imfusio2

Okay, I just lost 700GB on a Networked RAID drive (A buffallo Terrasation)
(I mapped a drive wrong, and a script deleted everything)
Does ANYONE have a suggestion as to what Data Recovery software/undelete software I can use to undelete software over the network off a 700gig RAID array?
I'm am extremely desperate... please help!
The only thing I have seen so far is Active UNDELETE Enterprise 5 (enterprise version supposedly can do network and raid but costs $100 +/-)

Please help!!
Thanks in advanced,
Joe

dai

don't know about raid see if this freeware is of any use to you
http://www.roadkil.net/unstopcp.html

linderman

I have had damn good luck with the active @ undelete for regualr desktop users ?????


sniff out Getdataback >>>> it aint free but its good ????

imfusio2

Yea, Active Undelete enterprise/network version looks to be the most promising as it can do Virtual RAID... however it appears i am going to have to take apart the NAS/Terastation, and put the 4 hard drives into a PC and use the utility there... because they network part of Active Undelete requires client side software to run... unless someone knows how to make a windows application run on a terastation! lol

So any suggestions as to how, if possible, to connect these 4 ATA linux formatted RAID 5 array to a pc, boot into windows to run the software, without using a raid card? Or can someone tell me how I could go about setting this up in a PC? If I need a RAID card, anyone know of a good one I should get that would work for this? Any good tutorials on setting up/configuring RAID? I never really dealt with raid, and google doesnt seem to help.

Thanks again,
Joe

linderman

I will try to summon our raid guru's >>>>>

imfusio2

Much appreciated!
Currently I am slaving 3 of the 4 drives to a windows xp drive in one of my PCs, and made the 3 disks (volumes 1 to 3 of 4) into a virtual raid-5 array, and scanning them with Active Undelete... currently we're at 20% and it found 2 somethings... not sure if it is anything though.
Only downside is it is the XFS file system... which is a journalling FS and from what I read, undeletes don't work on it? Although I have heard some rumors of it working... *shrug*
You guys think this might work?

blackduck30

I have been also looking around for an easy way for you too recover your data.
Can you supply some more information on the file formatt you used on the drives and if possible the controller on the terastation.
One vital bit of advice i can give at this point is it is essential for you to keep the volumes in order or at least identifiable, they have to be reinstalled as originally setup or the parody system and file structure will fail.
It is not essential to have them setup as a raid 5 to recover the data, you can do one disk at a time by rights and then work your way through all 4 drives. The important thing will be retrieving each disks information intact and uncorrupted and then making sure they are reinserted in order.
i will continue to pop in and see how things are progressing

crazijoe

Uggg.... (Gritting my teeth). This might be more difficult that it seems.
Yes, most simple consumer NAS devices use a variant if Linux.
Yes, most simple consumer NAS devices have their own controller to configure the multiple drives in a RAID array.
However you cannot rule out software RAID and do not always assume that they are configured in a RAID 5 array. I have seen some setup multiple drives in JBOD which makes it kinda hard because the disks maybe dynamic, or RAID 0, which you all know is almost impossible to recover.
Normally recovering a RAID 0 will result in extremly fragmented files, but a RAID 5 can result in the same.

I have never used Active Undelete. I have used RAID reconstructor before but never had to much luck with it. I think most consumer level data recovery programs are pretty basic.

I think blackduck30 advise is on onpar.
But being you have 700 Gigs could take more time than it is worth.

I don't like to toot my opinion but this is one of the reasons I do not like consumer grade NAS devices. Everything is proprietary and data recovery is almost impossible. I have seen this pleanty of times with Netgear, Calvary, etc.. I found it much safer and easier to build one out of an old WinXP box loaded with a bunch of drives. You don't need a monitor or keyboard as you can alway remote into it.

imfusio2

Yea, I'm totally wishing I went with an old XP box and just made my own RAID 5 setup... that's totally a future project.

I configured the Terastation to use RAID 5 (which is default anyway), and the disks are all in order.

How could you work through one drive at a time? Wouldn't it require a minimum of 3 drives?
I currently have Active Undelete doing a low level scan on the 3 disks.. I configured it by making a virtual RAID 5 array, 64KB,Left-Symetric... information I found online. I have the 3 drives plus a disk place holder ("Damaged Device" in Active Undelete) and I am waiting for the scan to complete still...
Right now they are just connected as (disk 1)Primary-Slave, (disk 2)Secondary-Master, (disk 3)Secondary-Slave (windows xp on the primary-master) and disk 4 disconnected.

I tried using UFS explorer, and it found a TON of partitions with sizes ranging from 0.02GB to 300GB. When I browse the partitions, there are occasionally folder and file names that are not comprehendable (ie extended ascii characters, or the little square character placeholders, etc) I haven't tried actually recovering that data, as I can't even tell what file it would be, and most likely they would be corrupted anyway.

Anymore input wold be awesome.. thanks so much for what you've all suggested already!

Deleted090308

@heerdom: What you're suggesting is the exact opposite of what he wants to do.