Data Recovery and Disk Utilities Forum @R-TT

I am trying to recover almost 30TB of files stored on a QNAP NAS, with the underlying disks being in a RAID array and an ext4 volume sitting atop. I accidentally deleted the files in question but immediately unmounted the disk. Running R-Studio on a Windows machine I was able to connect to rsagent (Linux) on the NAS and after a couple of days of scanning across a 2.5Gbps network connection R-Studio was able to identify the fully directory structure and filenames.

I've now purchased T80+ to allow me to recover and have the following configuration, which is estimating over 1 month recovery time:
- source data on QNAP NAS connected to 10Gbps network (rsagent running here)
- R-Studio on a Windows machine connected at 2.5Gbps
- destination folder mounted on Windows machine as a network share is on a different NAS connected to 10Gbps network

Is there any way to take the network hops out of the equation, or to 'simply' reconstruct the partition data on the source drives, rather than copying such large volumes of data ?

Whilst I do ultimately want the data on the destination/new NAS I would be happy with an initial restoration in-situ, recognising this isn't a recommended scenario, if possible. The data itself isn't critical and could be re-acquired if needed

EDIT: Considering running a VM on the NAS - due to the way folders are shared between host and guest OSes I assume running a Windows or Linux VM to recover directly wont work ? However I think I could save one network hop if I have the R-Studio Windows install running in a VM on the NAS, and still have it work via the agent thats directly on the linux NAS OS...though that likely means I need to get a new license

EDIT2: So I'm now running R-Studio Technician T80+ in a VM on the source NAS that has the deleted files, which then connects to rsagent on the same NAS. It's working, but not sure it's really any faster - I assume diskspeed is the primary limitation here

CraigB wrote: ↑

Sun May 25, 2025 11:47 am

Running R-Studio on a Windows machine I was able to connect to rsagent (Linux) on the NAS and after a couple of days of scanning across a 2.5Gbps network connection R-Studio was able to identify the fully directory structure and filenames.

Did you managed to run rsagent (Linux) on a NAS device? Was it possible?

CraigB wrote: ↑

Sun May 25, 2025 11:47 am

or to 'simply' reconstruct the partition data on the source drives, rather than copying such large volumes of data ?

This is the worst ever possible way of data recovery. One mishap and your data is gone for good.

CraigB wrote: ↑

Sun May 25, 2025 11:47 am

EDIT2: So I'm now running R-Studio Technician T80+ in a VM on the source NAS that has the deleted files, which then connects to rsagent on the same NAS. It's working, but not sure it's really any faster - I assume diskspeed is the primary limitation here

You even manage to run a VM on a NAS device. That's impressive. I'm not quite understand, did you eliminate network connections? If not this is the prime speed limiter. Otherwise, disk speed it.

An update on my progress, and some clarifications. Firstly, R-Studio has been the only software I've found which suited my usecase. Many would only offer Windows clients or struggled with ext4.

My 'end game' which I have been running recovery on batches of files/directories for a week or so now is:
- QNAP 872 with rsagent running (runs fine from provided downloaded version)
- Windows 10 VM running on the same NAS, connecting to rsagent
- Second NAS connected over 10Gb network connection has a writeable NFS share where files are written to on recovery

As I previously unmounted the partition I'd deleted files from I have had good success (not 100%) recovering files and directory structures with original names. I have had a few 0 byte recoveries, but those are easy to weed out. The process has continued slower than I would have liked, limited by disk speed, but I've almost completed my recovery activities.

Very pleased overall with the flexibility of R-Studio in allowing me to recover my files without having to install the disks in another system and potentially 'breaking' the RAID array or QNAP LVM in the process. Everything has been managed in-situ