ReadyNAS Data Recovery - VMware recovery tool

bmorden wrote:

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. Hope this helps

I have tried all the VM methods but failed. (vgscan couldn't detect any volume in my case)

However, bmorden's method worked for me. Here's how I did it in Windows with a USB sata cable:

1. Run the free easeus partition recovery tool.
2. Run the complete scan by using sector range (put sector range as 1 - 1000000. Should take about only 5 min. Without the range, it takes hours! to complete the scan)
3. It should detect the 'c' volume. Double click to explore and make sure it is ALL the data you need.
4. Then proceed to recover the partition.
5. Run Sysinternals Linux Reader and recover all the files needed from the 'c' volume. (this may take some time)

That's it! All the best!

Thanks bmorden!