HELP! How to salvage data from a failed RAID1 setup (Hammer MyShare)

[vfreak]

I'm in exactly the same situation, but with a Lacie 1TB Ethernet Big Disk. The power supply infamously died and then the unit's connection panel/circuit board seems to have gotten damaged as a result. I think Lacie's policy is pretty much the same - if I open the chassis the warranty is voided. Luckily I have two of these Ethernet BDs, so do you suggest that I just put the two 500GB drives in my working one to salvage the data? Will it work?

I'll be eventually putting them in an XP NAS that I've decided is a much more durable solution to housing 24/7 media drives. I have no idea what file system the Lacie uses, the SNB review was hopelessly undetailed.

Thanks for helping! This thread was really helpful since it's almost identical to my problem. I am very worried about losing my data though.

 

[mindbender9]

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that you're going through a similar situation, albeit with a different manufacturer.

All I can recommend that you contact Lacie and insist on a replacement chassis so that you can preserve your data (although you will lose the warranty). I used the "data theft" argument in my case because I didn't want my data to be sent back to the manufacturer without knowing it had been destroyed properly. BellMicro, manufacturer of my Hammer myShare NAS, would not have returned the hard drives and offers no data recovery services.

I also wouldn't recommend opening up your 2nd BD unless you're prepared to void that warranty also. Although it is nice that you can fall back on the second BD, I would exhaust every method you could with Lacie before breaking open your 2nd warrantied BD.

I think this second example should be a warning to anyone looking at a NAS to avoid all manufacturers who insist that their products be unopened to preserve their warranties. If you cannot access your hard drives directly, don't buy it. Trust us, you're going to regret it.

Stick with a NAS that offers RAID 5, while you're at it. RAID 0 or 1 will not help you when things go wrong (especially if you cannot access the drives).

 

[thiggins]

Stick with a NAS that offers RAID 5, while you're at it. RAID 0 or 1 will not help you when things go wrong (especially if you cannot access the drives).

RAID 5 arrays can also become corrupted if a power supply or controller board dies. It offers no further additional protection over RAID 1.
RAID 6 might offer an additional measure of protection due to its ability to handle two drives going bad in an array.

But the best security measure is to have a backup of any files that you can't afford to lose or re-create on a separate device (or medium) that is in a secure place.

 

[mindbender9]

Update: I still haven't received the replacement enclosure yet, but the tech has replied by email stating that their tech support is testing the enclosure before sending to me.

So let's see... how long has this NAS been down? And because of the delays (not on my part), I am now fully outside of the warranty period.

 

[darkhelmet]

Not meaning to 'hijack' this thread, but I found it interesting since we are curious about all aspects of NAS since we need a solution now.

If we purchase a QNAP product for example, and go through the same issue as mindbender9, using a Windows XP Pro desktop how would one access the data on a RAID setup hard drive? If the box takes a dump is it possible to copy off files to say the hard drive on the Windows machine?

 

[thiggins]

If we purchase a QNAP product for example, and go through the same issue as mindbender9, using a Windows XP Pro desktop how would one access the data on a RAID setup hard drive? If the box takes a dump is it possible to copy off files to say the hard drive on the Windows machine?

Most NASes are based on Linux or other open source OSes and use non-Windows filesystems.
You would be able to read a drive removed from the NAS if you add support for the filesystem used to the Windows system and if the drive is not corrupted.
An alternative approach would be to use a "live CD" of something like Ubuntu, which would probably be able to read the drive.

 

[mindbender9]

In case anyone is wondering, I STILL HAVEN'T RECEIVED MY REPLACEMENT ENCLOSURE FROM BELL MICRO/HAMMER. It's been two weeks since I last heard from the Bell Micro Tech Support (email), and I sent a blunt email to her and the entire Hammer Tech Support department this afternoon.

It's been nearly two months since my in-warranty unit failed and I'm almost a month out of warranty thanks to this company.

I cannot stress how disappointing this is to deal with a company like Bell Micro / Hammer. DO NOT PURCHASE THEIR PRODUCTS if you want to avoid situations like this. My hard drives are still in the dead enclosure and I'm debating whether to attempt a salvage as recommended previously.

Buyer beware.

 

[mindbender9]

In case anyone is still reading this thread... here's an update:

I finally got the replacement chassis today and after loading up the existing drives...

The old problem now occurs with the new chassis.

So the new enclosure refuses to power on... the LED on the power cord (all three - original plus two replacements) blinks off/on...

And if I hold the enclosure's power button down, the front LED's blink off/on in tandom with the LED on the power cord. Cute.

BUT I STILL CAN'T GET MY DATA OFF THE DAMN DRIVES! So short of a very irate call to Bell Micro's non-existent tech support tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to read the RAID 1 drives with the help of a OpenSuSE LiveCD (thanks Tim).

I'll say it again. DO. NOT. BUY. ANYTHING. FROM. HAMMER. OR. BELL-MICRO.

 

[mindbender9]

Ok. The LiveCD method didn't work, but I'm not sure how to do it in the first place. So...

Hey Tim! How exactly would I be able to read the contents of the RAID drives when using a LiveCD?

When I had it booted up, the LiveCD couldn't see the RAID drive or didn't have a way to read it. All the OS could see was itself (which is pretty much the CD-ROM drive).

So how would you use a Linux LiveCD to view the contents of these RAID-1 drives? Specifically, what would the steps be? Thanks.

 

[thiggins]

So how would you use a Linux LiveCD to view the contents of these RAID-1 drives? Specifically, what would the steps be? Thanks.

If the Linux distro that you are using supports the filesystem that is used on the drives that you are trying to recover, the drives should just mount and be accessible. The ext3 filesystem used by the Hammer is pretty standard, so if the drives are readable, they should appear.

Shut down and plug in a Windows formatted flash drive or hard drive, then reboot and see if the Distro mounts it as an experiment.

You could also try another distro like Ubuntu.

 

[vnangia]

The ext3 filesystem used by the Hammer is pretty standard, so if the drives are readable, they should appear.

If they are standard, and you are more comfortable with Windows, EXT2IFS may be a workable solution for you. It gives you the ability to read and write ext2 and ext3 formatted disks under Windows. I have used it myself for both personal and work related reasons, and have found it is pretty solid.

 

[mindbender9]

Thank you everyone, for your help and suggestions.

After a number of hours spent playing with the new enclosure, I somehow got it to power on and remain powered on. I was able to connect to the NAS via SMB and FTP, and pulled all of my personal data (and financial info, yes!) off of the two RAID-1 drives.

I was about to use the Ext2Ifs software that vnangia suggested, but this never had to happen. Thanks for the tip though!

The scary think is that I still don't know why it suddenly powered on and remained stable, but took three and a half hours to do so. It's remained on ever since and I'm debating on what to do next, especially since I now have an out-of-warranty two drive NAS that could power down permanently at any moment.

What I do want to say is "Thank You" to everyone on this forum for all of their suggestions and help regarding this issue. Although I also posted on a couple of other hardware-related sites, the only useful feedback that I got came from SmallNetBuilder.com. I don't know what I would've done without the tips and support I got from this site. So thanks again everyone!

 

[thiggins]

Glad you were able to recover your data. What I would to now is:
- Thank your lucky stars that you were able to recover the data.
- Junk the Hammer or sell it on eBay...now!
- Get two single-drive NASes that support NAS-to-NAS backup and
schedule them to replicate once a day
- Consider using an offsite backup service for essential files or periodic backup to a USB drive that is stored in a safe and secure place.

 

[Monkey]

Good advice from Tim there, I especially like the NAS-to-NAS backup rsync maybe? And the offsite backup options.

After reading the posts on these forums, I fear not many people are taking backup seriously, and rely on the raid capability of their NAS.
Is there a chance of a review on the NAS-to-NAS backup and online backup providers, so people can make a considered approach to buying a NAS along with a backup solution?

 

[mvitiello]

a nas-to-nas backup review would be awsome.

 

[crumpet75]

NAS to NAS backup

I agree. I'd love to see a discussion on NAS to NAS backup. And backup strategies in general. (ie offsite - via low cost internet host? or other internet accessible service?)

 

[vfreak]

Ok, well here's my positively weird update with my situation. I contacted Lacie, and they didn't want to send a replacement chassis, basically they don't care about their customers' data. Hopeless.

So I procrastinated the job, life got busy and I left left the poor, cold metal box sitting on a shelf for more than a month. I finally got round to dealing with it tonight, and I was about to open up my other identical Ethernet drive, swap the HDDs and salvage the data that way (thus voiding the warranty of BOTH my drives!).

But first I plugged the thing in one last time just in case it would miraculously work, even though I'd tried it a million times a month before after days of it having a rest at a time. And sure enough, it's suddenly working again, after a month of just sitting on the shelf! It seems the baby just needed a one-month vacation...figure that one out.

The question is, will it ever go on strike again like it did before? It was the power supply that went first, so I guess I know where to check in the future. I know that I do slog my NASes, and they AREN'T exactly server-grade equipment. I just hope it doesn't happen again.

 

[thiggins]

"Hoping" won't bring back your data next time. See Post 33 above.

 

[scotty]

The companies that make these things ultimately aren't that concerned about your data should the device go south. You really have to think about having alternate sources of storage, even if it's just a little cheap external hard drive for the odd backup. Even big, expensive storage solutions like SAN's (that have redudant everything) aren't a 100% safety net. There's a reason why tape backups are still so popular! At my company, we have a SAN with redundant everything, redundant switches and paths to every server behind 2 separate UPS systems, covered by a top-shelf 4 hour response warranty from HP, and a box of spare parts at the ready, and we STILL need to revert to tapes frequently... Ultimately, you just need to be prepared.

A NAS to NAS backup is never a bad idea. If nothing else, you can even set up an old PC and a file syncing program of some type to sync the files once an evening.

 

[vfreak]

"Hoping" won't bring back your data next time. See Post 33 above.

Huh? My data's fine, I'm only talking about the NAS enclosure housing it. There's at least two ways that I could extract the data without paying for data recovery if the Lacie happened to cark it again.