Reading NAS disk when NAS has failed

http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

Try that ( runs on your PC) , it should work with one of the disk connected to your PC.

Well it sees the drive says it's Volume 3 (Linux RAID, Linux). But when I click on the drive it returns Can't Open Disk, Check the Disk and Try Again. The drive light flashes so I'm sure I'm looking at the right one. And when I use windows to disconnect the drive and then power off the external drive this disappears from the DiskInternals window. I also tried the "Open Partition" option with the same error. Under Properties it identifies the drive as having a GPT Partition. My windows drives have an MBR Partition.
I connected the disk to the PC with a USB 3.0 drive enclosure.

Did you try both disks?
Check the disks using vendor tools.

You say the unit does not power on despite the power supply being ok and that this happened just after you completed a backup, correct?
What happens when you try to power up?

Is the unit still under warranty and did the drives come with it when you purchased, I suspect you are going to say you are not the first owner.

Linux Reader certainly works with the sparc platforms - though other people have had this same issue with x86 and arm (OS5) systems - viewtopic.php?f=7&t=71897

Some people have reported success with R-Studio for Windows. That is not free (http://www.data-recovery-software.net/). I haven't used this tool, so I don't know which version you need - if you try it I suggest you download the free trial first.

You can also mount the disks in a linux system (getting a linux boot CD for your PC). That is likely free - though again I haven't tried it.

Warranty on the ultra is three years btw (not transferable).

When I hit the power button the blue light doesn't come on. This uses the same power supply as my NAS Duo so I swapped power supplies with no change in the functioning of either system.
I brought the unit new and installed two 1TB WD RE drives that were on the Netgear approved list. (I don't buy used electronics for critical applications)
The NAS Ultra went out of warranty in May.
I had been running automatic backups to it from the PC since I installed the NAS. What I did was force a full back-up instead of the usual incremental backup thinking it would make for a cleaner restore.
I also have an NAS Duo that's been backing up my wife's computer (also purchased new). I took both of the disk's out of my NAS Duo and stuck in one of the disks from the Ultra+ thinking that would let me read it. The NAS Duo promptly formatted the disk (doesn't even have the courtesy to ask for a confirmation). So I'm down to one disk with my data on it.
Note that I have upgraded the disk capacity in my NAS Duo twice (from the original 250Gb that it came with, to dual 500 Gb, and most recently to dual 1TB drives - always using what Netgear recommended).

Perhaps try StephenB's suggestion of booting your PC with a Linux boot cd and trying to read the disk.
I think Ubuntu makes this really straightforward.

Both your duo and your ultra will automatically wipe disks when you insert them. Also, the RAID mode used in the duo is different from the one used in the ultra. The OS stored on the ultra disks will not boot in the duo (and vice versa).

If you were to buy a new RN312, I believe Netgear would help you migrate data from your ultra disk. I'm not sure on whether that is part of normal warranty support or not - mdgm would know.

So there are 4 options potentially to recover data
(a) Pick up another ultra or pro model somewhere, and migrate your existing disk.
(b) Use a Linux boot CD in the windows PC (requires some experimentation)
(c) Use R-Studio in the Windows PC (requires some cash and some experimentation)
(d) Get a new NAS and have Netgear support migrate the data

Well; here's what I've tried so far:
Used DiscInternals Linux_Reader on the drive connected to USB - no success
Test: Took a drive and formatted it in the ReadyNAS Duo and installed it as an internal drive. DiskInternals read it and copied files to an external NTFS drive.
Replaced the internally mounted Duo drive with the one from the Utra 2+ and DiskInternals saw it, but said it couldn't read it. Removed the Ultra 2+ drive while doing further experimentation.
Put Ubuntu onto a DVD and booted the computer into Ubuntu. Ubuntu didn't recognize the ReadyNAS drives in the USB mounts, but did recognize the external and internal NTFS drives. Shutdown and connected the Ultra 2+ drive internally. Rebooted. Ubuntu saw the drive, showed the partitions, but didn't automatically mount it. When I tried using the disc utility to access it Ubuntu crashed. Repeated several times with same results.
So I found an online vendor selling new Ultra2+ (for more than a ReadyNAS 312). But how do I know that the Ultra 2+ isn't going to reformat the disc when I install it?

I would first try option (d) in StephenB's last post before buying an overpriced Ultra 2+.

The Ultra 2+ would not wipe the disk if it were inserted while nas was off. You would need to verify the unit was working and update the firmware on it with a different disk first, before using the existing data containing disk.

Assuming the array in the Ultra 2+ is fine, you should be able to move the disks across to a 312, backup your data, do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything), then restore your data from backup.

It would be advisable to put a spare disk (must not be from your array) in the 312, update the firmware to the latest, verify the update was successful, power down, remove the spare disk, then migrate your disks across.

It is important that you boot the NAS normally and don't do an OS re-install. An OS re-install would try to put OS6 on the disks, which is not what you want till your data is recovered.


However your two disk array is no longer redundant. It is recommended to only migrate redundant arrays where possible, but hopefully a single disk from your two disk array should work.

I certainly would not recommend buying a legacy model for more than the price of a new model.


To mount the data volume in Ubuntu you would need to do something like this in the Terminal:

# mdadm --assemble --scan
# vgscan
# vgchange -a y
# mount -o ro /dev/c/c /mnt

Where /mnt is the mount point (could be something else, the above is just an example).

If it complains about missing packages you would need to install those:

# apt-get update && apt-get install mdadm lvm2

Then try again.

when you are done:

# cd
# umount /mnt
# vgchange -a n
# mdadm --stop --scan

Note however that if you attempt data recovery yourself you can reduce the chances that someone else can help you recover your data if it comes to that (as you have found as one of your disks has been wiped).