One failed disk is all it takes to drop a RAID 0 — but dropped is not destroyed. Given the complete set of members, we image each one, work out the stripe geometry and put your files back together in software.
Every RAID case starts with a free diagnostic. From £500 + VAT priced per disk, one written quote before work begins, and logical recoveries carry no fix, no fee.
Every file on a RAID 0 is scattered across all the disks, so the volume is only ever as healthy as its weakest member.
Each file exists as fragments spread over every disk, so one dead drive takes the entire volume with it. Recovery means imaging the whole set and reassembling the scatter.
There is no parity and no second copy — that was the trade for speed. The array cannot regenerate a missing piece of itself, which is why disciplined imaging is the only safe route back.
When the controller, bridge or enclosure fails, the members are often fine. The task becomes deriving the stripe geometry so the volume can be reassembled from images.
Re-creating the array or a firmware hiccup can erase the block size, order and offset that define the stripe. Reassembled with the wrong numbers, data is noise — we derive the true values from the images themselves.
A patch of bad sectors on one member damages fragments of many files at once. Hardware imagers harvest everything readable around the defects to keep losses to a minimum.
Running initialise, format or 'repair' on a broken stripe destroys the on-disk metadata recovery depends on. If it's already been done, stop there and power off.
With no redundancy to lean on, every member matters equally. Each disk is cloned to a stable image on hardware imagers — any physically failing drive going through the clean room first — and the stripe's disk order, block size and offset are then derived from the images. The data is re-striped in software, the file system rebuilt, and your files extracted. At no point is anything written to the original disks.
A striped array cannot repair itself, and a failing member deteriorates a little further with each spin-up. The productive move is the boring one: shut the system down, leave the initialise and repair tools alone — they overwrite the very metadata that defines the stripe — and get the full set of disks to us unaltered.
Editing workstations, gaming rigs, small servers and performance NAS boxes — striped sets reach us from homes and businesses across Swansea, Llanelli, Bridgend and the wider region. Courier or post every member to our Bristol location; our RAID recovery and NAS recovery pages cover the wider service, with pricing on the data recovery cost page.
We'll image the set, derive the geometry and reassemble your files — free diagnostic and a fixed written quote first.
Most customers post or courier their media to us.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please remove the internal hard drive or SSD and send us just the drive — we don't provide an internal drive-removal service. We don't recover storage soldered to a motherboard (e.g. Apple Silicon Macs and some thin laptops) — only drives that can be removed and sent to us.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Mark the package for the attention of Bristol Data Recovery and we'll call you as soon as we diagnose your media.
Not sure what to send? Call 0800 689 0668 first or use the free online diagnostic.