Free RAID Data Recovery Tool

Disk Drill works best when used to recover data from individual hard drives that make up the RAID array. If you haven’t done so already, connect one of the RAID drives to your computer.

An external HDD dock makes this incredibly easy, especially if you have a laptop, but you can choose any approach you want. As long as your computer can recognize the hard drive and communicate with it, you will be able to begin the recovery process.

Next, you need to download Disk Drill and install it on your system drive (not the RAID drive you want to recover). Disk Drill can be downloaded for free and used to preview an unlimited number of files.

Once you have Disk Drill installed on your system, you can go ahead and launch it. You will be presented with a list of available storage devices, and the RAID drive should be among them. Select it and click Search for lost data. Wait for Disk Drill to complete the scan process.

Go through the scan results and look for your lost files. Disk Drill lets you preview files before you recover them, and it automatically estimates the recovery chances of each file. To recover selected files, simply click the Recover button and tell Disk Drill where you want to place the recovered files.

Now, repeat the previous steps for all remaining RAID drives until you’ve recovered all lost data.

When you rebuild a RAID array, you replace a failing part with a working one. In most cases, the failing part that needs to be replaced is a hard drive, but it can also be the RAID controller.

When replacing a RAID drive, you need to determine which drive is failing and then replace it with an identical one. The rebuild process itself will then depend on your RAID controller and configuration. When replacing the RAID controller itself, it’s paramount to swap it for the same exact make and model.

Sometimes, the simplest fixes are the most effective ones. You certainly wouldn’t be the first person in the world to spend an entire day troubleshooting a problematic RAID array only to discover that a single SATA or power cable has been loose the entire time. That’s why we recommend you check all cables early on.

The humble CHKDKS utility can verify the file system integrity of a volume and fix logical file system errors that prevent files from being accessible. Since this tool is one of core system utilities in Windows, it would be a shame not to give it a try.

All you need to do is enter the following command in Command Prompt: chkdsk /r

Modern hard drives support a technology called S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology). This technology can tell you a lot about the health of the drives that make up your RAID array, helping you spot a possible imminent drive failure.

Because Windows doesn’t come with an easy-to-use S.M.A.R.T. data tool, we recommend you a third-party software application like Disk Drill instead.

Data recovery software can be used to recover data from a failed RAID array that doesn’t function properly anymore. When choosing data recovery software, pay attention to its data recovery performance, usability, and price.

Disk Drill is a fantastic choice because it can recognize all commonly used Windows, macOS, and Linux file system and recover hundreds of file formats from them using multiple data recovery methods.

Most RAID failures can be fixed at home using readily available free and paid software tools like CHKDKS and Disk Drill—most but not all. Physical damage, for example, is often impossible to repair at home because hard disks should be opened only in a dust-free environment.

Fortunately, there are many professional RAID recovery services that can diagnose all kinds of RAID failures and fix them at a price that even regular home users can afford.