Case Study

Data Recovery from RAID 5 Server (SAS Drives) with Delayed Parity for a Fintech Company

Published On : Apr 08, 2026

Raid 10 Server (SAS Drives) Data Recovery

An Overview of the Case

A leading fintech company that provides unsecured business loans to MSMEs across the nation lost access to critical business data stored on its RAID 5 server. The data included transaction records, financial documents, legal files, and operational information. The problem began when their RAID 5 controller failed. The array consisted of eight SAS HDDs, each with a capacity of 1.8 terabyte (TB), of which two hard drives in the RAID array had failed simultaneously.

Client’s Story

The client encountered an Error ‘Server not booting' during a busy work day. Additionally, two drives were showing an amber light, indicating a hardware issue. The organization’s in-house team had failed to rebuild the RAID configuration. Concerned about losing data permanently, the client contacted Stellar Data Recovery, Ahmedabad service center for assistance.

Expert Advice: Do not attempt to rebuild the RAID configuration, as this can lead to permanent data loss.

Business Impact

For an MSME lender, data inaccessibility was a huge blow, especially at the onset of the financial year. This is the peak credit demand season for the small and medium sized businesses. In such a scenario, a server breakdown pushed the business into an operational paralysis. Most importantly, a portion of inaccessible data contained client details which could have led to legal consequences.

Server Specifications

Raid Configuration: RAID 5
No. of Drives: 8
Drive Capacity: 1.8 TB per drive
Media Interface: SAS
Media Condition: Non-tampered
Issue: ‘Server not booting’ Error and Amber Light
Operating System: Window

Challenges Faced

RAID 5 can tolerate failure of only one drive. In this case, two drives had failed, making the RAID array inaccessible. Moreover, both failed drives had physical damage, which increased the complexity of recovery.

Stellar Data Recovery’s Approach

Our recovery experts conducted a detailed inspection of all eight HDDs. We found that two drives were physically damaged, while the remaining drives were stable. Our team created clones of all the healthy drives to prevent any further damage during the recovery process.

Next, the two damaged drives were taken to our Class 100 clean room lab facility. Our engineers made the drives accessible, and created clones of these drives as well.

After securing clones of all eight drives, we connected them to our recovery station. Our team carefully analyzed the RAID parameters, including RAID flow, stripe size, and HP delayed parity configuration, using our RAID Data Recovery expertise.

Based on the identified configuration, we customized our data recovery software. This allowed us to virtually reconstruct the RAID 5 array again.

Outcome

Our experts successfully rebuilt the RAID structure and recovered two volumes from the array. We retrieved 100% of the required business-critical data and delivered it to the client with complete integrity.

Explore How We Recovered Data from Complex RAID Failure:

Business Requirement

The fintech company required urgent restoration of its RAID 5 server to recover critical financial and operational data. Ensuring data integrity, minimizing downtime, and preventing legal risks from client data loss were essential to maintain business continuity and customer trust.

Our Approach

Our data recovery experts conducted a thorough analysis of all drives, identifying damaged and healthy disks. Based on the inspection, we determined a customized data recovery approach. We then utilized our proprietary tools to virtually reconstruct the RAID 5 array and recover the data.

Result

We recovered 100% of the required data within the promised deadline. Before delivery, we had the data verified by the client and then delivered it securely.

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