User has been Auto deleted - all data lost

It may be too simple of a question.

It was the result of an outage different in nature to what we'd had before. We've implemented patches to our server software to address the root cause. There wasn't any security breach.

We had immediately reached out to those registered users who appeared to have been affected by the outage. To err on the side of caution, NETGEAR then subsequently expanded our outreach to the larger community to ensure that no one who may have been exposed by the incident had been overlooked.

We've been attempting to recover data for those customers who need an attempt made. There's an email address if you need this (mentioned several times in this thread, I marked a post as the solution that links to important information on this issue). It's important to get the volume mounted read-only ASAP after files are deleted to maximise the chances of successful data recovery.

Some users recognised the importance of backing up their data (you shouldn't store data on just the one device) and were simply able to restore from backup.

Many ReadyCLOUD users don't store data in the home folders.

---

mutley1971 wrote:

I now have to question the viability of the whole ReadyCloud solution.  It is simply too high risk for me to trust NetGear to hold administrative access to my hardware and data.  This is not the first problem I have had with this solution and support response is inadequate.  People need to have access to their data. They rely on it.   

---

You do have other choices.  I use OpenVPN (built into my router) myself.  There is also OwnCloud and ZeroTier.  

Cloud Sync or Resilio/Plex Sync might cover some use cases, but you need to be careful about two-way sync, since issues in one repository can propagate to the other.

---

Björn_Eberhardt wrote:
Oh, that sounds like a minefield. I would always be extremely cautious if data is at stake. I'm so glad that my unit has a LCD screen :D

It's actually not that difficult. If you follow the instructions carefully, it's no problem. The KB article clearly states which LEDs to look at.

https://kb.netgear.com/22892/How-do-I-access-the-boot-menu-on-my-ReadyNAS-102-202-212-or-312

---

dthibeault270 wrote:

The directions are a little off as I have more lights on the front of my unit then the directions indicate (5 LEDs vs 4).  

You ignore the activity light for this.  Also, the light pattern in the instructions is only used when you are selecting the boot mode.  Once you start booting, the lights will change.

I really hope that the power led was lit when you made your selection.  If it were off, you might have done a factory default by mistake, and that will wipe your data.

I suggest checking the current status using RAIDar:  https://kb.netgear.com/20684/ReadyNAS-Downloads?cid=wmt_netgear_organic#raidar

The instructions are clear. Once you get it into the boot menu you can cycle through the different options by pressing the backup button. Once you've reached the option you want you press the reset button briefly once more to confirm your choice.

andy_blanc we are getting back to users when we can. You can send a follow up message to the team if you like. Some of us (e.g. myself) have a public holiday for Easter Monday so I will have some catching up to do come Tuesday.

---

Björn_Eberhardt wrote:

What keeps me wondering were folders where almost all files are 0kB in size. The filenames are intact, and from the filenames I believe they are duplicates anyway and exist elsewhere on the system. Is that how Btrfs deduplications work? If yes, that's a very interesting cool feature!

---

It's not dedup.

Tree and data are stored separately on filesystems.

Maybe: BTRFS metadata were readable, which gave you the tree, but the data was gone, which gave empty files.

Or maybe, it's something to do with snapshots. Can't be sure without knowing what the scripts used.

On recovered data, I'd strongly advise you to open files and check their content before considering them restored.

---

KenBennett wrote:
You keep going on and on and i question your ability to read and comprehend. Try reading slow. I did not have an issue with my data. Never said I did. I do understand the cloud. Now if you can read this, then stop going on about the data and RAID.

Now, reach down, pull on that string so you can breathe.

---

I'm breathing very well. thank you.

---

KenBennett wrote:
They most certainly have, if you'd read. 

---

What they've said is this (my summary from what I've read):

The ReadyCloud server failure triggered the mechanism that comes into play when users want to stop using ReadyCloud.  That mechanism initiated the deletion of all ReadyCloud accounts.  The NAS deletes the home folders whenever an account is deleted - and that includes ReadyCloud accounts.  Since this was initiated by the server, there was no user interaction to confirm the deletion - it happened silently.  Netgear has disabled that "clean-up" mechanism in the server to prevent the problem from re-occuring.

I seriously doubt that you'll get a deeper technical explanation than that summary (and if you did, it likely wouldn't make sense to anyone who doesn't work on ReadyCloud).  If I got something wrong, hopefully Netgear will correct it.

---

KenBennett wrote:
They've come out with how people should have their data backed up.  I don't really care about that ...

---

At the risk of angering you further: you might not care, but you should.  RAID is not enough to keep your data safe.  This is one proof point.  There are plenty of others posted here - lightning strikes, theft, power surges, systems being tipped over/dropped, near-simultaneous failure of multiple disks,...  If you had the data backed up, you wouldn't have lost much, if anything.  If you don't learn that lesson from this event, you will lose data again - no matter whose storage system you use.  It's just a matter of time.

This statement doesn't excuse Netgear.  It's like your doctor saying "if you had your seat belt on, you wouldn't have been seriously injured in that accident". That doesn't make you responsible for the accident.  

That said, I am not seeing posts in response to this particular event from mdgm, jennc, FramerV or any other Netgear employees that scold customers who lost data from this event for not having a backup.  Instead, I am seeing transparency on what happened, efforts to identify all customers who were affected, and offers to recover data without charge (which normally is a quite expensive service). This of course is what they should be doing (and although it is the right thing to do, it also doesn't excuse Netgear)

FWIW, I do think it is reasonable for the customer to purchase their own USB drive if that is needed to back their data up.  Though opinions on that likely vary.   

---

KenBennett wrote:
Well, Y'all keep saying it's our fault. I keep reading how NETGEAR is going above and beyond and saying it's not their fault, yet it was a glitch on their side. Jak0lantash, you cannot pickup a turd by the clean end no matter how hard you try, so drop the turd, and go wash your hands.

---

Cut it out.  As far as I can see, no one on this thread has said the data loss was your fault - including jak0lantash.  Netgear said it was their fault here here: https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyCLOUD/Having-ReadyCLOUD-problems-since-3-30-17/m-p/1259697#U1259697  Netgear employees who post here haven't said anything different.

I get that you are angry.  People who lost data have reason to be.  But let's make this more constructive (focusing on how to get people's data back). I'd rather not have to start locking threads, given the overall situation.

This is akin to ransomware.  I don't understand why you wouldn't just created a new id, like user, then user.0 and so forth like windows use to do.  Wouldn't that have made more sense and put the burden of deleting data on the administrator of the box.  

That's what I've been saying and I think we need to look into it. I'm going to call a lawyer tomorrow. I even got a lot of bs from someone on here about doing that when I asked a question, which has never been addressed.

Definitely starting to feel like class action territory to me.

It also feels like NetGear is completely clueless about Public Relations. They've responded to this whole thing so incredibly poorly you'd think they were all on vacation.