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raid_recovery
What it is
raid_recovery is a free, GPL-3.0 open-source set of Linux command-line utilities for recovering RAID5 data from disk images. It is intended for cases such as a deleted RAID superblock or unknown disk order. Tools cover page-size detection, image identification, parity checking, disk ordering, and reconstruction. After page size and image order are known, the restore command extracts RAID pages into one output file containing the virtual drive’s content. A Python nbdkit plugin can expose a virtual drive from RAID5 images without a superblock when disk order and page size are known. It also supports disks split across multiple image files described by a geometry file. The utilities depend on numpy and tqdm; virtual-disk setup uses nbdkit, nbd-server, and nbd-client. Ubuntu installation instructions are provided for the latter two, alongside nbdkit build guidance. Page-size and disk-order detection use heuristics, so results are not guaranteed. Identification needs array size and page size, and selected data ranges should contain nonzero data. Reconstruction may require dozens of terabytes beyond the raw images.
For and against
For
- Free GPL-3.0 open source
- RAID5 image reconstruction
- Virtual drive export through nbdkit
- Parity checking and disk ordering
- Supports split image files
Against
- Heuristic detection is not guaranteed
- Reconstruction may need dozens of terabytes
- Requires Linux command-line setup
- Depends on numpy and tqdm
The verdict
raid_recovery provides several RAID5 analysis and recovery paths, including a restore command and virtual-disk plugin. Its heuristic detection and substantial storage requirements make preparation essential before reconstruction.
Who it suits
raid_recovery is for Linux users handling RAID5 disk-image recovery, including damaged metadata or uncertain disk order. It suits operators comfortable with command-line utilities and virtual-disk tooling.
On the record
- Array identification
- The identification algorithm tests image file combinations against RAID5 parity and can report multiple matches.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Dependencies
- The recovery utilities list numpy and tqdm as dependencies.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Heuristic limitation
- Page-size detection and disk-order detection use heuristics, and the README says their results are not guaranteed.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Heuristic limits
- The README says page size and sequence detection use heuristics, so their results are not guaranteed.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Identification limitation
- Disk-image identification requires the array size and page size, and the selected page range should contain data rather than only zeroes for reliable identification.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Integration
- The virtual-disk setup uses nbdkit, nbd-server, and nbd-client; the README gives Ubuntu package installation instructions for the latter two.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Integrity check
- The parity check examines the full image length and returns a pass or fail result.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- License
- The repository identifies its license as GPL-3.0.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Linux setup
- The README gives Ubuntu installation instructions for nbd-server and nbd-client and describes building nbdkit.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Page size detection
- Page size detection uses ASCII file statistics and requires a long ASCII or similar text file on disk; one disk image is sufficient.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Page-size detection requirement
- The page-size heuristic needs a long ASCII file on disk, ideally a few megabytes, and examines one disk image.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Command-line utilities recover RAID5 data from disk images, including when the RAID superblock has been deleted and disk order is unknown.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Reconstruction
- After page size and image order are known, the restore command extracts RAID pages into one output file containing the virtual drive content.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Reconstruction output
- Reconstruction extracts RAID pages in sequence into one output file containing the virtual drive content.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Recovery steps
- The tools support page-size detection, disk-image identification, parity checking, disk ordering, and data reconstruction.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Release availability
- The repository page shows no releases.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Resource requirement
- The README says file reconstruction may require dozens of terabytes of free disk space in addition to space occupied by raw disk images.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
- Split images
- The virtual-disk plugin supports disks split into multiple image files, described by a geometry file.github.com · read 9 Oct 2026
