Lab Operational Since: 17 Years, 6 Months, 11 Days·Facility Status: Fully Operational & Accepting New Cases·
Lab Operational Since: 17 Years, 6 Months, 11 Days·Facility Status: Fully Operational & Accepting New Cases·
Lab Operational Since: 17 Years, 6 Months, 11 Days·Facility Status: Fully Operational & Accepting New Cases·
SAS Drive Recovery
Since 2008 | No Data, No Fee | Nationwide Mail-In | $100–$2,000
SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) drives are the backbone of enterprise servers and SAN arrays. They use a different command set, physical connector, and firmware architecture than consumer SATA drives. Our Austin lab images SAS drives through dedicated SAS host bus adapters and PC-3000 at their native 12Gbps interface speed, preserving access to non-standard sector sizes and SAS-specific diagnostic channels. No data recovered = no charge.
SAS and SATA are physically and logically incompatible interfaces. A SAS drive cannot be plugged into a SATA port. Recovery labs that lack SAS interface hardware cannot image these drives at all, or must use adapter workarounds that bypass the SCSI command layer and lose access to critical diagnostic data.
SCSI vs. ATA Command Set
SAS drives respond to SCSI commands (READ(10), READ(16), MODE SENSE, LOG SENSE), while SATA drives use ATA commands (READ DMA, IDENTIFY DEVICE). Firmware recovery procedures, SMART data extraction, and defect list access all differ between the two protocols. PC-3000 includes dedicated SAS modules that speak native SCSI.
Dual-Port 12Gbps Interface
Enterprise SAS drives have two physical ports for redundant pathing in server backplanes. The 12Gbps SAS-3 interface doubles the throughput of 6Gbps SATA III. This dual-port design enables multipath I/O in production, but also means recovery hardware must support SAS signaling to establish a connection.
Non-Standard Sector Sizes
Many RAID controllers format SAS drives with 520-byte or 528-byte sectors instead of the standard 512 bytes. The extra 8 or 16 bytes per sector store controller checksums, Data Integrity Fields (DIF), or block guard tags. Imaging must capture these metadata bytes for accurate array reconstruction.
SAS-Specific Failure Modes03/10
Enterprise SAS Failure Modes
SAS drives fail in ways consumer SATA drives do not. Their enterprise firmware, dual-port interface, and role inside multi-drive arrays create failure patterns that require specialized diagnosis.
Firmware Zone Corruption After Hot-Swap During Rebuild
When a SAS drive is hot-swapped into an active array during a RAID rebuild, the controller writes new RAID metadata and parity data simultaneously. If power is interrupted or the backplane connection is marginal, the drive's firmware zone map can become inconsistent: the translator modules reference sectors that were partially overwritten during the rebuild. PC-3000 accesses the drive's firmware area through SAS-native vendor commands to rebuild the corrupted translator entries and restore sector addressing.
SAS Expander Backplane Failures
Enterprise servers use SAS expander chips (LSI/Broadcom SAS3x36, SAS3x28) on the backplane to multiplex 24 or more drives through a single SAS HBA connection. When an expander fails or loses its routing table, the server reports all drives behind that expander as missing. The drives themselves are healthy. We remove the drives from the server chassis and connect them directly to our own SAS HBAs, bypassing the failed expander entirely. No mechanical work required; only reimaging and array reconstruction.
Dual-Port Negotiation Lockout
SAS drives negotiate PHY link speed on both ports during power-on. A backplane signal integrity issue (bent pins, oxidized connectors, damaged interposer board) can cause the drive to enter a state where neither port completes negotiation. The drive appears dead to the server, but the media and electronics are intact. We clear the PHY training state by power-cycling the drive while connected to a known-good SAS HBA, allowing clean link negotiation on a single port.
10K/15K RPM Head Failures
Enterprise SAS drives spin at 10,000 or 15,000 RPM, compared to 5,400 or 7,200 RPM for consumer drives. The higher rotational speed means heads fly closer to the platter surface on a thinner air bearing. Head failures in 15K drives tend to be more catastrophic: the shorter fly height leaves less margin before a head strike. We perform head swaps on SAS drives using the same 0.02µm ULPA-filtered clean bench used for all mechanical recovery, with donor heads matched by model, firmware revision, and head map configuration.
SMART Threshold Exceeded / Grown Defect List Overflow
SAS drives maintain a Grown Defect List (GDList) in SCSI format rather than the SMART attribute table used by SATA drives. When the GDList exceeds the manufacturer's threshold, the RAID controller marks the drive as predictive-fail and takes it offline. The drive often still contains readable data. We image the drive at sector level through our SAS HBA, working around bad sectors using PC-3000's adaptive read algorithms with configurable retry counts and timeout thresholds.
Common SAS Drive Models04/10
SAS Drive Models We Recover
We recover data from all major SAS drive families deployed in enterprise servers and storage arrays. The table below lists the models we see most frequently.
Firmware hang after power loss during write cache flush
Seagate
Exos X16 / X18 (SAS variant)
12Gbps SAS-3, 7200 RPM
Head degradation under continuous nearline workload
SAS drives also appear in external JBOD enclosures (Dell MD1420, HP D3700, Lenovo D2212) and storage appliances (Dell EMC Unity, NetApp FAS). Recovery procedure is the same regardless of the host chassis.
Recovery Process for SAS Drives05/10
How We Recover SAS Drives
SAS recovery follows the same imaging-first discipline as every other drive type, with SAS-specific interface and firmware handling.
Evaluation and interface identification.
We confirm the drive's SAS generation (SAS-2 at 6Gbps or SAS-3 at 12Gbps), check for non-standard sector sizes, and inspect the PCB for visible damage (burned TVS diodes, cracked preamp ICs). If the drive was pulled from a RAID array, we document its position and any visible RAID controller metadata stickers.
Physical repair (if needed).
Head swaps and PCB-level component repair on SAS drives follow the same procedures used for SATA drives: work is performed on our 0.02µm ULPA-filtered clean bench. Donor heads are matched by model number, firmware revision, head count, and head map. SAS PCB repair often involves TVS diode replacement or preamp IC soldering.
Sector-level imaging via SAS HBA.
The drive is connected to our imaging workstation through a SAS HBA (not a SATA port, not an adapter). PC-3000 reads every addressable sector using SCSI READ commands with configurable retry counts and timeout values. For drives with 520-byte or 528-byte sectors, we capture the full sector including the controller metadata bytes.
Firmware repair (if needed).
SAS drive firmware uses SCSI Mode Pages and vendor-specific diagnostic pages rather than the ATA register interface used by SATA drives. PC-3000's SAS firmware modules access these vendor pages to repair corrupted translator maps, rebuild defect tables, and restore sector addressing after firmware zone corruption.
Array reconstruction (for RAID members).
If the SAS drive was part of a RAID array, we use PC-3000 RAID Edition to reconstruct the array from the member images. This includes detecting stripe size, parity rotation, member ordering, and sector size translation (converting 520-byte sectors back to 512-byte for filesystem parsing).
Data extraction and verification.
Recovered data is extracted to a target drive. File integrity is verified by opening representative files from each directory structure. For VMware environments, we deliver extracted .vmdk files that can be directly mounted. For raw filesystem recoveries, we deliver the full directory tree.
Server Platforms06/10
Server Platforms Using SAS Drives
SAS drives are standard in rack-mount and blade servers from every major OEM. The RAID controller and backplane vary by vendor, but the SAS drives themselves follow the same T10 SPC/SBC standards.
Dell PowerEdge
PERC H730, H740P, and H755N controllers manage SAS arrays in R640, R740, R750, and PowerEdge T-series towers. PERC controllers write SNIA-standard DDF metadata to each member drive. We reconstruct Dell server arrays offline from imaged members without requiring the original PERC card.
HP ProLiant
Smart Array P408i-a, P816i-a, and E208i controllers manage SAS arrays in DL360, DL380, and DL580 Gen10/Gen11 servers. Smart Array metadata differs from PERC in structure but contains the same critical information: stripe size, parity rotation, and member disk order.
Lenovo ThinkSystem
ThinkSystem SR630, SR650, and ST550 servers use Broadcom MegaRAID 9350 and 9560 controllers (LSI-based). These controllers use the same metadata format as standalone LSI MegaRAID cards, which PC-3000 RAID Edition supports natively.
RAID Controller Cross-Reference07/10
SAS RAID Controllers and Recovery
The RAID controller determines how data is striped, mirrored, and checksummed across SAS member drives. When the controller fails or its configuration database becomes corrupted, the data is intact on the member drives but inaccessible through normal means.
Controller
OEM Usage
Recovery Approach
Dell PERC H730 / H740P
PowerEdge R640, R740, R940
Image members via SAS HBA, parse PERC DDF metadata, reconstruct array in PC-3000 RAID Edition
HP Smart Array P408i-a
ProLiant DL360, DL380 Gen10
Image members via SAS HBA, parse Smart Array metadata for stripe parameters and member ordering
LSI MegaRAID 9271-8i
Supermicro, custom builds
LSI DDF metadata parsed natively by PC-3000 RAID Edition; sector size translation for 520-byte formats
Broadcom MegaRAID 9460-16i
Lenovo ThinkSystem, Dell (OEM)
Same LSI metadata lineage as 9271 series; supports SAS-3 12Gbps and mixed SAS/SATA configurations
Adaptec SmartRAID 3154-8i
Workstations, mid-range servers
Adaptec metadata format differs from LSI; manual parameter detection may be needed for older firmware versions
SAS Donor Matching and Imaging Hardware
Enterprise SAS recovery succeeds or fails on hardware-level details that consumer tools do not address: preamplifier impedance, PHY negotiation behavior, and the way the read channel decodes microvolt-scale signals from the platter. The procedures below describe how our Austin lab handles those details. Hard drive data recovery overview covers the broader process; this section focuses on what changes for SAS.
SAS Donor Matching Across Generations
SAS-2 (6Gbps) and SAS-3 (12Gbps) drives are not physically interchangeable for head stack swaps. The PHY layer, preamplifier IC, and read channel silicon differ between generations even when the platter density looks similar on paper. A SAS-3 head stack dropped into a SAS-2 chassis presents the wrong impedance to the read channel, and the Viterbi detector reads the analog waveform as noise.
Within a generation, the preamplifier IC revision still has to match. The preamp sits on the head stack flex cable and amplifies signals at the microvolt level before the main read channel sees them. A revision mismatch shifts the gain curve enough that the bit error rate becomes unrecoverable. We pull the preamp marking under magnification before sourcing a donor and verify the revision against the patient.
Dual-port firmware variants add another constraint. A SAS drive sold as a dual-port 12Gbps unit ships with a different firmware image than a single-port or SATA-bridged variant of the same model. Transferring ROM from a single-port donor to a dual-port patient breaks PHY negotiation: the drive identifies on one port, hangs on the other, and the HBA reports persistent link errors. Donor selection must match port count, firmware revision, and head map.
Donor drives are matching drives used for parts. Typical donor cost: $50–$150 for common drives, $200–$400 for rare or high-capacity models. We source the cheapest compatible donor available. Enterprise SAS donors trend toward the higher end of that range because rare capacities and OEM-specific firmware revisions cost more to source. We document the donor before we use it; you see the part before any donor cost is committed. Read how donor drives are matched for the full screening process.
PC-3000 Portable III SAS Terminal Workflow
When the drive responds but the host system reports it as offline, foreign, or missing, the failure usually lives in the Service Area firmware. The PC-3000 Portable III SAS adapter speaks SCSI directly to the drive, bypassing the host RAID controller and the operating system. A typical session runs in this order:
Establish a terminal connection through the PC-3000 SAS adapter and query SCSI LOG SENSE for SMART parameters and the Grown Defect List. A Grown Defect List that has exploded recently is the first signal that the heads are degrading and that imaging needs to start before further reads compound the damage.
Inspect operational parameters with SCSI MODE SENSE, including vendor-specific mode pages. These pages reveal whether the drive is configured with non-standard sector sizes (520 or 528 bytes), whether write cache is enabled, and whether the drive has been issued a vendor-specific lockdown that blocks normal LBA access.
Read the Service Area directly to extract translator modules, defect tables, and zone allocation maps. When the translator is corrupted, the drive cannot map LBAs to physical sectors; we rebuild the translator in RAM from the surrounding SA modules without depending on the drive's own boot sequence to repair itself. See what PC-3000 actually does for the underlying mechanics.
Restore logical block addressing so that subsequent imaging can run through the same adapter or hand off to DeepSpar. At this point the drive responds to LBA reads as the operating system would expect, and the Grown Defect List is frozen so further imaging does not write to the drive's metadata.
DeepSpar SAS Imager PCIe Workflow
When read instability would cause a software cloner to hang on bad sectors and accelerate head wear, the DeepSpar SAS Imager handles the imaging job instead. The DeepSpar SAS Imager is a dedicated PCIe card with native SAS controllers, separate from the SATA/IDE DeepSpar Disk Imager 4 product. It issues hardware-level device resets and manages per-sector timeouts at the millisecond level to keep the drive responsive. A software cloner waits for kernel-level timeouts measured in seconds; by the time it gives up, the heads have parked and re-loaded enough times to seed new defects.
Reverse-pass imaging changes the angle at which the heads approach damaged zones. Sectors that fail on a forward pass often read on the reverse pass because the servo settles differently when the actuator approaches from the inner diameter. For SAS volumes where Service Area reconstruction is required first, the workflow stays on the PC-3000 path until the translator is repaired and then hands off to the SAS Imager for the bulk read.
PRML and EPRML Read Channel Coefficient Tuning
After a donor head swap, the new heads present different impedance to the read channel than the originals. Read Adaptive Parameters and Servo Adaptive Parameters need to be retuned via PC-3000 vendor commands so the Viterbi detector decodes the analog waveform correctly. Without that tuning, the bit error rate is high enough that healthy media reads as garbage and the customer hears that the drive is unrecoverable when the real problem is uncalibrated channel coefficients.
Modern enterprise SAS drives use EPRML (Extended Partial Response Maximum Likelihood) channels with longer trellis depth than older PRML implementations. Recalibration involves writing test patterns to a reserved zone, reading them back, and adjusting the equalizer taps until the channel converges. The procedure is specific to the drive family and is part of the head swap; it is not a separate service line item.
SAS Diagnostics and Continuous-Duty Failure Modes
Many enterprise recovery cases turn out to be backplane-side or HBA-side problems rather than drive-side failures. The diagnostic procedure below tells the customer up-front whether to ship the drives, the controller, or both. How hard drive firmware works covers the firmware layer that these diagnostics interrogate.
LSI and Broadcom 9300 / 9400 HBA SES-2 Log Extraction
SCSI Enclosure Services version 2 (SES-2) defines diagnostic pages that report the health of the enclosure, the expander, and every drive slot. We query these pages through storcli64 or sas3flash on LSI and Broadcom 9300 and 9400 series HBAs:
Page 01h (Configuration)
Reports the enclosure layout, expander identity, and slot count. A page that returns truncated or zeroed data points to expander firmware corruption rather than drive failure.
Page 02h (Enclosure Status)
Reports the per-slot status flags: drive present, drive faulted, predicted failure, swap requested. A drive that the host system declares dead while page 02h reports it as healthy usually means the fault is upstream of the drive.
Page 07h (Element Descriptors)
Reports human-readable element names and physical slot mapping. Useful for matching a logical drive identifier to the physical bay before pulling drives for imaging.
Persistent mpt3sas fault states such as 0x0d04 resets and DMA scatter/gather list initialization failures usually indicate expander or HBA-side problems, not drive failures. When the kernel logs show the same fault code resetting the same SAS channel repeatedly across multiple drive swaps, the drives are not the patient. We tell the customer that before they pay to image drives that are not failing.
Continuous-Duty SAS Failure Modes
Enterprise SAS drives run at 10K or 15K RPM in 24-bay or 44-bay 4U chassis under continuous load for years. The failure modes that dominate that environment differ from desktop drive failure patterns:
Head crash on 10K and 15K RPM drives: The thinner air bearing at higher rotational speed means a head strike degrades the magnetic substrate more severely than the same event would at 7,200 RPM. Intervention on our 0.02µm ULPA-filtered clean bench requires donor head alignment within tighter tolerance because the recovered drive needs to fly stably long enough to image the surrounding tracks.
Motor bearing wear: Five to seven years of continuous spindle hours combined with rack vibration leads to fluid dynamic bearing wear or outright seizure. A seized spindle requires platter migration to a donor chassis without disturbing factory alignment; misalignment of even a few microns destroys the servo lock and the platter reads as blank.
Firmware corruption from power loss during sustained writes: A hot-swap into a degraded RAID 5 or RAID 6 array is the most common trigger. A backplane reset or HBA timeout during a write cache flush can leave Service Area modules in an inconsistent state. The drive boots, reports a SMART-level pass, and still refuses to map LBAs because the translator no longer matches the defect table. PC-3000 SCSI vendor commands rebuild the translator in RAM from the surrounding modules.
Preamp IC degradation under thermal cycling: Dense 24-bay and 44-bay 4U chassis often run with restricted airflow when front-bay fans fail or when adjacent slots are fully populated. Repeated thermal cycling fatigues preamp solder joints on the head stack flex cable and degrades the substrate around the preamp die. Head replacement on these drives must use a donor with a matching preamp revision because a revision mismatch shifts the read channel out of calibration.
Enterprise downtime is direct cost: idle staff, missed SLAs, rebuild windows that block production. +$100 rush fee to move to the front of the queue for cases where the drives need to move to the front of the queue.
Pricing08/10
SAS Drive Recovery Pricing
Air-filled SAS drive recovery uses our standard HDD pricing tiers. The per-drive cost depends on the failure type (logical, firmware, or mechanical), not the interface. Enterprise helium SAS drives such as Exos X and Ultrastar HC use helium HDD pricing from $200–$5,000+. If the SAS drives are part of a RAID array, an additional $400-$800 array reconstruction fee applies.
Air-filled SAS HDD pricing
01
Low complexity
Simple Copy
Your drive works, you just need the data moved off it
Functional drive; data transfer to new media
Rush available: +$100
$100
3-5 business days
02
Low complexity
File System Recovery
Your drive isn't recognized by your computer, but it's not making unusual sounds
File system corruption. Accessible with professional recovery software but not by the OS
Starting price; final depends on complexity
From $250
2-4 weeks
03
Medium complexity
Firmware Repair
Your drive is completely inaccessible. It may be detected but shows the wrong size or won't respond
Your drive was dropped, has visible damage, or a head crash scraped the platters
Platter scoring or contamination. Requires platter cleaning and head swap
50% deposit required. Donor parts are consumed in the repair. Most difficult recovery type.
50% deposit required
$2,000
4-8 weeks
Hardware Repair vs. Software Locks
Our "no data, no fee" policy applies to hardware recovery. We do not bill for unsuccessful physical repairs. If we replace a hard drive read/write head assembly or repair a liquid-damaged logic board to a bootable state, the hardware repair is complete and standard rates apply. If data remains inaccessible due to user-configured software locks, a forgotten passcode, or a remote wipe command, the physical repair is still billable. We cannot bypass user encryption or activation locks.
No data, no fee. Free evaluation and firm quote before any paid work. Full guarantee details. Head swap and surface damage require a 50% deposit because donor parts are consumed in the attempt.
Rush fee
+$100 rush fee to move to the front of the queue
Donor drives
Donor drives are matching drives used for parts. Typical donor cost: $50–$150 for common drives, $200–$400 for rare or high-capacity models. We source the cheapest compatible donor available.
Target drive
The destination drive we copy recovered data onto. You can supply your own or we provide one at cost plus a small markup. For larger capacities (8TB, 10TB, 16TB and above), target drives cost $400+ extra. All prices are plus applicable tax.
Helium SAS HDD pricing
01
Low complexity
Simple Copy
Your helium drive works, you just need the data moved off it
Functional drive; data transfer to new media
Rush available: +$100
$200
3-5 business days
02
Low complexity
File System Recovery
Your helium drive isn't recognized by your computer, but it's not making unusual sounds
File system corruption. Accessible with professional recovery software but not by the OS
Starting price; final depends on complexity
From $600
2-4 weeks
03
Medium complexity
Most Common
Firmware Repair
Your helium drive is completely inaccessible. It may be detected but shows the wrong size or won't respond
Your helium drive was dropped, has visible damage, or a head crash scraped the platters
Platter scoring or contamination. Requires platter cleaning, head swap, and helium refill
50% deposit required. Helium cost ($400-$800) and donor drive cost additional. Most difficult recovery type.
50% deposit required
$4,000–$5,000
4-8 weeks
Hardware Repair vs. Software Locks
Our "no data, no fee" policy applies to hardware recovery. We do not bill for unsuccessful physical repairs. If we replace a hard drive read/write head assembly or repair a liquid-damaged logic board to a bootable state, the hardware repair is complete and standard rates apply. If data remains inaccessible due to user-configured software locks, a forgotten passcode, or a remote wipe command, the physical repair is still billable. We cannot bypass user encryption or activation locks.
No data, no fee. Free evaluation and firm quote before any paid work. Full guarantee details. Head swap and surface damage require a 50% deposit because donor parts and helium are consumed in the attempt.
Rush fee
+$100 rush fee to move to the front of the queue
Helium cost
Helium cost: $400-$800 additional for head swap and surface damage tiers. This covers the helium refill required after opening the sealed chamber.
Donor drives
Helium donor drives must be an exact match. Typical donor cost: $200–$600 depending on model and availability, plus helium refill cost ($400–$800) required after opening the sealed chamber.
Target drive
The destination drive we copy recovered data onto. You can supply your own or we provide one at cost plus a small markup. For larger capacities (8TB, 10TB, 16TB and above), target drives cost $400+ extra. All prices are plus applicable tax.
No Data = No Charge: If we recover nothing from your SAS drive or array, you owe $0. Free evaluation, no obligation.
Array reconstruction: $400-$800 per array, regardless of RAID level or member count. Added on top of per-drive imaging fees. Total scales with the number of drives.
Data Recovery Standards & Verification
Our Austin lab operates on a transparency-first model. We use industry-standard recovery tools, including PC-3000 and DeepSpar, combined with strict environmental controls to make sure your hard drive is handled safely and properly. This approach allows us to serve clients nationwide with consistent technical standards.
Serving clients nationwide via mail-in service since 2008. Our lead engineer holds PC-3000 and HEX Akademia certifications for hard drive firmware repair and mechanical recovery.
Our "No Data, No Charge" policy means we assume the risk of the recovery attempt, not the client.
LR
Technical Oversight
Louis Rossmann
Louis Rossmann's well trained staff review our lab protocols to ensure technical accuracy and honest service. Since 2008, his focus has been on clear technical communication and accurate diagnostics rather than sales-driven explanations.
We believe in proving standards rather than just stating them. We use TSI P-Trak instrumentation to verify that clean-air benchmarks are met before any drive is opened.
“Had a raid 0 array (windows storage pool) (failed 2tb Seagate, and a working 1tb wd blue) recovered last year, it was much cheaper than the $1500 to $3500 Canadian dollars i was quoted by a Canadian data recovery service. the price while expensive was a comparatively reasonable $900USD (about $1100 CAD at the time). they had very good communication with me about the status of my recovery and were extremely professional. the drive they sent back was Very well packaged. I would 100% have a drive recovered by them again if i ever needed to again.”
“HIGHLIGHT & CONCLUSION
******Overall I'm having a good experience with this store because they have great customer services, best third party replacement parts, justify price for those replacement parts, short estimate waiting time to fix the device, 1 year warranty, and good prediction of pricing and the device life conditions whether it can fix it or not.”
“Didn't *fix* my issue but a great experience. Shipped a drive from an old NAS whose board had failed. Rossmann Repair wanted to go straight for data extraction (~$600-900). Did some research on my own and discovered the file table was Linux based and asked if they could take a look. They said that their decision still stands and would only go straight for data recovery.”
“I've been following the YouTube tutorials since my family and I were in India on business. My son spilled Geteraid on my keyboard and my computer wouldn't come on after I opened it and cleaned it, laying it upside down for a week. To make the story short I took my computer to the shop while I'm in New York on business and did charged me $45.00 for a rush assessment.”
Can you image SAS drives directly, or do you convert them to SATA?
We image SAS drives at their native interface using SAS host bus adapters (HBAs). SAS drives use the SCSI command set, which differs from the ATA command set used by SATA drives. Converting to SATA would lose access to SAS-specific diagnostic commands and non-standard sector sizes (520 or 528 bytes per sector). Our PC-3000 connects through SAS HBAs to communicate with the drive using its native protocol.
How much does SAS hard drive data recovery cost?
Air-filled SAS drive recovery follows standard HDD tiers: From $250 for filesystem-level recovery, $600–$900 for firmware repair, and $1,200–$1,500 for mechanical work like head swaps. Enterprise helium SAS drives such as Exos X and Ultrastar HC use helium HDD pricing from $200–$5,000+ for firmware or mechanical work. Array reconstruction adds $400 to $800 per array. No data recovered means no charge.
Do you recover data from SAS drives with 520-byte or 528-byte sectors?
Yes. Many enterprise RAID controllers format SAS drives with non-standard sector sizes (520 or 528 bytes instead of the standard 512 bytes). The extra bytes store controller-specific metadata like checksums and block guards. We handle sector size translation during imaging and array reconstruction.
Can you recover a single failed SAS drive from a RAID array?
Yes. If one SAS drive has failed in a redundant array (RAID 5, 6, or 10), we image the failed member and return it so the array can be rebuilt. If the array itself has degraded beyond rebuild, we image all members and reconstruct the full array offline using PC-3000 RAID Edition.
What SAS drive models do you most commonly recover?
Seagate Exos (15E900, 10E2400, X16, X18), WD Ultrastar HC530 and HC560 in SAS variants, HGST Ultrastar C15K600 and C10K1800, and Toshiba AL15SEB series. These are the drives most commonly deployed in Dell PowerEdge, HP ProLiant, and Lenovo ThinkSystem servers.
My server shows a drive as 'foreign' or 'unconfigured.' Is data still recoverable?
In most cases, yes. A drive marked 'foreign' by a RAID controller still contains its data and RAID metadata. The controller is reporting that its configuration database does not match the drive's stored metadata. We image the drive through a SAS HBA (bypassing the controller entirely) and reconstruct the array from the on-disk metadata.
