Headcase0570

Commendable
Nov 18, 2016
3
0
1,510
Hello everyone,

I'm hoping someone here has the insight on how to speed up a data recovery thats been running since december last year... yeah im not kidding about that.

Here's the scenario
I've got a Synology DS114+, with 2x Western Digital 3Tb green label harddrive set up in DSM's Hybrid RAID config. Sometime last year I made the mistake of not double-checking what I was going to delete when I removed one of the root directories containing years of personal documents, pictures, you name it. Normally when you've got the recycle-bin option enabled binnen DSM you can simply recover items as you would in any other OS. This does not go for the root folder structures though. Yes, there are warnings, yes, there's a line of text you need to enter confirming you're sure of what you're doing. A messy break-up and sufficient alcohol will lead you to drastic actions which will come back to bite you. anyhow..
I've used the NAS for a while before realising my mistake, I understand how this might have overwritten my deleted data.

I've contacted Synology support, they've looked into it but told me they can't help me, the removal is definitive. Through some googling i've found several tutorials on the subject, both yieling minimal result however. The last recovery had run for about 6 months and managed to recover about 3 to 5 items PER DAY. That stopped earlier today when there was a power outage in my block and I don't have a UPS for this system.

So here's what i'm looking for:
If my googling gave me the correct information DMS writes disk in the EXT3 format, most recovery software does not support this. I'm looking for one that does.
Second, It'd be great if I had a choice in what data would be recovered, selecting what I want, ignoring what I dont. (Really, I can re-download all those seasons of The Simpsons).
Because of the size of the harddrives, a pause/continue function would be great, nothing is more frustrating than restarting a disk recovery after it's just ran for 6 months just to see it start back up from square 1.

Related question, would one harddrive suffice for recovery (Synology Hybrid RAID) or would I also need to connect them both, somehow mimic the RAID set and then recover? (bigger question, HOW?!)

Bonus question, which system specs matters the most during a data recovery?

Ofcourse i'd prefer a freeware solution, but if the price is within reasonable home-consumer range I'm willing to consider.




 
Solution
There is a command-line Linux utility called TestDisk. Hoping that your RAID was mirroring, and not stripping, you can boot live Linux CD on a computer where one of these disks are connected, and see what you can recover.

If I was you, I would get spare 3TB disk, make an image copy, and play with that copy.

moulderhere

Honorable
Oct 8, 2012
80
0
10,610
I do data recovery for a lot of people. It is a huge pain staking process, there are many, MANY settings to consider when doing data recovery.

How much experience do you have with data recovery? What programs have you used?

p.s. my data recovery dedicated computer runs on a battery backup. When you start a data recovery job most scans just to know if any data is there take 72 hours minimum. It is always best to have it on battery backup.





 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
1. 3TB WD Green drives in a RAID - aarrrhhhhhggggg! :no:
Those drives are really, really not meant for any RAID application.

2. Any RAID should be supported by an actual backup.

3. It it has been running since December (9 months??), I'd have just written it off by now.

4. Data deleted last year is almost certainly gone.
 

Headcase0570

Commendable
Nov 18, 2016
3
0
1,510


Thanks for your replies, allow me to elaborate further.

Bought the unit second hand in this configuration. Primary use of the diskstation was to act as a torrent/newsgroup download station. When formatting the harddrive on my PC I moved my personal files to the NAS as a temporary storage and forgot about it.

It has been running for 9 months using a freeware tool Quick photo recovery, I dont recommend it but it worked albeit slowly. I removed the drives from the NAS and plugged them into a Windows machine, no futher writes to the disks have been done since... read only.

I've got a fair bit of experience with data recovery, though not with this EXT3/Hybrid RAID scenario. Usually the powergrid is stable enough that outages occur once every 10 years, maybe. Rotten luck I suppose. It's a one-off thing doing this at home, investing $100+ in a small 800Va APC seemed a bit overkill but i'll consider it. My experience lies mainly within a corporate server park, and small recoveries where Recuva does the trick.
 

S Haran

Honorable
Jul 12, 2013
3
0
10,510
First know that Synology uses Linux Software RAID aka mdadm under the hood. And their Hybrid RAID is just an LVM extension on top of that. So where the Synology is built on Linux performing recovery work from Linux will give the best results. Therefore it helps if you have basic Linux skills.

In this case a recovery taking months would indicate there are drive issues involved. A good first step is to check the drives SMART health status. You can do that from Linux with command smartctl or from Windows with a tool like CrystalDiskInfo.

The path forward will depend on the condition of the drives so if you would like more help post back and we can go from there.

The good news is recovery is very often possible from these failed NAS units. I've worked on hundreds of remote RAID/NAS recovery cases including many Synology recoveries.

 

Headcase0570

Commendable
Nov 18, 2016
3
0
1,510
Linux, it's been a while since I used that. What Linux/recovery software would you recommend?
S.M.A.R.T. says both drives are still in optimal condition. The freeware tool I have been using up until last weekend did a sector-based recovery and my external drivebay is this cheapo chinesium one, I'd probably get a higher throughput using one thats USB3.0 inistead of 2.0(link)

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S Haran

Honorable
Jul 12, 2013
3
0
10,510
I'm partial to Debian and lately I've been recommending Kali Linux. You can use it to make a bootable USB flash drive.

In data recovery it is best to avoid the USB layer and connect the drives via SATA.

When you get Linux running show the drives and partitions with command: lsblk -o name,label,type,size,tran,vendor,model,rev

This will go much faster over chat. If you want to setup a chat session shoot me a PM.

 
There is a command-line Linux utility called TestDisk. Hoping that your RAID was mirroring, and not stripping, you can boot live Linux CD on a computer where one of these disks are connected, and see what you can recover.

If I was you, I would get spare 3TB disk, make an image copy, and play with that copy.
 
Solution