I know how RAID work and prevent data lost from disks failures. I want to know is possible way/how easy to recover data from unfunctioned remaining RAID disks due to RAID controller failure or whole system failure. Can I even simply attach one of the RAID 1 disk to the desktop system and read as simple as USB disk? I know getting data from the other RAID types won’t be that simple but is there a way without building the whole RAID system again. Thanks.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.deEnglish
    251·
    15 days ago

    I’d stay away from hardware RAID controllers. If they fail you’re gonna have a hard time. Learned that the hard way. With a software RAID you can do what you proposed. Just put the disk in another system and use it there.

    • psycotica0@lemmy.caEnglish
      75·
      15 days ago

      I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume what you said was simply confusing, but not wrong.

      So just to be clear if your raid array fails, and you’re using software raid, you can plug all of the disks into a new machine and use it there. But you can’t just take a single disk out of a raid 5 array, for example, and plug it in and use it as a normal USB hard drive that just had some of the files on it, or something. Even if you built the array using soft-raid.

      • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        11·
        15 days ago

        No, they mean that if the controller fails, you have to get a compatible controller, not just any controller. And that usually means getting another of the exact same controller. Hopefully they’re still available to buy somewhere. And hopefully it’s got a matching firmware version.

        But if you’re using mdraid? Yeah just slap those drives on any disk controller and bring it up in the OS, no problem.