RAID 6 recovery

RAID 6 is an array of independent hard drives equipped with two independent and distributed checksum schemes. In general, RAID 6 is similar to RAID 5 differing in greater redundancy because two checksums are calculated and written to the array member disks. The first parity function (P) is the same as in the case of a RAID 5 (exclusive or or XOR) while the second function (Q) is much more complex (typically Reed-Solomon function).

Besides the parameters typical for a RAID 5 like the number of disks, disk order, block size, start offset, parity pattern for P function, RAID6 has a number of additional parameters:

  • parity pattern for the Q function,
  • rotation of parity functions,
  • which algorithm is used to calculate the Q parity.

You can read more about different types of RAID 6 here.

All these parameters can be determined automatically by ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery.

RAID6 recovery with ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery

  1. Connect all the drives from the RAID 6 to a PC running Windows.
  2. Download, install, and run ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery software.
  3. Select all the drives from RAID 6, click Other RAIDs –> Start RAID6. Although RAID6 survives the failure of two disks, RAID6 recovery with ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery requires all the disks to be present.
    4. RAID6 recovery in ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery
  4. Once the RAID6 parameters are recovered you need to choose the output options:
  • Run ReclaiMe to recover data. This option allows to access the files and folders stored on the RAID 6 array. If ReclaiMe File Recovery is already installed on the PC, it will run immediately. Otherwise, you will be suggested to download the software.
  • Save layout to the XML file. Using this option you can save the recovered parameters to the XML file which can then be uploaded to ReclaiMe File Recovery.
  • Create the array image file.
  • Write array to disk.
  • Use with other data recovery software. Provides the step-by-step instructions on how to transfer the recovered parameters to certain well-known data recovery tools.

You can find more information about preparatory actions and the recovery workflow here.

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