovery services ASAP. During a rebuild, replacing a second failed drive will change the data on the other RAID hard drives.

Storage system architecture – Properly plan the storage configuration. We have seen many cases of multiple RAID configurations used on a single storage array. For example, three RAID 5 arrays (4 hard drives per array) are striped to a RAID 0 configuration and spanned. Always document your RAID storage configuration and try to Keep It Simple.

During a power outage – A RAID problem can escalate to the OEM technical support level.

Physical Hard Disk Failure is easily resolved, if the failure is redundant. If a single hard drive in RAID 5 fails, then replacing the failed hard drive fixes the problem. If you were working in a degraded RAID 5 state, and a second hard drive fails, then your RAID data recovery will get very complicated and costly.

Logical failures are caused by electrical anomalies where the file allocation tables, MFT (master file table) or MAC resource information get corrupted. This occurs when the hard drive heads do not write properly. Electrical anomalies or static electricity discharge can cause this failure.

Firmware Corruption.

Electronic Failure.

Mechanical Failure.

Firmware Corruption, Electronic or Mechanical Failure can NEVER be fixed by data recovery software. These failures are identified when the hard drive does not spin up, is not recognized by the computer BIOS or produces a clicking or grinding hard drive noise.

System hangs or responds slowly.

The storage media becomes busy.

Error messages are displayed when files are opened.

Do not virus clean an infected RAID system unless you know it’s safe to perform this step.

Accidentally deleted files can be recovered from the Recycle Bin or Trash for Mac computer systems. Data recovery software can work here… BUT Remember… If you install or restore to the location that was affected, you will loose potential files that could not be originally recovered. This means your files could be lost permanently. Unless you can reverse all your attempts to do perform a data recovery, then you are better off having a professional do your data recovery.

Data from Accidentally Reformatted hard drives can be recovered if performed properly. It is critical that write protected hardware is used to ensure the source hard drive is never compromised or overwritten. Data recovery software can be used only in many situations. If you are using RAID, then Data Recovery Software is not advisable.

Boot Disk Failure can occur for several reasons. Many problems are due to BIOS setting issues, faulty cabling or Hard drive physical failures.

Check if your computer BIOS settings are correct. If your hard drive is turned off in the BIOS, then the computer system will fail to boot up and give you a boot disk failure error.

Check cabling from motherboard to hard drive. Verify if the power supply to the hard drive is powered. Sometimes reseating the hard drive connections will fix your computer failure.

Hard drive physical failure will result in a boot disk failure error as well. In this case, your best option is to send RestoreMyData your failed hard drive for evaluation. If your data is not important, then all that is needed is to purchase a replacement hard drive and re-install your operating system and system programs.

Logical hard drive failures can also result in a Boot Disk Failure message when a partition is offline, corrupted or deleted. Many computer users fail to recognize the exact cause of the Boot Disk Failure, although many are easily solved.