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[Barney1963]

Is there any way that I can remove the HDDs from my NAS, put them into a SATA caddy and read/copy the contents on to my PC?
I presume it uses a propriety format.

Barney

[Barney1963]

I've just read the Sticky recommending Ext2IFS, on a secondary note is there software available for the Mac OS X?

Barney

[ivan]

The DNS-320 formats the drives with either Ext2 or Ext3 - standard Linux formats.

The problem arises when you want to read what is on the drives when they are not in the unit.  If you formatted and set them up as either Standard drives or RAID 1 then you should not have problems - provided you can find a way to read the Linux file system.  If, on the other hand, you set them up as JBOD or RAID 0 then problems are there because of the way the data is stored on the disks.

[Barney1963]

They are set up as Standard.

Barney

[ivan]

That means that you should have no problem provided you can find the necessary software or IFS to read Ext2/3 format.

I know very little about OS-X and the Mac hardware so I don't know if the following is possible but here is what I have done in an emergency (the computer was a standard PC).

1) power off NAS and extract ONE drive. 
2) fit that drive into an SATA/USB caddy.
3) boot the PC with a live Linux DVD.
4) plug in the SATA/USB caddy with the NAS disk.
5) open the file manager and check that the USB drive and the PC HD are available (or use a second USB disk).
6) copy the required files.
7) when finished copying eject the SATA/USB caddy, remove the disk and replace in the NAS.
goto step 2 with the other drive if it is not part of a RAID 1 array.

In my case I used a portable USB drive as the destination rather than the PC hard drive.  This allow the client to keep the NAS data separate and continue working until we were able to replace the dead NAS power supply.

A quick Google search shows that there is some Ext2/3 software available for OS-X but it appears to be dependant on which version of OS-X you have.

[Barney1963]

It is OS X Mavericks Version 10.9.2
I can also put the drive in a USB caddy into (or directly into) a Windows Vista PC.
I tried using Ext2IFS on a XP laptop but it didn't appear to see the NAS drive in a USB caddy

Barney

[ivan]

Please don't put the drive directly into a windows PC if you value the data on it - windows will do something to it which will mean you will have to reformat before you can use it again.

Since you have access to a windows machine it simplifies getting at your data.   

The first thing you need to confirm is that the windows machine actually 'sees' the USB caddy - this may be a problem if the caddy is powered by the USB port because not all USB ports supply enough power on their own.  If that is the case you will need a powered hub (most of the USB powered caddies are designed for either 2.5" disks or low current 3.5" disks and don't like standard 3.5" disks).

I am not sure what is available on the open market because we use custom built SATA/USB adapters based on Icybox mobile rack units in our service department.

[baltzatu]

I've been using Ext2Fsd for over two years and it works flawlessly. Windows will do nothing to your drive, unless you tell it to. I've attached a bunch of ext2/3/4 formatted HDDs to my Windows 7 box without any issues, even have Debian installed on my HDD (Windows is installed on SSD), and those partitions are left alone

[ivan]

baltzatu, you should qualify your statement about windows doing nothing to the drive by adding 'if you take care and read all the messages and not just click on OK'   Otherwise it is good to hear that Ext3Fsd is working well (we don't use windows here except for an XP install in a VM to test for problems that people bring in).

[baltzatu]

My comment was supposed to be self explanatory, but you're right. Just don't format any partition, even if Windows asks you to

Booting from a Linux Live CD/DVD/stick is also a solution (probably the best and safest one). Funny how no one mentioned it

[ivan]

You did notice my point 3 in the sequence I gave

The reason I mentioned not letting windows do anything to a disk is because we see too many people with problems because they have just clicked OK at a prompt without reading what it said or thinking about it.  Although I shouldn't complain too loudly because we make money from it.

[JavaLawyer]

That means that you should have no problem provided you can find the necessary software or IFS to read Ext2/3 format.

I know very little about OS-X and the Mac hardware so I don't know if the following is possible but here is what I have done in an emergency (the computer was a standard PC).

1) power off NAS and extract ONE drive. 
2) fit that drive into an SATA/USB caddy.
3) boot the PC with a live Linux DVD.
4) plug in the SATA/USB caddy with the NAS disk.
5) open the file manager and check that the USB drive and the PC HD are available (or use a second USB disk).
6) copy the required files.
7) when finished copying eject the SATA/USB caddy, remove the disk and replace in the NAS.
goto step 2 with the other drive if it is not part of a RAID 1 array.

In my case I used a portable USB drive as the destination rather than the PC hard drive.  This allow the client to keep the NAS data separate and continue working until we were able to replace the dead NAS power supply.

A quick Google search shows that there is some Ext2/3 software available for OS-X but it appears to be dependant on which version of OS-X you have.

Hi Ivan -- would you be okay with me converting this content/procedure to an FAQ entry? (with appropriate credits of course...)\

[ivan]

Hi Java,

No problem with that.  The main thing is that it will hopefully help someone that is in a bind - which is the reason I try and help out here.

[JavaLawyer]

Hi Java,

No problem with that.  The main thing is that it will hopefully help someone that is in a bind - which is the reason I try and help out here.

Thanks again for your contribution ivan, please see the following link: DNS ShareCenter - Data Recovery Using an External SATA/USB Caddy. Please let me know if you have additional information that could bolster/elaborate on the content.