Data Recovery Challenge: RAID vs Micro SD Card

RAID and Micro SD Cards are considered to be an exceedingly reliable form of data storage, yet they are prone to becoming corrupt. Due to corruption, the stored data becomes inaccessible to users. Data might also get inaccessible due to loss, deletion, or formatting. This brings in the requirement of recovering data from these data stores. Of course, this is because data forms one of the most valuable assets of an organization, business, or an individual!

However, data recovery from RAID systems and Micro SD cards isn’t that easy as it seems. It requires profound techniques, and technology to be able to recover correct and complete data from them. The challenge in the recovery of data from the two forms of ‘data stores’: RAID and Micro SD Card, might be somewhat different, but exists in both. The present article highlights the data recovery challenges associated with both types of data storage.

About Micro SD Cards

Of the size as small as 15.0×11.0×1.0 mm (0.591×0.433×0.039 in), i.e. of the size of a fingernail, Micro SD Cards are a kind of non-volatile memory cards. They are mostly used as the photo, audio, and video storage in portable devices such as smartphones, iPads, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), MP3 players, compact digital cameras, tablets, etc. They can also be used to store other types of multimedia data of enormous sizes. Though small in size, they possess a large capacity, so much so that they can store Giga Bytes of data depending on their data storage capacity.

As discussed above, data loss situations are not exceptional or rare with Micro SD Cards. The reason being, they are not immune to damages, and hence can become corrupt anytime either due to mishandling or other reasons such as logical, physical, or electronic damages caused to the card. The other possible causes of data loss are the intentional and unintentional deletion of data. Whatever be the cause, recovering data from a Micro SD card is quite challenging compared to data recovery from other data stores. Let’s understand why!

Micro SD Card Challenges

Fundamentally, the Secure Digital (SD) cards are solid state devices and do not consist of moving parts. It is made of flash memory, controller, and a file allocation table which is compatible with almost all existing operating system. The motherboard of flash drive controls the flow of electricity during read or write operations on flash memory (flash chips), while the controller runs the disk abstraction algorithms.

Let’s now look at the challenges faced in the Micro SD Card recovery process:

1. Firstly, the card case is physically damaged, but the controller and the flash chips are healthy. In this scenario, data can be recovered if the case of the card is successfully changed. However, its success depends on the size of the card the amount of brilliant work done on it at home.

2. Secondly, the controller is damaged, but the flash memory is still working the way it should. Here, the challenge is recovering data from flash that is not feasible at home and professional assistance might be required.

3. Lastly, the flash memory is damaged. Such a scenario requires skill and expertise; therefore, recovery is hardly possible until a professional SD Card recovery tool is used.

A Brief about RAID Systems

A ‘Redundant Array of Independent Drives’ (RAID) is an extensive system to offer higher data reliability and short response time as compared to other forms of data stores. The several RAID levels do so by the use of redundant hard drives and dividing or replicating data among them.

However, the use of redundant storage hard disks does not make a RAID appliance resistant to the issue. When one drive fails to function, data stored on the entire array may become inaccessible. For businesses, be it small, medium, or large, such a situation is devastating and necessitates RAID data recovery.

RAID Challenges

The first and foremost challenge to recovery is reinstating data on not just one but on all of the drives embedded in the RAID system. This is because each piece of data on each drive is necessary, and a recovery system that guarantees thorough recovery is essential. This requires full knowledge of the internal underlying technology as to how they are composed so that efficient recovery process can be devised.

Another challenge is that higher the level of RAID, the most complex is the process of recovering data from it. Recovering data from RAID 1 that utilizes ‘simple mirroring’ is difficult. But yet more challenging is recovering data from other standard and non-standard higher RAID levels that use other advanced technologies.

Conclusion

As discussed above, the challenges encountered while recovering RAID and Micro SD Card are different as the two are entirely dissimilar in construction. However, the common factor is that a correct approach is required to retrieve data from them. The best for RAID and Micro SD Card recovery is to get help from knowledgeable and experienced professionals. Stellar Data Recovery service centers spread globally is a one-stop point that offers comprehensive data recovery service for both RAID systems and Micro SD cards.