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Forum Discussion
ReadyNAS 104 lost X-RAID volume after degraded disk replacement
Hi all, my RN104 (6.2.4) reported a failed disk (#3 of 4 3TB disks) with the data degraded msg. I removed the disk and connected to my Win10 PC to check. Disk Management recognized the disk. I del...
vtech92 wrote:
...this time disk 1 was blinking and now I have lost my X-RAID volumes. Unfortunately I do not have a backup.
My log shows that at the exact same time, the sync completed but another disk failed.
The second disk failure is what caused you to lose the volume. X-RAID/RAID-5 has single redundancy, so it can't repair two failed disks. This failure likely would have happened if you'd inserted a new disk also. The RAID resync requires reading every sector of the original disks (which allows it to recover the data on the new blank disk).
Unfortunately, you just learned the hard way that RAID is not enough to keep your data safe.
vtech92 wrote:
I am curious what my overall path to recovery looks like (if any). I'm open to Prosupport (only option Netgear offers for RN104 is Prosupport for Home) or 3rd party recovery SW.
Recovery from multiple disk failures is problematic, and you made it more difficult by reformatting disk 3.
One thing you could attempt is to clone disk 1 with a software package that supports sector-by-sector cloning. Then reboot the NAS in read-only mode with the clone installed (instead of disk 1), and with disks 2 and 4. Leave disk 3 out, as you don't want the NAS to resync. Note I don't recommend cloning to the original disk 3 - you want to clone to disk you are sure is healthy. If that works, then immediately back up your data.
Netgear does have a recovery service - they charge by the hour, and offer no guarantee of success. This is not covered by normal support contracts - more details are here: https://kb.netgear.com/69/ReadyNAS-Data-Recovery-Diagnostics-Scope-of-Service
There are some software recovery packages that support btrfs. One that several folks have used with success is ReclaiMe. https://www.reclaime.com/ You'd need a way to connect all four drives to the PC though. USB adapter/docks can be used for this.
Thanks for the quick response Stephen.
A couple of questions to help me form my strategy:
- Was the resync of #3 not completed?
- Can I basically use disk 3 as a "fresh" disk and use to clone of #1? Or buy another WD30EFRX CMR. They're not readily avilable but I think I can find one still
So to clarify the sequence of recovery:
- Attempt to clone disk #1, if that does not work,
- Consider Reclaime for recovery. I can connect all to my PC MB via sata ports
It sounds like buying a ProSupport contract is not going to do much more for me. Is that true?
Thanks again
vtech92 wrote:
A couple of questions to help me form my strategy:
- Was the resync of #3 not completed?
Hard to say from your log. One more thing you could try is to power down, remove disk 1, and then reboot (read-only from the boot menu), and see if that works. Again, if it does you need to back up as much as you can w/o delay - since disk 3 is suspect.
vtech92 wrote:- Can I basically use disk 3 as a "fresh" disk and use to clone of #1?
I don't recommend that, as it might still be useful in recovery as it is.
vtech92 wrote:It sounds like buying a ProSupport contract is not going to do much more for me.
It doesn't cover data recovery, so I don't think it will help.
Hi, an update on my data recovery journey. After a few weeks of trying different things, I finally have recovered my data using ReclaiMe.
For your and others information, here is the sequence of events:
- Clone/copy disk #1 using hardware
- Using a 2-bay disk duplicator, attempted to clone disk 1 to a new 3TB disk. The duplicator would not read disk #1.
- Clone/copy disk 1 using SW
- Connected disk #1 to Win PC via sata
- Attempted to clone or copy disk using a number of applications. None worked.
- They all returned errors, all related to I/O issues
- I swapped sata cables and ports, nothing worked
- I'm quite concerned disk #1 is truly dead....although Win disk management shows it is healthy
- Checked to see if RAID array can be detected
- Used a few applications to check if they recognize the RAID array
- They all did but non-would complete the process. They all seem to stall at some point.
- Decided to use ReclaiMe File Recovery to detect RAID array and find files
- Connected all 4 disks to WIn 10 PC via sata
- ReclaiMe Ui is a bit old school but was actually pretty intuitive
- It began finding files and folder structures
- It stated that when files and folders are found, I can save/recover them while in process
- I decided to activate ReclaiMe File Recovery Ultimate and see if files can actually be recovered
- After multiple days of continuos detection and file recovery, I have recovered the data that matters to me...so it worked.
I think the post mortem validates that while disk #3 was resyncing, disk #1 failed big time. I'm lucky there was enough data integrity and physical life left in the failed drives for ReclaiMe to recover the ~3TB of data.
Going foward, I'll be trying a different RAID approach and of course backing up the data. Thanks for the insight and guidance.
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