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[itofficer]

I reset my DNS-320L but remove the disk first due to forgotten password. After resetting, I returned the disk and was prompted that i need to have it reformat.

my question:

1. Is there any possibility of data loss if I have it reformat and rebuild the disks?
2. How could I possibly get my data from the drives?

Hope to get an immediate response on this. TIA.

[FurryNutz]

Link>Welcome!

• What Hardware version is your DNS? Look at the sticker behind or under the device.
• Link>What Firmware version is currently loaded? Found on the DNSs web page under status.
• What region are you located?

I would review this:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=50772.0

As a reminder, you can always reset the DNS while the drives are installed, it only clears the user configuration of the DNS, doesn't touch the drives.

[itofficer]

What Hardware version is your DNS? Look at the sticker behind or under the device.  ---> A3
Link>What Firmware version is currently loaded? Found on the DNSs web page under status. ---> 1.01
What region are you located? --> Philippines

I am currently recovering the drives using UFS but unfortunately its having problem. I returned the drives back to DNS and setup it again (after reset), which requires me to reformat again the drives which I did not do it.

I just reset the unit (via small hole underneath) but have the drives pulled out.

CAN ANYONE HELP ME WHAT TO DO? I badly needs the files. Thanks in advance.

[ivan]

First thing STOP what you are doing with the drives and NAS box you could easily lose all your data.  The NAS uses a SOFTWARE RAID system and formats the disks with the Linux Ext3 or 4 file system.  Trying to read those disks with a windows operation system will destroy the data because windows assumes the disks need formatting with its ntfs system.

Now a few questions;
1) how were your drives setup?  Raid 0, Raid 1, Jbod, other?
2) you say you have removed at least one drive and later imply you removed both, which is it, one or both?
3) why did you reset the unit?
4) can I assume the data is important and you don't have a back up?
5) what is this UFS that you mention as a way of recovering your data?

Note:  The more you mess about with the disks without knowing what you are doing the greater likelihood of you losing all your data.
Until I know how the drives were setup (formatted) I can't advise you what to do to recover your data.   

I should also ask what computer equipment do you have available to assist in recovery?

[itofficer]

1) how were your drives setup?  Raid 0, Raid 1, Jbod, other? - Raid 1 - 2 1tb HDD
2) you say you have removed at least one drive and later imply you removed both, which is it, one or both? i removed both. sorry for the confusion
3) why did you reset the unit? forgotten password. Previous IT resigned
4) can I assume the data is important and you don't have a back up? YES
5) what is this UFS that you mention as a way of recovering your data? UFS Raid recovery software

thank you for answering immediately. right now, i am not doing anything with the disk. I am currently thinking of returning it back to DNS and continue with the process in setting up the DNS but patiently hoping that I got the right advise before proceeding.

Lastly, I have an i5 pc which I used to recover the data. I can freely switch to Ubuntu or Windows.

[ivan]

Good, assuming there isn't too much damage to the data you should be able to recover it.

1) First thing is to put the disk you have not tried to recover data from to one side - it can be considered as an emergency backup.
2) Next, get a USB/SATA caddy or adapter that has an external power supply.
3) Insert one of the disks into the caddy or plug the adapter to the disk.
4) Start your computer with Ubuntu and attach the USB cable from the caddy/adapter.
5) All going well you should see the drive and all your data.
6) Copy the data to a safe place - another USB drive or the computer hard disk if there is enough free space.

Once your data is safe you can return the drives to the NAS, format them as RAID 1 and restore the data.
Good luck with recovery.

I would say here please do yourself a favour and ensure you have a backup of your data - it will prevent panic should other problems occur in the future.
 

[itofficer]

Thanks again for the reply.

Questions:

1. Do i really need a USB/SATA caddy or can I just plugged-in like an internal disk before booting the Ubuntu. Already tried as an internal disk using ubuntu and mouting it as mdadm but having problem but as an external, i haven't tried that.
2. the last part you said to have them format as RAID 1 and restore the data means reformating and use the DNS recovery software?

Once again I appreciate greatly your effort to help.

[ivan]

To answer your questions.

When I was working, retired now, we did a lot of data recovery from various NAS units and found it was a lot easier to use an external USB unit.  By doing that the operating system does not take over the drive at boot up.  We standardised on the atolla USB 3 to SATA external units https://www.atolla.us/product/atolla-asta-usb-docking-station/  because they are easy to use and work well if there are only USB 2 sockets available.

When you restart your NAS the drives will appear as new units therefore just follow the instructions in the manual for setting up a RAID 1 array.  When that is up and running just transfer the data back over the network.  For the rebuild raid/recovery  to work it has to have some data there to use and the system being a software raid you can't start with data on the disk and rebuild from that (such things can be done with hardware raid but that costs big money( thousands).

I hope this is of help.

[itofficer]

Thank you very much for your help. Will purchase caddy to continue the restoration. Had learn a valuable lesson on this issue. I guess its a my mistake that I rely on raids. Will be implementing changes for the system and data backup.

God bless

[ivan]

Just one last comment.  You did nothing wrong by using a RAID 1 array to store your data, it is by far the better array for long term storage because it offers the ability to automatically restore the array if one disk fails (the disks have identical content).  My 7 NAS boxes here are all RAID 1 with the oldest being 12 years old and has had 2 disks, replaced when disks died, and no loss of data.  One thing I do have over and above what you would find in a normal home situation is that all NAS are powered through a rather large Uninterruptable power supply (UPS).

The only mistake you made was to unplug the disks when you did the reset.  Any form of reset on most NAS boxes will NOT touch the data on the disks, in fact the manufacturers have gone to great lengths to prevent loss of data in normal circumstances.

Good luck with the recovery and please let us know if you succeeded (to help others with similar problems)

[itofficer]

Hi. Just followed your instructions already using the caddy with power. I booted the ubuntu and finally inserted the drive via usb caddy. It did show the hdd and their partitions but i cannot mount the drive. i issue also

sudo mdadm -D /dev/<sdd2> but prompted
mdadm: /dev/sdd2 does not appear to be an md device

Am i doing anything wrong? Thanks again

[ivan]

Why would you want to mount the drive since it is already mounted?  With newer versions of Ubuntu external USB drives are mounted automatically when plugged in.

All you need to do is open the file manager, find the drive in the left panel, open it and drag files to where you want to store them - can be another external drive but be aware that depending how the storage drive is formatted there may be file size limitations for single files.

[itofficer]

I do not know how to attached an image here without having it stored to other site but to answer that, i put the drive and ubuntu saw the partitions but i cannot see the files.

[itofficer]

[img=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fPNV940qeRyz1SQyE2-O_bpCI-RTvAjQ]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fPNV940qeRyz1SQyE2-O_bpCI-RTvAjQ[/img]
[img=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mJsnR_MMlaWAVMtd1_Qt3WJQYnfzoyZF]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mJsnR_MMlaWAVMtd1_Qt3WJQYnfzoyZF[/img]
[img=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1w7GMK9h1bvt_urypRHmtG3SVjZbi1pc8]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1w7GMK9h1bvt_urypRHmtG3SVjZbi1pc8[/img]
[img=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IELUvoNFVgvLTaDxuCKE2MQ-32Bc19ts]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IELUvoNFVgvLTaDxuCKE2MQ-32Bc19ts[/img]

[FurryNutz]

>Adding Screenshots In A Forum Post