Dell EqualLogic Failed Disk: How To Fix & Recover Data

Businesses worldwide trust their data to RAID arrays. Dell EqualLogic is a popular storage technology that works for different industries, adapting its offers to small and medium businesses, meaning they are available for most budgets. But, they are not fail-proof, and you can face Dell EqualLogic failed disk.

Although you could try a few fixing solutions on your own, handling your business data is serious and your best action would be to contact a specialized Dell EqualLogic Raid recovery.

Common causes of RAID disks failure:

• Missing Partition
• Frequent Read/ Write Errors
• Power Surge
• Malware
• Data Corruption
• Wrong Replacement Drive
• Application Upgrade
• System Setting or Registry Error

Handling Dell EqualLogic failed disk

When a disk in the EqualLogic RAID array fails, your next step will depend on the RAID behavior and if you have or don’t have a spare disk.

Important: Don’t let your array stay long periods without one or more spare disks. And always backup your data. These two simple actions can prevent data loss.

If there’s a spare disk available. The data from the failed disk automatically goes to the spare. During the reconstruction process, you’ll see the RAID set where the failed disk belongs temporarily degraded.

If a spare disk is not available, but the RAID set is intact. The RAID set that contains the failed disk is degraded. For RAID 5, performance is diminished.

If a spare disk is not available, and the RAID set is degraded. The member is set offline and data may be lost and must be recovered from a backup or through a data recovery service.

Fix 1. Replace the failed disk.

If you have a spare disk that supplants the failed one, you can remove the failed disk and install a new one, that will automatically become a spare disk. And you’ll not experience any downtime or data loss.

However, if you didn’t have a spare disk and the RAID set was degraded, as you install the new disk data is automatically reconstructed on it and performance returns to normal after reconstruction. 

Fix 2. Using a backup

If you didn’t have a spare disk and you experienced data loss due to disk failure, you can use backups to restore your work after installing the new disk.

Once you remove the failed member, the array will be automatically reset to its original condition. This will erase all the data and group configuration information from the array.

Then, as soon as you finish setting up the array configuration, use your backup to rebuild your array.

Fix 3. Contact data recovery service

Without a spare disk or backup, your only hope to restore the EqualLogic failed disk data is by requesting the help of a data recovery service provider.

SalvageData experts have years of experience with RAID recovery and can restore all the vital information and files stored on your RAID.

You can save more than data, you can save your business when requesting our technician’s help. We follow high standards security protocols and have all the certificates to restore sensitive data.

To minimize your downtime, we provide emergency recovery. Contact us 24/7 for a personalized recovery service.

What to do when the spare disk does not automatically replace a failed disk?

Depending on your RAID type, you’ll need more than one spare disk available to replace a failed disk and avoid data loss. For example, RAID 50 works with two health disks writing the data simultaneously, therefore, only one spare disk won’t supplant the failed one.

What means Not Approve disk status? 

A non-approved or unsupported version disk means your Dell EqualLogic disk drive is running an unsupported firmware version. You can remove and replace it with a new one without causing a problem with your data.

To prevent it, you should always replace failed disks with one that has the same specs as your other drivers. The RAID array size will depend on the smaller disk, so keep all the disks the same size. And disks with different characteristics can cause errors or appear as a Not Approved disk status.

TL; DR: Dell EqualLogic failed disk can cost your business integrity, cause downtime, and damage your entire storage system. Prevent it by keeping regular backups and always having one or more spare disks at the array. Your only solution, if you don’t have those two things, is to request data recovery service assistance.