ReadyNAS Data Recovery - VMware recovery tool

dekkit wrote:
...I'm thinking it might have just been easier if i had just started off with an old laptop and added a few usb NTFS formatted hdds in it, particularly as a windows user - anything that can go wrong with the duo is just so time consuming to fix / rebuild ..but then again moving TBs of data around was always going to be slow.

Robocopy works pretty well for backing up the NAS up to Windows systems. It is incremental, and also has a mirroring option.

Guys I have been struggling with this for months, I have found a simple easier way of restoring all my files using some free software called DiskInternals Linux Reader you can download it free from here: http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

it finds your drive straight away and allows you to copy off all your data! Hope this helps.

Cheers

Thanks for sharing! Will check it out. (i found my corruption was fixed by a reinstall of firmware, the last step before i was going to do a factory default reset.). Rstudio didnt quite get all the files for some reason so luckily my system recovered. will give this a test and see how effective it is in find files and transfering those largee tham 4gig

doyley86 wrote:
Guys I have been struggling with this for months, I have found a simple easier way of restoring all my files using some free software called DiskInternals Linux Reader you can download it free from here:http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/ it finds your drive straight away and allows you to copy off all your data! Hope this helps.

It may work for some configurations, but not all. Would have to try it with the possible LVM layouts (stock install, expansions, x-raid/flex-raid) and page size (4kb/16kb).

Hi-

Just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for your support files for the ReadyNas Duo.
This is probably the worst piece of gear I've ever owned, and I own a lot of gear.

My DUO failed about 9 months ago and then after a USB Boot Recovery it started again...
A few days ago it crashed again. I wanted to transfer files and possibly throw this NetGear in the trash...
Basically I was getting the slow flashing blue with whirring fan that never resolves issue.
Ultimately, I think this is a problem with the device, not the drive.
NetGear support did reply with very basic steps that I'd already done, but couldn't really help.
So thanks for this forum everyone!

Note: I have not read the entire 9 page thread to see if this is duplicate info, but thought I would share.
I am also not personally into typing into terminals to get things done, but was able to follow the instructions from the original RAR file
(vito.vmw.Ubuntu9.rar) and I had to follow both READ ME files to get to near the end before having to come up with my own ending...
but with limited experience I was able to retrieve my files off the DUO.

As a MAC user, I ran into a few interesting things that I'd like to share but also it may help PC users....
I used a 1TB External USB drive, VM Fusion (which I already owned thankfully!) and an eSata to USB cable for the Duo.

After using the attached RAR file and instructions, I was able to get to the point where the original poster discussed attaching to Windows.
While I have a MAC running Snow Leopard and VMWare Fusion 4 with Windows 7 and RAR file's Ubuntu 9, I wasn't sure why I needed to leave Ubuntu 9 to copy these files.
It seemed unnecessary to involve OSX or WIN...i.e. Couldn't I just attach a drive to Ubuntu and copy the Duo to my USB drive?
Plus, I wasn't even sure I could use those instructions to run to virtual OS of WIN at the same time and attach one drive to one and the other drive to the other...
yeah...

So, I did the following...using the following additional commands...YMMV, but all of this was what finally worked for me.

Once the duo was mounted, I used this command to copy files from the duo to Ubuntu 9 Desktop as a test to check files right on the desktop:
cp -r duo/filefolder /home/readynas/Desktop
(where filefolder is the name of any folder on your Duo - These files came over locked but you can later remove them)

The files looked OK, so then I had to figure out how to mount the External USB drive.
I used this command to create a directory in Ubuntu to mount the external USB drive:
sudo mkdir /media/externalUSB
(where externalUSB was what I decided to call my external drive directory in Ubuntu)

After much experimentation, I found that I could mount the USB drive in read only on Ubuntu 9 but not write to it...
So, found the following code allowed me write access to my external drive:
mount -o force /dev/sdc2 /media/externalUSB
(where /dev/sdc2 was the name of the external drive in Ubuntu under System -> Admin -> Disk Utility)

Now with disc mounted, and write control, this command allowed me to copy the entire drive to my external USB drive:
cp -r duo /media/externalUSB

After a few hours...all of my files have copied safely to my new external USB drive and all was accomplished within VMWare running Ubuntu 9.

Also, as noted above, I found that when I copied the file folders previously in my test, it left locked folders on the desktop that could not be moved to the trash folder.
This command removed them:
rm -r /home/readynas/Desktop/filefolder

--------
I hope all of these notes help another person transfer files off their ReadyNas...

Thanks,
Rich @ Lunchbox Audio
lunchboxaudio.com

I would also like to add my experience with a failed Duo to this forum.
I was given a ReadyNAS Duo by my business partner. He said it had failed, he couldn't read the discs and one was probably not OK.
Couldn't get the Duo to work on another drive until I swapped the memory over. Two discs also seems problematical, although it is a little hard to tell - The duo isn't very talkative on how it is getting on :-)
I did notice the fan altered speed when the discs were accessed, so I am wondering about the power supply.
I will be talking to Netgear to see if they can help, although it is out of warranty - perhaps it is in the duff batch.

I then installed the linux image and VM, which installed and worked really well, except it couldn't see a partition.
data recovery by easeus also didn't work, but took a very long time. (I had purchased a full copy previously)
I then tried easeus partition manager/recovery - which was free and it found a NTFS partiton left over from a previous use in a PC and two deleted EXT3 partitions - one small at the front of the disk and obviously a linux instal, and the other was large and looked full of Appley files.
I think the NTFS partition records confused the data recovery software . Anyway it took 30 minutes to rebuild the large EXT3 partition, and then Sysinternals Linux Reader happily read it and offered to copy the files.
Extracted one of the video files and it seems to be fine, so I have left the owner to move the files he wants off the drive - mainly unedited holiday video footage.
So Consider the possibility the partion is there - just the records of it are gone, and that new software might make life easy.

Hope this helps

doyley86 wrote:
Guys I have been struggling with this for months, I have found a simple easier way of restoring all my files using some free software called DiskInternals Linux Reader you can download it free from here:http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/ it finds your drive straight away and allows you to copy off all your data! Hope this helps. Cheers

Thanks for this recommendation. Linux Reader worked perfectly for me. After removing the drive from my Duo and connecting it via USB, I was able to access the files within minutes. It even worked with large files (5-10GB), which supposedly could not be transferred with some of the other recovery methods.

rob_nelson wrote:

doyley86 wrote: Guys I have been struggling with this for months, I have found a simple easier way of restoring all my files using some free software called DiskInternals Linux Reader you can download it free from here:http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/ it finds your drive straight away and allows you to copy off all your data! Hope this helps. Cheers Thanks for this recommendation. Linux Reader worked perfectly for me. After removing the drive from my Duo and connecting it via USB, I was able to access the files within minutes. It even worked with large files (5-10GB), which supposedly could not be transferred with some of the other recovery methods.

Just want to note that McAfee warned against the download when I tried to download it.

Does this also work on drives in an NV?

It should the Infrant ReadyNAS NV is another Sparc NAS.