Server RAID Data Recovery for Dell, HPE, Lenovo and VMware
Payam Data Recovery recovers data from failed RAID servers for Australian businesses and IT providers: Dell PowerEdge with PERC controllers, HPE ProLiant with Smart Array controllers, Lenovo ThinkSystem and other servers. We recover VMware ESXi and vSphere datastores and VMDK files, Hyper-V virtual disks, and Windows Server NTFS and ReFS volumes, from SAS and SATA drives. Send us the drives, labelled by slot. The assessment and written quote are free, and an urgent quote in 2 to 3 hours costs $500.
Free Assessment
and Quote
Urgent Quote
in 2 to 3 Hours
See Your Files
Before You Pay
Server failures we recover
These are the server faults IT managers and managed service providers bring us most often.
What not to do with a failed server RAID
What happens in the first hour decides how much we can recover. Please:
- Do not import a foreign configuration, clear the controller configuration, or initialise a virtual disk.
- Do not force a failed drive back online, and do not let a hot spare rebuild while another drive shows errors.
- Do not reinstall ESXi or Windows Server onto the array, and do not run a consistency check on a damaged array.
- Do not take the drives out and put them back in a different order, and do not move them into another unit to see if it helps.
- Do not run recovery software, chkdsk or a file system check on the original drives. We clone every drive first and work from the clones.
- Do not keep switching it on to check. A failing drive gets worse every time it runs.
How to send us the drives
We do not need the enclosure, the power supply or the drive trays. Just the drives:
- Shut the unit down, or switch it off if it no longer responds. Every hour a failing drive runs can make it worse.
- Label every drive with its bay or slot number before you take it out: bay 1, bay 2 and so on. A strip of masking tape on each drive is enough.
- On a server with more than one controller or enclosure, also note which one each drive came from. Include hot spares.
- Tell us the controller model, the RAID level and stripe size if you know them, and which virtual machines, databases or folders matter most.
- Send all of the drives, faulty and healthy, including SSD cache drives and any drive that was taken out earlier. Label those too, so we know which is which.
- Write down what happened: the messages on screen, the RAID level if you know it, what has already been tried, and which drive failed first.
- If the volume or shared folders are encrypted, send the password or key file details with the job. We need them to read the data.
- Pack each drive in an anti-static bag with padding, fill out the RAID job form, and bring or post the drives to any of our labs and offices.
- If the drives are still under warranty, get written approval from the manufacturer or retailer first, because we may need to open a drive.
Your recovered files come back on an external drive. You can supply your own, or buy one from us when you approve the quote.
Urgent assessment and Emergency service
Free assessment. We test every drive and email you a written quote within 1 to 2 days. The quote shows the price and turnaround for Economy, Priority and Emergency, any attempt fee, and your chances of success. Nothing is charged until you approve it.
Urgent assessment, $500. If the business is down, ask for an urgent RAID and NAS assessment. You get a written quote within 2 to 3 hours.
Emergency service. When you approve Emergency, work starts straight away, and our data recovery engineers keep working after hours and on weekends until the job is done. At our Sydney CBD, Rhodes NSW, Melbourne and Brisbane labs, work can start the same day once the urgent assessment is done and you approve the quote. From Adelaide, Perth and Auckland, the drives first travel to our Rhodes NSW lab by overnight courier. We never promise a finish time, but your quote gives you a realistic one. See emergency data recovery for how it works.
After hours. Outside business hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm), only the Emergency service is available. Call 0404 872 926. Staff may need 1 to 2 hours’ notice to come in, and a non-refundable emergency assessment fee of $500 applies to RAID and NAS jobs ($150 for other devices). The job then goes ahead on the Emergency service. Please use this number for genuine emergencies only. If you cannot bring the drives in yourself, you can send them by Uber or a same-day courier at your own cost.
How much does server recovery cost?
Most RAID and NAS recoveries cost $2,500 to $6,500 on Economy. Prices are in Australian dollars and include GST. The full price list is on our data recovery cost page. These are the rows that come up most often for a server RAID:
- Basic backup from healthy drives: $350 Economy, $550 Priority, $1,400 Emergency, no attempt fee.
- One failed drive, a RAID rebuild only, or file system corruption: $2,500 Economy, $3,500 Priority, $10,000 Emergency.
- Two failed drives: $4,500 Economy, $6,500 Priority, $18,000 Emergency.
- More than two failed drives: $6,500 Economy, $9,000 Priority, $18,000 Emergency.
Apart from a basic backup, RAID and NAS jobs carry a $500 attempt fee. It is part of the quoted price, not an extra, and if nothing is recovered it is the only cost. Very large or complex cases may have a custom price, quoted after the free assessment. We do not charge by the hour.
Economy usually takes 3 to 4 weeks, Priority 1 to 3 weeks and Emergency 2 to 6 days, with no guarantee. A basic backup from healthy drives is faster: 5 to 10 days on Economy and 1 to 2 days on Emergency. The success rate is the same on all three services; only the speed changes.
Where the work is done
RAID and NAS recovery is done at our own labs in Sydney CBD, Rhodes NSW, Melbourne and Brisbane. A drive that needs a head swap is opened in one of the two professional ISO 5 laminar flow cabinets at our Rhodes lab, and goes there by overnight courier at our cost. Adelaide, Perth and Auckland have secure drop-off offices, and drives from there go to Rhodes by overnight courier. Nothing is outsourced, and we do not offer an on-site service.
We have been recovering data in Australia since 1998, with over 300,000 successful recoveries. Supply your own NDA and our director, Payam Toloo, will sign it. IT support companies that send a job for their client can do it through our partnership program.
Case studies: see how we do it
Real server jobs from our labs, each with the full write-up and a video. More on our case studies page.
Dell VMware ESXi server in 12 hours
A Sydney MSP sent eight Dell SAS drives from a failed ESXi host with a missing snapshot and a lost datastore. The drives would not clone on one imager, so we switched to PC-3000 SAS. VMDK files recovered in 12 hours.
Lenovo SAP server: rebuild finished, SAP dead
Two drives were replaced and the RAID 5 rebuilt itself, but SAP would not start. Urgent assessment inside two hours, and 10 virtual machines recovered in under 24 hours on Emergency.
Lenovo ST650 RAID 5, two failed SAS drives
Another company worked on this VMware server for two months without success. We fitted donor heads to the worst drive, worked out the RAID layout by hand and recovered the files.
Windows Server, 10 drives, ReFS deduplication
A nested RAID 0+1 with Windows Data Deduplication on ReFS, from a server that had been off for months. All four data partitions recovered in 18 hours of round-the-clock work.
16 Dell SAS drives, three arrays
A mining company server held one RAID 6 and two RAID 5 arrays with three failed drives. Two drives had heads stuck to the platters. 10TB recovered in 5 days.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. We do not need the controller or the server. We clone each drive and rebuild the array in software in a read-only way, working out the drive order, stripe size and parity ourselves, then copy your files and folders to a new drive.
Yes. We rebuild the array from clones, read the VMFS datastore and recover the VMDK files, so you can use the virtual machines again. If you prefer, we can extract what is inside them, such as a database. In one Dell ESXi case with a missing snapshot and a lost datastore, the files were back in 12 hours.
Yes. We rebuild the array from clones and copy out the VHDX files, or the files inside them if that is what you need.
Not always. In one Lenovo server, two drives were replaced and the RAID 5 rebuilt, but SAP would not start. All eight drives still held data. We read them together, rebuilt the array and recovered 10 virtual machines in under 24 hours.
Yes. Most recovery tools copy out empty stubs from a deduplicated ReFS volume. We rebuilt a 10-drive nested RAID with deduplicated ReFS volumes and recovered all four data partitions in 18 hours.
Yes. We have SAS imaging hardware, including PC-3000 SAS and Atola with SAS support, to test, repair and clone SAS drives, even from a server with a broken backplane.
No. We do not offer an on-site service. Our recovery equipment is in our labs, so send us the drives and all of the work is done there.
No. We do not provide forensic services, formal reports, chain of custody documents or expert evidence, except where a court orders us to attend.
Most RAID and NAS recoveries cost $2,500 to $6,500 on Economy. A basic backup from healthy drives is $350. One failed drive is $2,500 on Economy, two failed drives $4,500 and more than two $6,500. Priority and Emergency are faster and cost more. Apart from a basic backup there is a $500 attempt fee, which is part of the price, not an extra. The assessment and written quote are free. All prices are on our data recovery cost page.
The free assessment and written quote take 1 to 2 days. An urgent assessment costs $500 and gives you a written quote within 2 to 3 hours. On Emergency, work starts as soon as you approve the quote and usually takes 2 to 6 days, with no guarantee. At our Sydney CBD, Rhodes NSW, Melbourne and Brisbane labs, work can start the same day.
Yes, on the Emergency service only. Call 0404 872 926. Staff may need 1 to 2 hours’ notice to come in, and a non-refundable emergency assessment fee of $500 applies to RAID and NAS jobs ($150 for other devices). The job then goes ahead on the Emergency service. During business hours, Monday to Friday 9am to 5:30pm, you can choose Economy, Priority or Emergency after the quote.
Yes. Supply your own NDA and our director, Payam Toloo, will sign it. Give us your company name and ABN when you book in, and we will put them on your tax invoice.
First published 27 October 2026. Prices match our data recovery cost page as checked on 27 October 2026.
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Phone: 1300 444 800 (within Australia)
After hours, emergencies only: 0404 872 926
International: +61 2 80766079
Email: help@payam.com.au
International customers are always welcome. The easiest way to reach us from overseas is by email at help@payam.com.au, which works in every time zone.
