A NAS can be quite useful until the volume becomes read-only or a disk drops out or even just will not come back together, and since most users are running their NAS as their one and only copy of their important data this is an actual disaster. We do all types of NAS data recovery jobs, from a single-disk unit to mirrored pair and multi-bay array with more failed disks than redundancy. Regardless of whether you entered nas data recovery, nas drive data recovery or nas file recovery, our free diagnosis applies, and in most instances you only pay if we successfully recover your data.
A NAS with an error, which attempts to rebuild on a second weak drive, may lose data that would otherwise have been recovered. Immediately turn off the NAS; do not switch drives or click “repair” before we capture the contents via imaging.
When a NAS experiences failure it often occurs in succession. The first disk will fail and the NAS continues to run degraded, and then, weeks later, the second disk will fail and the NAS volume becomes unavailable. At times the disks are good and it is simply the NAS’s file system (e.g. Synology Btrfs, QNAP’s ext4 with LVM or a customised file system structure) which has become corrupted from either a loss of power or some bad firmware update. In other cases it is the NAS itself which has failed; a dead controller board leaves fully operational disks in limbo. All three scenarios are recoverable; however, they all require different recovery options, and none of them respond well to the NAS’s built-in repair option.
We never work on the actual NAS. First each drive is cloned (imaged), including the drive which has been flagged as failing, because often there will be sufficient parity left on it to allow access to the other drives. Using the clones, we use software to recreate the RAID set. This process requires us to manually determine the order of the physical drives, the size of each block and how they are being used for parity. Once we have recreated the virtual RAID set, we are able to pull your data off. The reason you need to send all disks, including the bad one, is because we do everything using a copy and therefore cannot possibly harm anything on the original disks.
We also restore Synology, QNAP, Buffalo, Western Digital My Cloud, Netgear ReadyNAS, TerraMaster, Asustor and unbranded boxes that are using SHR, RAID 1, 5, 6 or RAID 10. If possible remove the disks from the box as long as you have labelled each bay (the order is important) before sending the disks to us; alternatively, we will accept the whole NAS.
A crashed volume usually means the file system or the array metadata is damaged, not the data itself. The disks are imaged and the volume is then rebuilt off the box, and nearly all data can be recovered this way. So almost never (at least in our experience) will you lose any data when using this method. The main danger is allowing the NAS to attempt to recover from its own failure.
Yes. Frequently. If a second disk fails, the chances are low that it fails completely all at once. Since we obtain images of all disks (including the failed disk), we should be able to use enough of the good parts of the failed disk to create the parity necessary to rebuild the original RAID. It’s a harder job than a single failure but far from hopeless, which is why we ask for every disk.
Please make sure that all of the disk drives are in the same bays as when they were installed. If it is possible to remove the hard disk drives, please do so; otherwise, please send us the entire NAS. This will allow us to determine whether or not there is a problem with the actual hard disk drives versus a problem with the NAS unit itself.
If possible remove the hard drives from your NAS and, when you get your quote, bring your disks to us at The Pinnacle in Leeds (no need for an appointment) or post them with full insurance cover. If it is impossible to remove the disks simply bring or send the entire NAS unit to us and we will assist you on how best to pack a heavy item. Regardless of whether you are able to remove the hard drive or not, all items are processed in-house by one of our engineers.
Yes, most often. Each drive is removed from the enclosure, then each individual drive is imaged separately. The SHR or RAID configuration is determined by examining the images of each drive and the drives are assembled into a virtual volume; we almost never need to have access to the actual enclosure. Resets that occur when you don’t mean for them to happen, or rebuild failures, are also common recoveries assuming no new data was added.
Free diagnosis first and foremost, then a fixed written quote before any work is started, plus no charge at all for most jobs if the data doesn’t come back. NAS & array recoveries are quoted after diagnosis because they relate to the number of disks & fault but you will always have a fixed figure in writing before any chargeable work. Once you have a quote, drop off your disks (or the whole NAS unit, if they can’t be removed) at our Leeds address in The Pinnacle (no appointment needed) or post them from anywhere in Yorkshire fully insured; either way they’ll be handled by our own engineers in-house & never outsourced.
Internet-exposed NAS boxes are the favourite doorway of ransomware attacks. Often snapshots on both Synology and QNAP systems will still be intact, even after all the folders have been encrypted. The ransomware data recovery team at our company approaches each array in a safe manner as well: isolate it first; take an image of every disk in read-only mode; recover using decryptors, snapshots and anything that was missed by the attackers. We never pay or negotiate with attackers.
People looking for NAS recovery near me typically have either a Synology or QNAP device with an unmountable volume which has resulted in the entire household or business being separated from all of their files. Don’t initialise it again, don’t pull out the disks and place them into the NAS in some other order and don’t allow the NAS to try to fix the problem on its own.
Once you have received a price quotation from us, you may either leave your device at The Pinnacle, Albion Street in the city centre (no appointment is required) or you can send it to us insured and tracked as part of our data recovery UK-wide service, with the same free diagnostics as well as the same fixed written quote, and in most cases, you do not need to make payment unless we successfully recover your lost data. Each project will be completed by one of our own engineers.
There will be no charge to diagnose what went wrong, the price quote will always be fixed and written, and on most jobs we are going to make no charge unless you get your data back. Switch off the power to your NAS unit and refrain from letting it rebuild: this is probably the one thing that you can do to help us at this point.