Hello everybody!
Watch this video to find out how to access files from a QNAP hardware RAID system.
What to do if you accidentally deleted some information, formatted the hard disk or if
your NAS device is out of order.
A QNAP NAS storage system consists of several
hard disks.
To improve resilience and data safety, such devices enable you to create RAID systems
of various types.
However, even the most reliable storage systems may encounter emergencies like accidental
deletion of files, formatting or damaging the hard disk, system errors, controller failures
and other hardware issues, which may result in loss of important data.
Recovering deleted files from the Recycle Bin
If the device works properly and you just removed some important files by accident,
you can try restoring them from the Network Recycle Bin.
You can configure the Network Recycle Bin or check its settings by accessing “Control
Panel” - “Network & File Services” - “Network Recycle Bin.”
Check if this option is enabled.
Then make sure it is enabled for the specific folder from where the files were deleted.
Click on this “Shared folder” link, find the required directory in the list and click
on the “Folder Property” button to modify its settings.
The option to “Enable Network Recycle Bin” must be checked.
All right, now that the shared folder option is enabled, the deleted files must be in that
folder, and they can be recovered with a single click.
Open File Station and go to the directory where the removed files used to be stored;
you will see a folder with the name “@Recycle” which contains all files deleted from this
directory.
Select them and click “Recover” to have them reappear in their original location.
Replacing a QNAP device If your QNAP device won’t turn on, it may
be out of order.
But what can you do with all the data that’s still on the disk?
There is no way to access the files by just connecting the disks to the computer.
You can try replacing the device itself, but there’s no guarantee that the information
will still be intact after you configure the new server.
Take the disks out of the QNAP device, and remember the order in which they were arranged:
this is something you’ll need for the recovery process.
Usually, disk bays have corresponding factory markings.
After that, put the drives into the new QNAP, in the same order we have just mentioned.
If the damage has not affected the storage devices and their contents, your new system
is likely to work as if nothing happened.
However, you should take into account the chances of the new device overwriting the
data remaining on the disks.
That is why it is better to use specialized data recovery tools and avoid taking unnecessary
risks.
There’s Hetman RAID Recovery to give you a helping hand so you can restore data both
from healthy RAID systems and from separate disks within such arrays.
Even if some of the disks are damaged and unreadable, this utility will be able to read
the information which remains on the other disks.
Recovering data with Hetman RAID Recovery For illustration purposes, we’ve got a NAS
with four disks, three of them combined into a RAID 5 system.
As to the file system, all QNAP devices have been using EXT for many years.
Let’s simulate a scenario when the controller or another hardware element breaks down suddenly.
Before you start the recovery process, make sure you have a storage device with a capacity
equal to or larger than the amount of data stored on your RAID system.
When you have it, connect the disks to a Window computer.
The usual problem with connecting multiple disks is that your computer may not have enough
SATA ports or power connectors.
However, this can be fixed with various power splitter adapters and expansion cards.
Check one of the previous videos for more information.
Make sure that everything is connected properly, power on the computer, download, install and
run Hetman RAID Recovery.
When launched, it will scan the disks automatically, combine them into a RAID and display all the
information about it.
Right-click on the array, select “Open,” and start with a Fast scan; if the disks and
data are not damaged, this will suffice to restore the information from your RAID.
But if the Fast scan can’t find the information you need, then go for Full analysis.
The data we are looking for is stored in the folder named Multimedia, where it was uploaded
through the device’s web interface.
All you have to do is to select the files to be restored, click “Recovery,” choose
the directory where to save the files, click “Next” and “Recovery” again.
All the files will be placed in the folder you have specified.
Many users wonder how to recover a RAID system if one disk is down.
In theory, you only need to replace the faulty disk and everything will just work as before.
However, things may go wrong from time to time, and during the recovery process, you
may encounter an error or some other nasty thing that may result in loss of data.
QNAP uses a Linux md-raid driver to manage RAID storage systems.
If these records are damaged, the operating system cannot access a RAID volume, and to
the user, this situation looks like a typical scenario of data loss.
However, Hetman RAID Recovery can restore data even when md-raid records are damaged,
and when one or several disks fail.
Anyway, remember that the best way to avoid data loss is to back up your stuff regularly.
QNAP supports a lot of third-party tools to back up your files and even entire disks to
external storage devices, remote servers or cloud services.
That is all for now!
Hopefully, this video was useful.
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Thank you for watching.
Good luck.