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Forum Discussion
TerryG80
Apr 11, 2023Aspirant
Dead RN104, is data recovery possible?
Hello everyone, Recently my RN104, running firmware 6.10.8, died. I've been looking around and have come across a couple different ways to potentially recover the data and was hoping to get a li...
StephenB
Apr 11, 2023Guru - Experienced User
TerryG80 wrote:
Recently my RN104, running firmware 6.10.8, died.
Can you give us a bit more info on what happened? One possiblity is that the power brick failed (and that is easily replaced).
Another is that your issue is disk-related (which would limit your options for recovery).
TerryG80 wrote:
The first option I saw was to buy the same system and place the old drives in. Am I correct in thinking that this would work?
It would work if volume wasn't somehow corrupted when it failed.
Examples of such corruption -
- If the NAS failed with cached writes (data not yet written to the disks), then the volume would be out-of-sync. In most of these cases, the volume can be forcibly mounted, and you'd get almost all the data back. But it does depend on what was cached.
- If the hardware failed due to a power surge, then it is quite possible that two or more disks also failed because of the surge. Nothing would could be recovered in that case.
Note you wouldn't be limited to an RN104. An RN214 or an RN424 would be newer than your RN104 (and also faster). You could migrate to any OS-6 NAS with enough bays (or even to Pro or Ultra ReadyNAS if you first convert it to OS-6).
TerryG80 wrote:
Another option I've seen is to connect the drives to a computer and, depending on OS, run a program (in Windows) or mount them as a raid array (in Linux) and the data should be available. Am I understanding this correctly?
Two different options really.
Mounting them manually with linux is just doing the steps the NAS does when it mounts the array. You could still run into the cached write problem above (and the forcible mount would be the same whether done in a replacement NAS or on the PC). You'd need some skills with linux.
The program in Windows would be RAID recovery software that supports the BTRFS file system. This software can recover data even when the volume is out-of-sync or otherwise damaged. You'd need to off-load the data (perhaps to USB drives), as the software never mounts the array. ReclaiMe is the software I've seen here most often, and several folks have reported it was successful.
- TerryG80Apr 11, 2023AspirantA storm caused a surge through the phone line. It took out my modem, the access point that was connected to the modem, and the NAS which was connected to the access point. I felt like an idiot, and still do, for not having some type of surge protection on the phone line.
All the power adapters for the previously mentioned devices were connected to a surge protector, and seem to be working fine. The NAS power supply lights green, and I don't notice any flickering when attempting to start the NAS.
It happened overnight, so I'm hoping the NAS was in standby mode and there isn't any cached data.
I have a little experience with Linux, so I'm not afraid to give that a shot if it comes down to it.
Thanks for the reply and info about the other models. It's definitely something I will keep in mind.
Terry- StephenBApr 11, 2023Guru - Experienced User
TerryG80 wrote:
All the power adapters for the previously mentioned devices were connected to a surge protector, and seem to be working fine. The NAS power supply lights green, and I don't notice any flickering when attempting to start the NAS.Does RAIDar find the NAS when it's on the network?
If it does, what status is it giving you?
If not, try powering down, removing the disks, and powering up again. See if the NAS reports a diskless status in RAIDar.
- TerryG80Apr 12, 2023AspirantIt doesn't power on either with or without the drives installed.
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