Taking work now — the first look is freeWhole sets posted in from anywhere in the UK, or handed in at ten drop-off pointsQuicker still, give us a ring:0800 6890668
RARRAID Array Data Recovery 0800 6890668 Price my job
RAR / Whatever it is saying now / Virtual disk failed or offline

Virtual disk failed · Offline · Logical drive failed · force online · recreate · double fault

The virtual disk has failed, or gone offline. Too many members gone. The data is still on them; the controller has stopped claiming it.

A virtual disk goes Failed on a PERC, Offline on MegaRAID, and a logical drive fails on a Smart Array, when the controller has lost more members than the level tolerates: two in RAID 5, three in RAID 6, both halves of a pair in RAID 10. The controller takes the volume offline and the data on the members is exactly where it was. What the controller offers next is the danger: force the last-failed drive online, which brings the volume up on whatever that drive now holds; delete and recreate the virtual disk, which on most controllers starts an initialisation; import a foreign configuration with a member missing. The bench images every member, including the one that failed first, which holds every stripe written before it dropped, and reassembles the set in software from the images with the stale stripes used only where a survivor cannot read. A set of two to four members is £500 + VAT upwards after the free look, fixed in writing; larger sets from £1,250 + VAT.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668

Power down. Label every slot before a drive comes out. Do not rebuild, do not force a drive online, do not import or clear a foreign configuration, do not initialise, and do not run chkdsk, fsck, zpool import -F or mdadm --create on the members. A rebuild reads every sector of every survivor and writes to the replacement; each of the commands writes to the drives. On images, all of them are reversible. On the originals, none of them is.

What is on the drives when the volume goes offline, and what each button does to it.

When the last tolerable member drops, the controller stops presenting the virtual disk. Nothing is written at that moment; the survivors hold the current data and the first-dropped member holds the data as it was when it dropped. If it dropped a week ago and a rebuild was running, the stripes the rebuild had reached were recomputed onto the replacement, and the rest are on the first-dropped drive still. If the drive that failed last was dropped for one slow read, it usually reads on a bench that waits. Between the two, nearly everything that was written is on some drive in the set.

Force online is the controller's offer to pretend the last-failed drive is fine. The volume comes up, but every sector that drive could not read comes back as an error to the file system, and if the drive forced online is the stale one, weeks-old data is served as current and the file system writes on top of it. Delete and recreate is the offer to start again: the metadata is rewritten with new geometry, and on a PERC, MegaRAID or Smart Array a background or fast initialisation follows, writing to the start and end of the virtual disk at least and often to all of it. Import, on a set with a member missing, brings up a degraded volume the controller will then want to rebuild.

The bench's version is the same arithmetic without the writes. Every member is imaged, the geometry read from the metadata that is still on the drives, the current members chosen by their event counts, and the set assembled in software from the images. The file system is repaired on a copy of the virtual volume, and the file list goes to you before any bill exists.

What it says, and what it means.

Describe yours to us →
What you see The usual reason Where that leaves you
Virtual disk Failed after a second drive droppedDouble faultEvery member imaged; assembled from images
Virtual disk Offline (MegaRAID)Too many members Unconfigured Bad or MissingAs above; do not force online
Logical drive failed (Smart Array)Too many physical drives failedAs above; do not press F2 at POST
Forced online; volume corruptStale or unreadable drive serving as currentStop writing; image everything
Deleted and recreated; volume emptyMetadata rewritten; initialisation may have runAssessed for what the initialise reached
Imported with a member missingDegraded volume brought upPower down before it rebuilds

From the parcel arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on the parcel and a number on every member the day it is opened, matched to the slot you wrote on it. Each member goes on the imager its interface needs, never on a controller, and its metadata is read before a sector is: the level, the order, the stripe size, the event counts that say which member is current and which dropped out first. An engineer settles what has happened to the set and how much of it can honestly be read back. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo rebuilds, no imports, no initialise
02

Every member imaged, including the one that failed first

Every drive in the set is imaged sector by sector, weak areas last, on hardware that controls every retry, with a map of what could not be read kept for each. Members with failed heads go to the clean bench first; that is the drive site's work and the same bench does it. The drive that dropped out first is imaged too, because it still holds every stripe written before it dropped, and a rebuild that stalled part-way never reached them.

Sector by sector, weak areas lastThe first-dropped member included
03

The geometry, from the metadata or from the parity

Where the controller's metadata survives on the members, the order, stripe size, parity rotation and data offset are read from it. Where it was cleared or overwritten, they are recovered from the data: parity across the members at the same offset should XOR to zero on a consistent stripe, which confirms the level and finds the stale member; where parity lands says the rotation; entropy at stripe edges and the file system's own anchors give the stripe size, the order and the start.

Metadata first, parity secondOrder, stripe, rotation, offset
04

Assembled in software, and repaired on the virtual volume

The set is put together from the images in software, with nothing written to any of them: the current members in, the stale member used only to fill holes a survivor could not give. The file system is checked and repaired on a copy of the virtual volume, VMFS and CSV volumes opened and the virtual machines' disks extracted, databases repaired where they need it. The originals are not touched again.

Nothing written to the imagesVirtual machines and databases opened
05

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job5–10 days at the bench

From the bench

  • Failed is not erased. The controller stopped presenting the volume; the members still hold it.
  • Do not force online. It serves a drive that could not answer as though it could, and if it is the stale drive, old data as new.
  • Do not delete and recreate. The recreate initialises. Image first; recreate afterwards, on a set you have already copied.
  • Keep the first-dropped drive. It is the only place the stripes the rebuild never reached still exist.

Tonight, in this order: stop writes and do not reboot repeatedly; press nothing the controller offers (F2, Import, Clear, Force online, Rebuild); photograph the screen and label the slots; export the log without changing state (PERC TTYLOG or storcli show all, an SSA diagnostic report, mdadm --examine on every member, zpool import with no flags, Get-VirtualDisk); power down and send every member, plus the controller if it was replaced or holds a key. The first-response page has the reasons.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · RAR-2026-0614JOB LOGGED ✓

A DL380 Gen9 whose RAID 5 logical drive failed when a third drive dropped during a rebuild, and an engineer's offer to force it online to 'see what's there'

The owner declined and sent all eight drives. The three dropped members were imaged, two after head swaps; the RIS metadata gave the geometry; parity across the images identified the stale stripes on the first-dropped drive and the set was assembled from the five survivors and the newest failed member, with the first-dropped drive's image filling what that member could not read. The logical drive's NTFS volume mounted and the firm's shares and SQL database were copied out.

99.99% of the volume recovered9 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Power down and label the slots
  • Send every member, including the first to fail
  • Export the log or photograph the screen
  • Tell us which drives dropped, in what order, and what was tried

What sets us back

  • Forcing the last-failed drive online
  • Deleting and recreating the virtual disk
  • Importing a foreign configuration with a member missing
  • Running chkdsk or fsck on a forced-online volume

Questions answered before you commit.

The virtual disk has failed. Is the data gone?

Usually not. Every member is imaged and the array reassembled in software from the images, with the controller's metadata giving the layout and the first-dropped drive's stripes filling what the last-dropped one cannot read.

Should I force the drive online?

No. It brings the volume up on a drive that could not answer, and if it is the stale drive, on weeks-old data. Image first.

The engineer wants to delete and recreate the virtual disk. Should I let him?

Not before the set has been imaged. The recreate initialises the members on most controllers.

What does it cost?

£500 + VAT upwards for a set of two to four members after the free look, fixed in writing; larger sets from £1,250 + VAT.

How long does it take?

5–10 days at the bench for a set of two to four; 10–15 days at the bench for larger sets.

Where this usually leads.

Virtual disk degraded →Rebuild failed: a second drive went during it →HP 1779: replacement drive(s) detected →RAID 6 →

Nothing gets worse while it is powered down.

Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. Until that list reaches you, leave the server off and the drives in their slots.

0800 6890668

Price my jobPacking and posting