Here is my tale of woe (though it could be worse because I backed up about 75% of what's on the drives in the NAS, and none of what I don't have backed up is critical).
I've had the Hammer Storage N1200 NAS for a few years now, and it operated without incident until a few weeks ago. I had it set up in RAID 1 with the stock 500GB drives, for a total of 1TB storage.
A few weeks ago it dropped off my network. It had done that a few times over the years, and whenever it did, I simply turned it off, using the front button, for a few minutes and restarted it, and all was well. This time, however, I could not turn it off with the front button. Nor did the reset button on the back work. I had no choice but to unplug it.
When I plugged it back in and pressed the start button, it seemed to be booting like normal, and in the normal amount of time, the two drive lights turned green. Only the same thing was happening--I couldn't see the NAS on my network, no matter what I did, and I couldn't turn the machine off without pulling the power cord (actually the cord from the back of the machine).
I thought it might be the hardware, and I was lucky enough to find an enclosure on ebay for cheap. I bought it, carefully removed both drives from the first unit, and put them into the old enclosure. It fired up--but the exact same thing happened: no presence on my network, and I'm unable to turn it off without unplugging it.
I understand from reading posts here, including a review, that it's a Linux based system using the ext3 file structure.
Naively, because I'm not a sophisticated user at all, I removed the drives and hooked them up to my Windows computer using a dock. The drives showed up as empty--which now I understand shouldn't have surprised me because the files are of the ext3 variety. But also, I tried to see them via various products from diskinternals--and nothing for both drives.
What's likely going on here, and is there any hope for recovering my data via some try-at-home method that doesn't require a huge learning curve? Also, as some of you may know, Hammer Storage no longer exists, so there's no support I can contact. In fact, I can't fine a copy of the firmware to see if it'd boot off of a USB key--if that's even something that sounds like it could work or help at all.
Sorry for the long story, but I would appreciate any help. Thank you.
I've had the Hammer Storage N1200 NAS for a few years now, and it operated without incident until a few weeks ago. I had it set up in RAID 1 with the stock 500GB drives, for a total of 1TB storage.
A few weeks ago it dropped off my network. It had done that a few times over the years, and whenever it did, I simply turned it off, using the front button, for a few minutes and restarted it, and all was well. This time, however, I could not turn it off with the front button. Nor did the reset button on the back work. I had no choice but to unplug it.
When I plugged it back in and pressed the start button, it seemed to be booting like normal, and in the normal amount of time, the two drive lights turned green. Only the same thing was happening--I couldn't see the NAS on my network, no matter what I did, and I couldn't turn the machine off without pulling the power cord (actually the cord from the back of the machine).
I thought it might be the hardware, and I was lucky enough to find an enclosure on ebay for cheap. I bought it, carefully removed both drives from the first unit, and put them into the old enclosure. It fired up--but the exact same thing happened: no presence on my network, and I'm unable to turn it off without unplugging it.
I understand from reading posts here, including a review, that it's a Linux based system using the ext3 file structure.
Naively, because I'm not a sophisticated user at all, I removed the drives and hooked them up to my Windows computer using a dock. The drives showed up as empty--which now I understand shouldn't have surprised me because the files are of the ext3 variety. But also, I tried to see them via various products from diskinternals--and nothing for both drives.
What's likely going on here, and is there any hope for recovering my data via some try-at-home method that doesn't require a huge learning curve? Also, as some of you may know, Hammer Storage no longer exists, so there's no support I can contact. In fact, I can't fine a copy of the firmware to see if it'd boot off of a USB key--if that's even something that sounds like it could work or help at all.
Sorry for the long story, but I would appreciate any help. Thank you.
