ReadyNAS Ultra - messed up, anything that can be done?

[TePeL]

Hi all,

everything started with me replacing the 4x2Tb drives in my ReadyNAS Ultra 4 with 4x4Tb. First I replaced two, and all went well and size was increased. Then I bought another two disks and added those - here something went wrong; during syncing of one of the disks, we had a power loss. The sync process restarted once powered back up and all seemed well, but I actually didn't notice until some days after that the total volume size hadn't expanded and was still showing ~7.5Tb only.

I figured I'd try pulling one of the disks and inserting again, see if that would trigger a size expansion (by the way, I did reboot several times). No luck. Realized that the disk I pulled wasn't one of the two that I added last, so pulled one of those and while it was syncing I saw that it said in Raidar that it mentioned "Recovery"... ok, so I figured let's make recovery impossible and format the disk first, before reinserting.

Now here is where I messed up - was a bit in a hurry so instead of pulling out disk 3, the one that was currently syncing, I pulled out disk 1 - the other disk of the two that were added last. Didn't realize my mistake until after deleting the partitions using external USB dock on my laptop

So I removed all four partitions that were on this disk (for some reason it had 2 partitions of around 2Tb - I guess related to why the system hadn't expanded?). Following this I slotted it back into the Ultra, which tested the disk but then nothing more happened.


So basically disk 3 was syncing at around 20% at which time I pulled out disk 1. The total size of the entire system prior to all of this was ~7.5Tb, whereas this should've been around 11.5Tb according to the calculator site I found.


Am I correct in assuming that I've messed up badly and all data is lost?
I just want to be sure before I make a next move and build a new volume on the 4x4Tb disks.

Currently Frontview says there is no volume

Any help appreciated! There was quite a lot of stuff on there which is a pity, but not a big deal if it's lost. There were also a lot of pictures and movies of our little kids there - hopefully we have portions of it saved elsewhere, but definitely not all of it. Would be frustrating to say the least if such a "simple" mistake means that all is gone - would be a lesson learned though.


I'd appreciate any input in the matter, is there anything that can be done to salvage the situation?

[Alt]

Unfortunately, most likely this is a situation described in this article: Data Recovery After Partition Manager Crash. So, chances for successful data recovery are grim.

[Corsari]

@TePeL

Hello here we must suppose if it was RAID 0 or RAID 5

What it was?

Though deleting partitions it is not a total defeat if RAID was 5.

Please let me know

Thank you

Cor.

[Alt]

I believe that failed syncing seriously messed the data up, and only a professional data recovery specialist, if somebody, can help in this situation.

[TePeL]

@Corsair

It was an X-Raid 2, Netgears own special raid. From what I have read, I think it's more or less a RAID 5.

It consisted of 4 drives, one of which being redundant.

I wonder if I can restore the partitions on disk 1, the one that I pulled and deleted partitions from (didn't format or make new partition). If so, and all data is still there, I theoretically still have disk 1, 2 and 4 from the RAID.... disk 3 was the one being synced.

[TePeL]

@TePeL

Hello here we must suppose if it was RAID 0 or RAID 5

What it was?

Though deleting partitions it is not a total defeat if RAID was 5.

Please let me know

Thank you

Cor.

It was a RAID-5

I just checked and disk 1 has already gotten the same partition layout again as prior to me removing the partitions (in windows 7, btw). That must have happened when I inserted it back into the NAS and it was powered up.

Disk 2 and 4 should be intact, disk 3 is the one that was syncing.

[TePeL]

Would it be possible using, for example, R-Studio, to recover files from either of the two disks that were not disrupted during my messing about? I.e. disk 2 and 4 never left the NAS, would it be possible to recover files from there? Or is everything, due to the nature of the X-RAID2, spread out over the three disks and thereby nothing can be recovered from one single one?

I checked the disk1 and it has gotten back its partitions, probably happened when I put it back into the NAS and started it. I don't know if it, in the process, did a format or delete, or merely created the partitions again?

If nothing can be recovered from a single disk, would I have any chance with all three (disk 1, 2 and 4) and aforementioned R-Studio?
How would I then go about connecting the drives and attempting to pull anything off them? Currently only have a laptop at home, with 2 external USB cases; so I can't simultaneously connect all 3 drives. Should I try and get a 3rd case, or is external casing out of the question anyway and should I try and borrow home a desktop PC with at least 3 empty SATA ports?

Cheers
//Joris

[Alt]

Actually, you always may try R-Studio for free, without buying it. See What to do if I don't know if R-Studio can recover my files?.
You can do everything in this demo mode except actual file recovery, but you can preview files to see if you can recover them.

[TePeL]

Actually, you always may try R-Studio for free, without buying it. See What to do if I don't know if R-Studio can recover my files?.
You can do everything in this demo mode except actual file recovery, but you can preview files to see if you can recover them.

I tried that; was making a scan with R-Studio on only one of the discs (one of the two that are intact) and when I stopped it after like 2% it did report quite a lot of files found, amongst which pictures which I could preview and see. There were also a lot of pictures which couldn't be previewed though, but I don't know if that is due to stopping the process after a few % or because the data was spread over several drives, or encrypted?

I have 2 of the 4 drives fully intact; on the third one the partitions were deleted (then recreated by the NAS), the fourth was syncing at around 25% when I pulled the wrong disk and everything got messed up. Don't know if recovery software can work with these two drives? Or would I need to have all drives connected at the same time as well, and use the virtual raid features or so? Any good tutorials on how to go about?


We do want to try and recover as much as possible, but what turns out to be lost will be lost - not worth spending thousands to recover.

[Alt]

I recommend you to do the following:
1. Create a virtual RAID from all images/drives and try to find its parameters using the R-Studio: Finding RAID Parameters.
2. Scan the entire virtual RAID and see what can be found.
Scanning only one disk is useless, as the data indeed scattered across the disks.