Plymouth Data Recovery — No.1 NAS RAID 0/1/5/10 Recovery Specialists (25+ years)

Plymouth Data Recovery has completed RAID recoveries for home users, SMEs, global enterprises and public-sector teams. We recover software & hardware RAID, NAS, large NAS, rack servers and DAS across all mainstream vendors. Free diagnostics and clear options before any paid work begins.

Your draft mixed locations and RAID levels; we’ve aligned everything to Plymouth and covered RAID 0/1/5/10 comprehensively.

Platforms we recover

Hardware RAID / HBAs: Dell PERC, HPE Smart Array, LSI/Broadcom/Avago MegaRAID, Adaptec/Microchip, Areca, Intel RST/e, HighPoint, Promise, Areca.
Software RAID: Linux mdadm/LVM, Windows Dynamic Disks/Storage Spaces, Apple/macOS, ZFS/Btrfs.
File systems: NTFS, ReFS, exFAT, FAT32, APFS, HFS+, ext2/3/4, XFS, Btrfs, ZFS, VMFS (VMware), NFS/SMB LUNs.
Media: 3.5″/2.5″ HDD (SATA/SAS), SATA SSD, NVMe (M.2/U.2/U.3/AIC), hybrid pools, 512e/4Kn.

Top 15 NAS / external RAID brands in the UK & popular models

(Representative brands & models we most commonly see; if yours isn’t listed, we still support it.)

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 (DAS/NAS use), d2 Professional

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

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

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

12. Zyxel — NAS326, NAS542

13. Promise — Pegasus R-series (DAS), VTrak (rack NAS)

14. Seagate — Business Storage, BlackArmor (legacy)

15. OWC — ThunderBay 4/8 (host RAID 5/10 via SoftRAID)

Top 15 RAID rack-server platforms & common 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. QCT (Quanta) — D52B-1U/D52BQ-2U

8. Inspur — NF5280 M6/M7

9. Huawei — FusionServer Pro 2288/5288

10. ASUS Server — RS520/RS700 series

11. Gigabyte Server — R272-Z/R282-Z

12. Tyan — Thunder/Transport 1U/2U

13. Areca — ARC-1883/1886 controller builds

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

15. NetApp/Promise/LSI JBODs behind HBAs (host RAID 5/6/10)

Professional RAID recovery workflow (what we actually do)

1. Stabilise & image every member — Hardware imagers with per-head zoning, configurable timeouts/ECC, and thermal control (HDD); read-retry/voltage stepping (SSD/NVMe). Originals are never modified.

2. Virtual array reconstruction — Infer/confirm member order, start offsets, stripe size, parity rotation (RAID5), dual parity P/Q (RAID6 where present), mirror pairs + striping (RAID10).

3. Parity & geometry solving — Stripe-signature heuristics, entropy scoring, and majority-vote on contested stripes; Reed–Solomon math for dual-parity sets.

4. Filesystem/LUN repair on the virtual array — Repair NTFS/ReFS/APFS/HFS+/ext/XFS/Btrfs/ZFS/VMFS metadata; mount read-only and export.

5. Verification — Per-file hashing (MD5/SHA-256), open-sample testing, recovery report.

Overwrites/crypto: Truly overwritten blocks cannot be “undeleted”. Encrypted arrays require valid keys (BitLocker/FileVault/LUKS/SED). We maximise results via journals, snapshots, parity and structure-aware carving.

Top 100 RAID errors we recover — with technical process

Format: Issue → Diagnosis → Lab recovery (on cloned members & virtual arrays).

Disk-level & media (1–15)

1. Multiple member disk failures → SMART/logs, error heatmaps → Prioritise weakest for fast-first imaging; reconstruct stripes from parity/mirrors.

2. Head crash on one member → SA access/CRC → Donor HSA swap; per-head imaging; fill gaps via parity.

3. Peppered bad sectors across members → Heatmap overlay → Targeted re-reads; parity reconstruct or carve where parity insufficient.

4. Translator corruption (one drive 0-LBA) → Vendor fix → Image rest; repair translator; integrate recovered image.

5. Preamp failure → Bias anomalies → HSA swap; conservative imaging, then parity fill.

6. Motor seizure → Stiction test → Motor/chassis transplant; image → parity fill.

7. SMR stall under parity load → Long timeouts → Timeout budgeting; zone imaging; backfill via parity.

8. Helium leak drive instability → Thermally windowed passes → Aggregate best-of reads; parity supplement.

9. G-list explosion “slow issue” → Disable BG ops → Head-zoned imaging; parity fill.

10. Write caching lost on member → Incoherent last writes → Journal-first FS repair; majority vote per stripe.

11. Sector size mismatch (512e/4Kn) → Model headers → Normalise size in virtual geometry.

12. NVMe member read-reset loops → Clamp link (Gen3 x2/x1), cool → Short imaging bursts; merge.

13. SSD NAND wear/retention loss → Read-retry/voltage stepping → Majority vote page merges; parity fill.

14. SSD controller failure → Vendor loader; else chip-off + FTL → Integrate image into array.

15. Bridge power fault in NAS → Bypass to direct HBA, stable PSU → Image members, proceed.

Controller/HBA & cache (16–25)

16. RAID controller dead → No import → Clone members; emulate layout in software; reconstruct.

17. BBU/cache loss (write-back) → Dirty stripes → Majority vote at parity; journal-first FS repair.

18. Foreign config overwrite → NVRAM mismatch → Use on-disk metadata; assemble consistent epoch set.

19. Firmware bug changes LBA bands → Translator anomaly → Build corrective mapping before assemble.

20. Controller resets mid-write → Stripe split-brain → Stripe-level consensus + FS journaling reconciliation.

21. HBA link CRC storms → Cabling/backplane → New HBA/cables; small-queue, small-block imaging.

22. Controller adds hot-spare wrongly → Poisoned rebuild → Choose pre-event epoch; ignore contaminated writes.

23. Cache policy mis-set (RA/WA) → FS inconsistencies → Reassemble with most-consistent members; repair FS.

24. Metadata cached not flushed → Inconsistent superblocks → Epoch voting; pick coherent set.

25. Controller battery removed → Lost cache → Journal-first FS repair; parity reconcile.

Array management mistakes (26–40)

26. Wrong disk order inserted → Stripe signature solver → Brute-force order; choose highest FS coherence score.

27. Accidental reinitialise/recreate → Metadata wiped → Recover backup superblocks; infer geometry from content.

28. Expansion/reshape failed mid-op → Mixed epochs → Rebuild pre-reshape array; selectively add post-reshape if consistent.

29. Rebuild started on wrong member → Overwrote good data → Roll back to pre-rebuild clones; exclude poisoned ranges.

30. Hot-swap during I/O storm → Stripe skew → Majority vote; journal reconcile.

31. Foreign import to different controller → Geometry mismatch → Use on-disk superblocks; ignore controller metadata.

32. Accidental disk removal/reorder → Slots lost → Entropy/order solver; reassemble; verify with FS signatures.

33. Auto-repair by NAS OS → md/LVM altered → Halt; assemble manually from images; repair FS.

34. Wrong stripe size configured → Throughput oddities → Detect via FS runlists; rebuild with detected chunk.

35. Sector alignment off → Offset by bridge → Correct start offsets; reassemble.

36. Mix of 512e and 4Kn drives → Partial reads fail → Logical size normalisation in model.

37. RAID set imported degraded & used → Further divergence → Prefer earliest consistent snapshot across members.

38. Spare promoted from failing disk → Cascading errors → Composite “best-of” image per LBA; reassemble.

39. Parity scrub on failing disk → Accelerated decay → Stop scrub; image weakest first; parity fill later.

40. Controller Online Capacity Expansion loop → OCE metadata split → Select pre-OCE epoch; salvage post-OCE cautiously.

RAID-level specifics (41–55)

41. RAID-0 one disk lost → No redundancy → Image surviving; carve; partial only unless mirror/backup exists.

42. RAID-1 mirror divergence → Different versions → Choose most recent consistent member; mount RO; export.

43. RAID-5 dual failure → Second fault before/during rebuild → Clone all; parity reconstruct missing stripes; validate via FS.

44. RAID-10 mirror-leg dual failure → Both disks in one leg dead → Build composite from readable regions across both; re-stripe with healthy legs.

45. Parity rotation unknown → Left/Right, Sym/Asym → Detect via parity signature; confirm by FS scoring.

46. RAID-5 write-hole → Unclean shutdown → Reconcile at journals first; per-stripe majority vote.

47. RAID-10 offset mirrors → Controller quirk → Detect offset via headers/runs; correct model; export.

48. Nested RAID above RAID → 10 over 0+1 or vice-versa → Disassemble layers bottom-up; test each layer’s integrity.

49. Parity drive marked failed but fine → False positive → Validate by raw reads; include as data source.

50. Degraded performance caused timeouts → TLER/ERC mismatch → Separate member imaging; avoid controller rebuilds.

Filesystem/LUN on top of arrays (56–75)

51. VMFS datastore header loss → ESXi can’t mount → Rebuild VMFS metadata/copies; restore VMDK chain; export.

52. NTFS on RAID corrupted → $MFT/$LogFile → Replay log; rebuild $MFT; relink orphans.

53. ReFS integrity stream mismatches → CoW artefacts → Export checksum-valid objects; ignore poisoned blocks.

54. APFS on RAID (HBA Mac/Thunderbolt DAS) → Checkpoint walk; rebuild omap; mount Data RO.

55. XFS journal corruption → Manual log replay; dir rebuild.

56. ext4 superblock/inodes lost → Use backup superblocks; fsck-like repair on image.

57. Btrfs chunk/metadata errors → Choose best superblock pair; tree-search root; export snapshots.

58. ZFS pool missing vdev → Import with rewind/readonly; scrub; export datasets.

59. LVM PV/VG/LV map broken → Rebuild from on-disk metadata; restore LV; repair FS.

60. Windows Dynamic Disk (spanned/striped) → LDM DB loss → Recover from copies; infer from FS runs.

61. Storage Spaces parity/mirror → Slab map corrupt → Rebuild columns; export virtual disk RO.

62. BitLocker on RAID → Need recovery key → Image first; decrypt clone; export.

63. FileVault/LUKS layers → Keys required → Decrypt clone; export RO.

64. iSCSI LUN sparse file corrupted → NAS backing store → Carve LUN extents; rebuild guest FS.

65. CSVFS/Cluster Shared Volumes issues → Owner/fencing → Mount RO on image; extract VHDX.

66. Thin-provisioned LUN overrun → Holes mapped → Handle sparse correctly; rebuild file map.

67. Deduplication store damage → Hash index repair → Rehydrate from good chunks; verify hashes.

68. NAS snapshot DB broken → Btrfs/ZFS → Mount earlier snapshot epochs; export.

69. NFS export corrupt but LUN OK → Recover LUN file; ignore share layer; export guest.

70. SMB shadow copies hidden → Enumerate previous versions on image; export.

Network/NAS firmware & protocol quirks (76–85)

71. Synology mdadm event mismatch → Assemble with highest common event; ignore outliers.

72. QNAP migration after reset → Geometry changed → Use pre-reset md/LVM metadata; reassemble.

73. Drobo BeyondRAID metadata → Proprietary map → Reconstruct from blocks; emulate logical disk; recover FS.

74. Netgear ReadyNAS X-RAID → Auto-expand quirks → Choose pre-expand epoch; rebuild.

75. Zyxel/TerraMaster firmware update fail → md arrays altered → Image and manual assemble; fix FS.

76. NFS stale handles during incident → Incomplete writes → Use journal; exclude partials.

77. SMB opportunistic locking → In-flight loss → Recover temp/lock files; replay app logs.

78. AFP legacy shares (Mac) → Catalog sync issues → HFS+ repair; export.

79. rsync with --inplace on NAS → Overwrite original → Carve from snapshots/previous versions.

80. Hybrid RAID modes (SHR/SHR-2) → Non-uniform chunking → Use Synology chunk map; export.

Environment & human factors (86–95)

81. Overheating NAS → Thermal throttling → Staged imaging; priority passes.

82. Power surge → Multiple member faults → Electronics repair + imaging; parity fill.

83. Water ingress → Immediate neutralisation; short imaging window → Prioritise weak drives.

84. Chassis backplane damage → Intermittent link → Direct-attach to HBA; image.

85. Moved chassis while live → Vibration head slap → HSA swap; image; parity fill.

86. Forced filesystem checks on array → Secondary damage → Roll back to pre-repair images; rebuild logically.

87. User replaced wrong disk → Removed good member → Reconstruct with correct set via order solver.

88. Mixed firmware revisions in pool → Behaviour drift → Image all; choose consistent epoch.

89. Non-ECC RAM bit-flips during scrub → Parity poison → Majority vote; journal-first recovery.

90. Expired cache battery forced write-through → Latency errors → Imaging per member; reconstruct.

Edge/nested scenarios (96–100)

91. RAID over encrypted volumes → Layered crypto → Decrypt per-member first (keys required), then assemble.

92. Encrypted over RAID (BitLocker on array) → Assemble first, then decrypt clone.

93. vSAN object health issues → RDT/DOM metadata → Export components; reconstruct VMDKs; recover.

94. Ceph RGW/OSD loss → PG repair; export object data; rebuild FS where possible.

95. GlusterFS replica/stripe mismatch → Heal info → Prefer healthy bricks; reconstruct file trees.

96. Hybrid HDD+SSD tiering (FAST Cache) → Hot blocks missing → Merge SSD/HDD images; priority resolve on hot tier.

97. 4Kn drives mixed with 512e → Alignment errors → Normalise sector size in model.

98. Controller converts JBOD silently → Foreign import changed flags → Use raw images, ignore controller metadata.

99. Parity verified wrong after firmware → New parity calc → Roll back with images; reconstruct.

100. Controller “secure erase” on hot-spare → Data gone on that member → Maximise from other members; parity where possible.

Top 20 virtualisation / virtual-disk failure scenarios & recovery

1. VMFS header loss / DS won’t mount → Rebuild VMFS metadata; restore VMDK chain (CID/parentCID); export guest files.

2. VMDK snapshot chain broken → Missing delta links → Recreate descriptor; stitch deltas by parent CID/time; mount virtual disk.

3. Hyper-V VHDX differencing chain corrupt → Parent pointer bad → Fix headers; merge AVHDX hierarchy; export NTFS from guest.

4. CSVFS/Cluster Shared Volumes fencing → Ownership issues → Mount images RO; extract VHDX; repair guest FS.

5. Thin provisioned overfilled → Zeroed holes → Recover pre-overfill data from snapshots/older extents.

6. VMFS over RAID degraded → Dual fault during snapshot → Assemble pre-fault virtual array; mount older VM snapshots.

7. iSCSI LUN backing VMFS damaged → Carve LUN from NAS FS; mount VMFS; export VMs.

8. NFS datastore map loss → Export .lck & descriptor remnants → Rebuild inventory; attach VMs to recovered VMDKs.

9. vSAN object/component missing → Reconstruct from surviving components; recover namespace; export VMDKs.

10. Proxmox/ZFS zvol snapshot corruption → Roll ZFS snapshot back on image; zdb to locate blocks; export.

11. KVM qcow2 overlay lost → Rebase overlays; convert qcow2→raw if needed; mount guest FS.

12. Citrix/XenServer VHD chain issues → Fix footer/parent; coalesce chain; export NTFS/ext.

13. SR metadata corruption (Xen) → Recreate SR from LUN; attach VDI; export.

14. VM encryption (vSphere/BitLocker inside guest) → Need keys; decrypt either at host layer (if vSphere) or inside guest on clone.

15. Changed block tracking (CBT) bugs → Inconsistent backups → Prefer full images; use earlier snapshots.

16. Backup appliance dedup chain damage → Rehydrate by hash map; export full images; verify via checksum.

17. Array reshape during VM storage vMotion → Mixed epochs → Use pre-vMotion copies; rebuild.

18. Template golden image corrupted → Restore from dedup/previous versions; recompose pools.

19. Guest FS dirty after host incident → Journal replay on guest (on image); export.

20. EFI/boot issues in VM → Fix only on copy; mount disk; export data directly.

Why choose Plymouth Data Recovery

• 25 years of RAID/NAS/server recoveries across vendors, controllers and filesystems

• Forensic-first workflow (image originals, virtual reconstruction, RO exports)

• Advanced tooling & donor inventory (controllers, HBAs, heads, PCBs)

• Free diagnostics with clear recovery options before work begins

Talk to a RAID engineer

Plymouth Data Recovery — contact our RAID engineers today for a free diagnostic. We’ll stabilise the members, reconstruct the array virtually, and recover your data with forensic-grade care.