Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Discussions on using the professional data recovery program R-STUDIO for RAID re-construction, NAS recovery, and recovery of various disk and volume managers: Windows storage spaces, Apple volumes, and Linux Logical Volume Manager.
oo101oo
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:52 am

Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by oo101oo » Mon Sep 08, 2014 1:45 am

Hi Everyone,

I recently have and issue with my Lacie 2Big (Raid 0) 2 x 3TB hard-drive.

I think I pulled my thunderbolt plug pre-maturely while I was shutting down my mac (during full shutdown).

Now when I plug my thunderbolt Lacie drive it cannot see my previous Raid 0 partition and it is asking to initialize the drives (like from factory default).

Lacie was not help and I just happen to find R-Studio through google search.

Everything looks so promising when I read the information so I bought the software (last week).

Now I have tried everything and I cannot recover anything.

I used the default Lacie settings for my mac - therefore no changes where done on the disk utility, all I did was plug in the Lacie and initialized it (which Lacie default out of package is Raid 0)

attempt 1:
- create a virtual raid 0
- dragged the first drive volume (not the partition) to the virtual raid 0
- then dragged the second drive volume (not the partition) to virtual raid 0
- I see both hard drive volumes check marked/selected in virtual raid 0
- tried to double click the "Virtual Block Raid 1" (just as explained in the instruction) but it does not see any partition or directory, I just get a message dialog about doing a scan
- then I tried to click Auto detect button on the raid type (as instructed again), but I get another dialog box about needing 3 or more drives (well a raid 0 only needs 2 or more.....)
- then I selected the physical individual drive volumes (not from the virtual raid properties) and did a disk scan on both drives (which took 12 hours for each drive)
- after each drive was done scanning, I saved the scan information and then tried to double click the "Virtual Block Raid 1", still nothing - just the same dialog message about scanning
- so this time I selected the "virtual block raid 1" with the 2 drive selected in the properties box and click scan (software scanned again for another 12 hours)
- oh and I used the default setting of 64 kb for block size, and kept everything else at default as well
- after scanning is done, underneath the "Virtual Block Raid 1" - I see 2 partitions in green (recognized 0 and recognized 1)
- this does not make sense seeing 2 partitions (as it was not specified in the manual what that really means, so I double click the (recognized 0) and I see the directories and files I want to recover
- however, when I goto select the folder and files I want to recover (which is copying to an external usb drive), I see some $catlog errors and I get "The operation was failed error #1001"
- at the time I did not think anything of it, but when I tried to open any of the my files, I get "cannot open files"

attempt 2
- I redid the process of scanning the "virtual block raid 1" but I set the block size to 32 kb (which I saw later on the forum)
- scan took 12 hours with the exact same results

attempt 3 and 4
- I re-did the process of scanning the "vritual block raid 1" using 128 kb and then 256kb (another 24 hours of scanning)
- the 128 kb was the same results as above
- but the 256kb scan I was actually able to see a proper partition name "Lacie" which was the default setup, and again the saw the other partition ( both were green)
- when I tried to recover files, I was able to open up some files (jpg, mp4, mov, mp3) files but they were only partial pictures or video or music.

Which brings me here to this posting - because I keep reading stories about people being able to recover files - and I follow what they did - but with no success

On my Windows and PC and servers, I have not problems with Runtime Software "Get Back Data" and I am usually able to retrieve 80% of the data. So it's not like I haven't done this before.
But for some reason, everything I do on the Lacie to recver does not work and it's not like I have down drive or bad sectors - it just seems like the index tables are lost or damaged.

So what am I missing? Has anyone actually able to recover their files from the Lacie Raid 0 drives with actual working data? It seems like everyone has failed to mention that...

In the manual for the R-Studio for mac, it said that if the picture can only be seen partially then the block sizes are wrong or something like that...

On the last attempt when the setting was scanning with 256 kb block size, it seems like I got closer to recovering since I got the original volume label to show up.

But again, I am completely lost to finding any concrete instructions or guides .... and I have spend the whole week trying to recover with no success, not even a single files was to be recovered...

Any help is greatly appreciated --- because at this point I don't half of the instructions and articles do not match the steps I am following and there are no guides regarding raid 0 scans when you see recognize 0 and recognize 1 (technically shouldn't I only see 1 partition in the raid 0 recovery).

P.S. I also called support at R-Studio for help, I got a brief 1 minute explanation and was told to follow the articles on their website --- and again the steps did not match the results that I was suppose to get.

AM I MISSING SOMETHING ....

Corsari
Posts: 131
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:18 am

Re: Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by Corsari » Mon Sep 08, 2014 2:08 am

Hello

you write
"all I did was plug in the Lacie and initialized it (which Lacie default out of package is Raid 0) "

Do you mean exactly what have you written? Have you initialized a new RAID0?

If yes you have realized a sort of disaster typical of the DIY data recovery.

Please clarify
Robert
Technical Manager @ Recupero Dati RAID FAsTec (Italy)

USEFUL RULES and GUIDELINES
1) What to check BEFORE begin a disk image/clone process [link]
2) Disks that are too slow while imaging/cloning them [link]
3) All my posts on this forum [link]

oo101oo
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:52 am

Re: Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by oo101oo » Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:53 am

Hi Corsari,

Thanks for your reply.

To clarify - I what I meant in that statement.

- when I first bought the Lacie and plugged it into my mac, I just initialized it (formatted with default settings). the reason why I mentioned this is because other people kept giving different settings.

- but I have not re-formatted the Lacie since the first day I bought it, therefore even when I plug in the Lacie now, I get a dialog box to initialize, but I click ignore so that my data does not get destroyed.

I hope that helps clarify.

So in short.

- Lacie drive became un-recognized after I pre-maturely unplug from the thunderbolt during a full shutdown
- then when plug Lacie back in, I get a dialog box to initialize (or format) ---- I click IGNORE ---
- then I run R-Studio and create a Virtual Raid 0 drive and I see the Virtual Block Raid 1
- I drag my hard drive volumes to my Virtual Raid 1 (in proper order)
- I do a scan on the Virtual Block Raid 1 (starting with default R-Studio settings at 64 kb block set)
- after each scan I save the scan information
- then I try to do the file recovery based on the green partition it recognizes (which is always recognized 1 and recognized 0)
- during recovery I get error messages about $atlog file invalid position or something and then later I get "The operation was failed error #1001"
- since I was unable to recover 1 file, I repeat the process with a different block set (tried 32 kb, 128 kb and 256 kb)

- the 256 kb seems like the closests I was able to get to retrieve anything because:
a) I saw my Lacie default partition name
b) when I do a file extract I was actually able to open some files (they were still not complete since data was still missing -- for example jpg pictures would only show half of the picture, or the video only shows some of the clips while the other footage is grayed out with big chunks of blocks

With that being said, with 256 kb - I still could not recover 1 single fully completed file no matter how big or small it is.

Any ideas what to do or am I missing a step?

Again - people posting on the site make it sound so easy after they find the block set - so I am confused why I am having so much difficulties when both drives are healthy with no bad sectors.

oo101oo
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:52 am

Re: Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by oo101oo » Mon Sep 08, 2014 9:03 am

just add to this:

I am following this guide which i feel the steps did not quite fit

http://www.r-tt.com/Articles/RAID_Recov ... ndex.shtml

for example they talk about being able to preview the image and if you can see a full image then the file is recoverable.

well i could not preview anything, i have to do a manual file recovery to my USB drive to view the results.

I don't know if this was a limitation of the MAC version of the R-Studio

Alt
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Re: Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by Alt » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:55 am

Did you try to change the disk order? Disk 1 as Disk 0?

oo101oo
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:52 am

Re: Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by oo101oo » Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:04 pm

Hi Alt,

I did not try that yet.

Every post I read specified to have the drives in the right order.

But I will try reversing the drives and doing a scan.

Should I keep it at 256 kb block set?

The reason why I am asking is because it takes 12 hours for each scan I do.

Alt
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Re: Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by Alt » Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:33 pm

Well, probably yes to 256 KB.
You don't have to scan the entire 6 TB, 100 GB from the beginning is enough to estimate how good the results will be.

oo101oo
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:52 am

Re: Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by oo101oo » Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:21 pm

hi Alt,

Sorry it took so long to get back - I had to stop and do paying job work before I could continue with fixing my personal stuff.

So I tried a bunch of things that you suggested
- changed the disk order (that worked)
- set the default block size to 32K (that worked)
- tried to only do 100GB to test recovery (that did not work)

And so when I said "that worked" - it just means I was able to get the actual LaCie label volume name which I am assuming that means I am in the right direction.

However, when I goto double click on the green "recognized" volume (LaCie) it goes through and retrieves the file directory but in log box (as it is retrieving the file directory) I keep getting messages repeating in sequence:

$catalogFile: record 1 at node 67710 is invalid

and this repeats down for quite awhile but not to all the index it retrieves.

But again with the same problem: when I goto restore a picture file --- it said recovery successful, but when I goto open in photoshop - it does not work and get file error.

Also in the R-Studio website it shows an ability to view each jpg file preview through R-Studio to see if the files work --- but for some reason when I try to preview a jpg file through R-studio, instead of getting a picture, it opens a new dialog box for a hex code editor.

so I am really confused since the R-studio instructions and samples done seem to match the program.

PS: also how to I know what files I can retrieve if I only scan 100GB out of 6TB

oo101oo
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:52 am

Re: Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by oo101oo » Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:22 pm

do I need to do anything in the hex editor in order for the jpgs to work

oo101oo
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:52 am

Re: Issue Lacie 2big Raid 0 default settings on mac

Post by oo101oo » Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:24 pm

I am at a point I am willing to pay some one to see if they can retrieve at least 1 or 2 jpg - just so I know R-Studio is working or not working.

And yes, I did install the new version 4.6

If you are interested in remoting into my R-Studio system - then let me know as well as the cost.

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