Methods to Recover Data from RAID Based NAS?

When it comes to distributed data storage on NAS devices (such Western Digital, Synology, QNAP, ASUSTOR, Thecus, TerraMaster, Buffalo, and others), information recovery has become a crucial aspect of protecting sensitive data. The techniques for RAID NAS data recovery are included in this article, which also covers basic file recovery without the need to remove disks and drive failure scenarios.

How does a NAS device work?

A data storage device known as Network Attached Storage (NAS) is one or more disks attached to a network that allows shared file access for multiple devices via network data exchange protocols (NFS, SMB, AFP, and others). In contrast to servers, network area systems (NAS) provide seamless data sharing, backup creation, and even offer remote file access. ASUSTOR, Western Digital, QNAP, Synology, and other well-known NAS manufacturers are among them.

By adding an extra layer of security and resilience through the use of RAID technology, NAS becomes a more dependable option for managing and storing data in household and business networks.

RAIDs come in many different forms, but the most widely used configurations for NAS devices are RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5. NAS vendors can provide RAID 6 and RAID 10 for use in the commercial market. Simultaneously, certain vendors provide their own versions of RAID management systems, such ReadyNAS X-RAID, Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), and Drobo BeyondRAID.

It is feasible to construct your own NAS storage at home.

Data recovery becomes a big concern when a NAS device malfunctions because of hardware flaws, power surges, or software difficulties. The RAID array’s integrity may be jeopardized, requiring a series of recovery steps that usually start with an evaluation of the disks’ logical and physical states.

What is the true nature of Network Address Spaces?

A network area system, or NAS, is not only a data storage device with many hard drives (or SSDs or NVMe); rather, it is a basic computer running a customized version of Linux. You can connect it to the router via Ethernet wire or Wi-Fi. Most RAID array management systems for NAS devices are based on two Linux RAID array formation technologies: mdadm and LVM2.

See the “Comparison of RAID lvm and mdadm” page for further details on the differences between LVM and mdadm.

The NAS does not permit low-level access to physical drives; therefore, to retrieve data, the disks must be removed and attached to a computer.

What type of harm may a NAS device’s RAID array sustain?

You are already aware of how fault-tolerant and infrequently malfunctioning NAS devices are. Nevertheless, a variety of factors can damage a NAS device’s RAID array and result in data loss:

A RAID array’s failure of one or more disks is one of the most frequent events. Physical harm, disk wear, malfunctions, or other hardware issues could be the source of this.

The RAID array may be harmed by power surges, current surges, or other power-related issues that affect the NAS device’s drives and circuitry.

Software faults in the device or issues encountered during updates can lead to RAID malfunctions, which can cause data loss or damage to the array.

Data loss may occur if the RAID controller fails and the RAID array is unable to be properly maintained and managed.

Logical mistakes in the design of the file system: The integrity of the data in the RAID array may be impacted by improper file system operations, formatting mistakes, or other logical faults.

You cannot retrieve data from the NAS device’s RAID array using standard or built-in techniques for any of the aforementioned reasons. There is now just one last option, which is to utilize a specialized tool like BLR RAID Recovery Tool to recover data from RAID arrays while connecting the NAS device drives to the computer.

Standard RAID NAS device configurations (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5), combined arrays (RAID 10, RAID 50, RAID 60, etc.), and customized configurations (RAID Z, Drobo BeyondRAID, Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), Synology RAID F1, ReadyNAS X-RAID, and others) are all supported by the program BLR RAID Recovery. All file systems, including NTFS, ReFS, FAT, exFAT, APFS, HFS+, Ext 2/3/4, Btrfs, XFS, ReiserFS, UFS 1/2, and ZFS, are compatible with it.

What happens when a NAS drive fails?

Everything is based on the configuration of the NAS. Data loss will not occur from the failure of a single disk if the NAS is set up in RAID mode with redundancy. This is due to the fact that RAID makes use of parity, which enables computation and reconstruction of data from the remaining disks.

In order to retrieve the data, the RAID controller or processor will first compute parity using the data from the surviving drives.

The array will, however, perform less well because it will be in Degraded mode of operation. This is due to the fact that more computations will need to be done by the RAID controller or CPU in order to recover the data that is still on the failed disk.

Replacing the failing disk with a new one is sufficient to return the array to its initial state. The RAID controller or processor will recalculate parity and write the recovered data to the new disk after the drive is replaced. The NAS device will function normally after recalculating.

The array will fully fail if another disk, JBOD, or RAID 0 fails before the failed disk is replaced. This is due to the fact that, while some data may still be lost, the failing drives will not contain enough information to retrieve the data.

RAID-based NAS data recovery

Despite being regarded as a highly dependable storage solution, network-attached storage (NAS) is also susceptible to hard disk drive (SSD) failure. Under such circumstances, access to the storage will not always be possible via the NAS device. To retrieve data from a network attached storage system (NAS), you must take the disks out of the device and connect them to your computer.

You must connect the hard drives of a NAS RAID array to a desktop computer in order to retrieve data from it.

Take out every hard drive from the network appliance.

To avoid confusing them later on, pay attention to the order in which they are fitted. It’s advised to give them numbers.

Use the SATA ports on the motherboard to connect all of the disks that were taken out of the NAS to the computer.

If one of the disks fails, then such a disk does not need to be connected, provided that the NAS device uses RAID with redundancy, which can work if one or more disks are excluded.

You can use USB-to-SATA adapters or SATA extenders if your system lacks enough free SATA ports, but the pace of the NAS data recovery procedure will be greatly impacted by this method.

Crucial! Avoid agreeing if you are asked to initialize or format the drives when you are connecting them because doing so will remove all of the data from the disks.

Set up space on your disk to store the NAS’s recovered data. This could be another type of network storage or an internal or external hard drive.

How a NAS device’s data can be recovered

Step 1: The BLR NAS Recovery Software will scan the disks and put them together into the RAID array that was on the drives when you launch it. At the bottom of the screen, you will see information regarding RAID. Here, you may verify that the program has correctly recognized your array.

Click the “Mount disk” button or select “Mount Disk” from the “Tools” menu to open all image files if you made disk images to be used in place of physical devices.

Step 2: Double-click or right-click the RAID array and choose “Open” to access the data on it.

You must choose the type of data to be searched for analysis. You can stick with the quick scan option by default. It is intended to recover recently erased data as well as currently stored data. However, you can use it as a starting point in any scenario.

If the quick scan is unable to yield the necessary information for recovery, you should rerun the data search and select the more efficient complete analysis search option. To do this, return to the main menu, perform a right-click on the array, select “Analyze again” –> “Full analysis,” select the filesystem type, and, to speed up the search, uncheck the search by signatures checkbox.

Step 3: The data that is recoverable will be shown after the scan is finished. Click “Recover” after making your selections for the necessary files.

Step 4: To save the data, provide the path. This route is where the NAS device’s restored data will be found.

How to get deleted files back from NAS devices without having to unplug the drives

Installing data recovery software directly onto the NAS is not possible because it employs proprietary software. You also need to utilize data recovery software that is compatible with NAS devices.

We will then go through how to retrieve deleted files from NAS. These techniques work only if the RAID array hasn’t collapsed and the NAS device is up and running.

Step 1: On your computer, download and install BLR Data Recovery Wizard.

Step 2: Set the NAS device’s SSH service to active.

Connect to the NAS server in step three.

In the NAS servers section, choose the preferred NAS from the list of your storage devices. Enter the administrator name, password, and IP address and port (typically 22) of the NAS device. retrieving data from NAS.

Step 4: The device will start searching for data after connecting to your NAS successfully. Files that have been deleted, lost, or are still there on your NAS system will be shown after scanning.

Step 5: Choose and save the files that you wish to recover.

As you can see, there aren’t many differences between the recovery method and data recovery from a hard drive.

Advice for avoiding NAS data loss

We suggest that you routinely backup your data, keep an eye on the condition of your drives, update your software, and adhere to device maintenance guidelines in order to prevent RAID damage and guarantee the security and accessibility of your priceless NAS assets.

Frequent backups

Make frequent backups of your NAS files. For automation, utilize the software or tools for backup that come with the NAS. Should your equipment malfunction, you want to safeguard your data by keeping your backups off the network area server (NAS).

Fault tolerance when using RAID:

Use fault-tolerant RAID arrays, such as RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 6, when configuring your network area server. If one or more disks fail, this will guarantee the safety of the data.

Monitoring of disk health:

Make sure you periodically assess the system’s disks’ condition. In order to keep an eye on the condition of your drives and get alerts about impending failures, many NAS systems come with monitoring tools.

Update the software:

Make sure the operating system and apps on your NAS are updated on a regular basis. By doing this, known vulnerabilities will be fixed and system security will be raised overall.

Making use of multi-factor authentication and strong passwords:

NAS security is ensured by using strong passwords. For an extra security measure, turn on multi-factor authentication if at all possible.

Restrictions on access:

Set up the NAS to only allow access to authorized users and devices by configuring access limits. This will lessen the chance of harmful program exposure and illegal access.

Defense against harm from the body:

Your NAS should be kept out of the reach of physical dangers like shock, fire, or floods. The usage of dependable cooling and power supply systems may also fall within this category.