NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
The option "keep existing files" deleted my whole NAS 2.5TB!
I just bought another (already have one up and running) ReadyNAS Ultra 4 with 4 HD's of 2TB each + 2 Replicate licenses for the purpose of backing up my first NAS which has the same specs. On the first NAS I had 2.5TB of precious buisiness related data stored.
I installed replicate on both of them and it all started out fine. Before I set things up for real I wanted to test some backup/restore jobs just to get the hang of how it worked. So I made a small data backup of one simple folder on the first NAS and this went all fine. I made a few changes to the source folder and ran the backup job to see how the different versions ended up on the target NAS. Then I tested to restore this folder a couple of times from different versions without any problems.
Then I noticed this damn option in the data restore interface, "keep existing files", which is ticked by default. I tried to find any information on what this option was for and how it worked in detail, but couldn't find anything in the latest manual or on this forum! Those first couple of restores made me a bit confused on how replicate really handled files during its restore procedure.
So I thought that I would try a restore with that option un-checked to see if I could make more sense. As the backup job was a data backup (meaning I did chose a specific folder) and NOT a system backup, I was convinced this option ONLY INVOLVED files that was in the actual data backup job (in other words, only affect files and folders inside the chosen folder for the data backup). So I ran this restore and it started but got stuck on its initial "calculating"-state for a couple of minutes and finally I canceled the restore thinking something went wrong.
I totally freaked out when I saw that EVERYTHING EXCEPT that tiny folder I was playing with WAS GONE on my first NAS!!!!!!! This god forsaken option turned out to have everything to do with data outside of the actual folder that the data backup job was intended for!
Why the he** would anyone want to have an option for data based restores that wipes out all existing data OUTSIDE of the specified folder on the entire target NAS!!!!!!!!!????????????
Even if there where some strange situation when one would want this, IT SHOULD BE CRYSTAL CLEAR for the user that this option affects data outside of the folder specified in the data backup job. A simple warning message would have saved 10 years worth of business data! This option should be renamed to "Keep existing files OUTSIDE of the chosen folder" or even better "Delete the entire target NAS before restoring this data job" (that would also have saved my data).
So I want to shout out a big WARNING to every one here, so you don't make my mistake!
I doubt there is any jedi mind tricks to get my data back?? :cry:
I installed replicate on both of them and it all started out fine. Before I set things up for real I wanted to test some backup/restore jobs just to get the hang of how it worked. So I made a small data backup of one simple folder on the first NAS and this went all fine. I made a few changes to the source folder and ran the backup job to see how the different versions ended up on the target NAS. Then I tested to restore this folder a couple of times from different versions without any problems.
Then I noticed this damn option in the data restore interface, "keep existing files", which is ticked by default. I tried to find any information on what this option was for and how it worked in detail, but couldn't find anything in the latest manual or on this forum! Those first couple of restores made me a bit confused on how replicate really handled files during its restore procedure.
So I thought that I would try a restore with that option un-checked to see if I could make more sense. As the backup job was a data backup (meaning I did chose a specific folder) and NOT a system backup, I was convinced this option ONLY INVOLVED files that was in the actual data backup job (in other words, only affect files and folders inside the chosen folder for the data backup). So I ran this restore and it started but got stuck on its initial "calculating"-state for a couple of minutes and finally I canceled the restore thinking something went wrong.
I totally freaked out when I saw that EVERYTHING EXCEPT that tiny folder I was playing with WAS GONE on my first NAS!!!!!!! This god forsaken option turned out to have everything to do with data outside of the actual folder that the data backup job was intended for!
Why the he** would anyone want to have an option for data based restores that wipes out all existing data OUTSIDE of the specified folder on the entire target NAS!!!!!!!!!????????????
Even if there where some strange situation when one would want this, IT SHOULD BE CRYSTAL CLEAR for the user that this option affects data outside of the folder specified in the data backup job. A simple warning message would have saved 10 years worth of business data! This option should be renamed to "Keep existing files OUTSIDE of the chosen folder" or even better "Delete the entire target NAS before restoring this data job" (that would also have saved my data).
So I want to shout out a big WARNING to every one here, so you don't make my mistake!
I doubt there is any jedi mind tricks to get my data back?? :cry:
7 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- I thought the whole point of a data based backup was that it worked on a specific folder or folders. No matter how you play around with a data based backup or restore, it should NOT interfere with any other data than whats in those folders one have chosen.
Im shocked that a company that sells high end backup solutions where secure data handling is the key (one would presume that their worst case scenario is a users total data loss caused by their product), puts out an option in a restore process that is designed for a specific folder or folders, that actually makes this worst case scenario so easily achieved! Its insane and makes no freaking sense!
Its almost like if an airline company would put a "crash this plane"-button on an airplane that actually works and kills every one if any one pushed it! - Contact support, they may be able to help you retrieve your data
- Hi Vandermerwe,
I have submitted an online ticket at Netgears support page but havnt got any answer yet.
I have also been in contact with an "advanced" user here on the forums through PM's that have asked a jedi for help, but havnt got any answer from the jedi yet so I have been advised to use the "Need immediate help?" post at the top of this forum. I will do this shortly.
I'll share some lines from that PM conversation just to give you all some updates on the issue (the italic part is my words and the quoted frames is his answers):
I find it hard to believe that the restore process, that only ran for a couple of minutes before I canceled the process, really has overwritten 2.5 TB of data on those minutes. I believe it just altered the "TOC" of the volume on the NAS and that most of the data could still be there on the disks, just not visible cause there is no longer a reference to the data in the TOC. What do you think?It wouldn't have overwritten the data, just deleted it. Still would be enough to make data recovery difficult at best and most likely impossible.
Worth mention is also that I expanded this NAS from 4x500GB to 4x2TB disks 6 months ago and those old 500 GB disks have not been altered with since. If there is no possible way of retrieving the data that was lost, maybe these 6 months old 500 GB disks could be used to restore data from that point in time. That would still be millions times better than nothing. I have searched here on the forums about this and it seems there is not possible to just put these 4 old disks in a NAS and fire it up and expect it to work. If I have understood this right, the problem is that the expanding process is done one disk at a time, so these disks may no longer be in sync.Yes. Not maybe no longer in sync, definitely no longer in sync. Unless you removed all the old disks at the same time they'd be useless for recovering your data now.
But someone on the forums said one could try and mount these in a linux based system and hopefully be able to read some data from them. Here is a link: http://home.bott.ca/webserver/?p=306Your current array might be able to be mounted that way, and you could try running some recovery utilities on it.
One option would be to clone the disks using dd_rescue that way if you make a mistake after cloning the disks you may still have some chance of recovering some data. - That's correct. Unless you powered down the NAS then removed all disks before powering on again, the old disks would be useless.
The data recovery using Linux would only possibly work with your disks that are currently in the NAS or a clone. - It sounds like you did a "system" restore from the backup unit to the source unit and unchecked the default option "keep existing files"? If so, that will bring all the files from the backup to the source, just like if you do a system restore on a windows or Mac, it is a destructive process.
If you did a data backup and restore it would only operation on the files and folder that were specified in the job, but a system backup/restore is the entire system. cap1 wrote: It sounds like you did a "system" restore from the backup unit to the source unit and unchecked the default option "keep existing files"? If so, that will bring all the files from the backup to the source, just like if you do a system restore on a windows or Mac, it is a destructive process.
Not according to his post. Maybe you can look at logs to verify?moonsplash wrote: As the backup job was a data backup (meaning I did chose a specific folder) and NOT a system backup, I was convinced this option ONLY INVOLVED files that was in the actual data backup job (in other words, only affect files and folders inside the chosen folder for the data backup). Hello, did you ever work out a solution for the undelete problem?
I have had a similar problem with my new readyNAS 314.
In the process of testing the backup and restore function on a small subset of data, it managed to wipe out all of my data, including all the photos I have of my family going back 15 years.
There was no warning that this would happen with the restore function. None. Zip.
Disappointed with the product, and very disappointed with the Netgear customer support so far (i.e. insincere apologies and not much else).
My previous offsite backup drive was stolen from with a bunch of other equpiment in a break in last week, hence the decision to update the backup strategy. I didn't expect this to happen!
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
n
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
