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Good suggestions in this thread. From my experience the most important thing is to stop using the drive immediately after data loss, otherwise files can get overwritten quickly. Usually I run a free scan first to check if the files show up in preview before deciding which tool to use.
Same here, I usually try a couple of tools just to compare scan results. Sometimes one program detects files that another one misses. I’ve noticed that running a deep scan makes a big difference, especially on external drives or formatted USBs.
Honestly, for quick accidental deletions I’ve had decent luck with Recuva. It’s pretty lightweight and easy to run. It won’t always recover everything, but for simple cases like emptied recycle bin or deleted photos it works surprisingly well.
After accidentally deleting some files, I started looking for free data recovery tools. Many of them claim to be free but only allow scanning.
Does anyone know a genuinely free recovery software that works well?
I’m trying to find a free data recovery tool that actually works well for recovering deleted files. There are a lot of options online, but many of them claim to be free and then only allow scanning, not the actual recovery.I’m mainly looking to recover common file types like documents, photos, or videos from a USB drive or hard disk after accidental deletion.
For those who have tried recovery tools before:
Which free data recovery software worked best for you?
Were you able to fully recover files, or were there limitations?
Any tools you would recommend avoiding?
Just trying to understand what actually works in real-world situations before I try more options.
Appreciate any suggestions or experiences!
Your understanding is accurate. A RAID1 storage pool on the Synology DS220+ cannot be converted to SHR without deleting and recreating the pool, and a Btrfs volume that was created using the full pool size cannot be shrunk to make room for another volume. Even though only 35% of the space is used, the entire pool is already allocated to that single volume. That means your realistic options are either replacing both drives with larger ones or backing everything up and rebuilding the storage pool. Since you already have a 4TB external drive and run regular Hyper Backups, rebuilding is a workable solution. Hyper Backup can restore system configuration if it was included in the backup task, but it is generally cleaner to create a separate DSM configuration backup and restore it after your data and packages have been restored to avoid conflicts. The sensible order is: complete a final Hyper Backup, create a standalone DSM configuration backup, factory reset the NAS, recreate the pool as SHR with the volumes you need, reinstall Hyper Backup, restore your data and packages, and then restore the DSM configuration last.
This does not appear to be a ZFS rebuild. A ZFS resilver only starts after the system has fully booted and the pool is imported, and it would not show as continuous hash symbols at the FreeBSD boot screen. The repeated ” output suggests the system is failing during the bootloader or kernel loading stage, likely due to a boot mode mismatch (UEFI vs. Legacy), incorrect boot order, or a SATA controller setting issue rather than a problem with the disks themselves. Since ZFS stores its metadata on the drives, replacing the motherboard would not break the mirror. With a current configuration backup available, the simplest and most reliable path forward is to reinstall pfSense, ensure SATA is set to AHCI, assign the WAN and LAN interfaces, and then restore the saved configuration. That should return the system to its previous state.
For a 4-bay NAS focused on maximizing storage with room to expand, the most practical setup is either three large drives in RAID 5 or two to three drives as single disks with backups for important files. RAID 5 with 20TB drives isn’t inherently unsafe, but rebuilds take a long time and there’s added risk during that process. For mostly replaceable media, it’s a reasonable and cost-efficient balance since you only lose one drive’s worth of capacity. If you’re storing irreplaceable photos or documents, RAID alone isn’t enough — you still need a proper backup. If usable space per dollar matters most and the content can be replaced, running single disks and backing up only critical data is often the simplest and most economical approach.
I’m using Fedora Linux with a BTRFS RAID 1 array secured with full disk encryption and shared over NFS under nobody:nobody permissions. While reorganising folders from my laptop through Nautilus in admin mode, I renamed a directory and then found it completely empty. It appears the rename over NFS behaved like a move operation that failed because of permission handling on the server side. As soon as I noticed the issue, I unmounted the NFS share and stopped all activity on the server to avoid further writes. The BTRFS tools would not allow me to remove a single disk from the RAID 1 without triggering a rebalance and additional disk writes, so I couldn’t safely isolate one drive for recovery. I tested Hetman RAID Recovery and it successfully detected the missing folders and files from one of the mirrored disks. Since RAID 1 is a mirror, restoring from a single disk with Partition Recovery should be enough. This happened while I was preparing these backups for long-term cold storage, which makes it especially frustrating. I have a spare 1TB SSD available for restoration and will avoid performing sensitive file operations over NFS in the future. I would appreciate a licence key to recover my data. Thank you.
At this point, the one-second power on and immediate shutdown points to a short circuit or power protection issue rather than a CPU stress failure. Since the PSU, CPU, and motherboard have already been replaced, the most likely causes are a case short, incorrect or mixed PSU cables, bent CPU socket pins, faulty or incompatible RAM, or something metallic behind the motherboard causing a short. The next step is to remove the system from the Jonsbo N3 and test it outside the case with only the CWWK Q670-NAS, the Intel Core i9-14900K, one stick of RAM, cooler, and PSU connected, then start it by shorting the power pins manually. If it stays on, the case or mounting hardware is causing the problem. If it still shuts off instantly, inspect the CPU socket carefully for bent pins, confirm the 24-pin and CPU EPS cables are fully seated and not mixed from another PSU, and test with a known-good RAM stick. One of these is almost certainly triggering PSU protection and preventing POST.
The safest way to replace the two drives in your Synology DS920+ is to change them one at a time, not both together. Stop Docker first so the checksum issue doesn’t force the volume into read-only mode. Deactivate one of the old WD drives in Storage Manager, replace it with a new Seagate IronWolf, and run a repair on the storage pool. Once the rebuild finishes and the pool shows healthy, repeat the same steps for the second drive. This keeps your SHR-1 redundancy in place the whole time and preserves your existing shares, users, and settings. Do not remove both drives at once, since SHR with single-drive fault tolerance cannot handle two disks being removed simultaneously.
With a 4-bay DS418play running SHR1, two reported drive failures will take the volume offline, but that does not automatically mean the data is gone. Leave the NAS powered off and do not attempt any rebuild, repair, or reinitialization, as that can overwrite RAID metadata and reduce recovery chances. Remove the drives and label them in their original bay order. Connect all four drives to a desktop PC and do not allow the operating system to initialize or format them. Check SMART health to see whether the drives are physically failed or just marked as crashed due to RAID or system corruption. If the disks are readable, use RAID recovery software to virtually rebuild the SHR (RAID5-like) array and copy the data to a separate storage device. Do not try to repair the array inside the original NAS until your data has been copied elsewhere. In many cases, this type of failure is caused by metadata corruption or a NAS hardware issue rather than two completely dead drives, and recovery is still possible if handled carefully.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions and guidance. I followed your advice, stopped using the laptop, and ran a recovery scan — I was actually able to recover most of the important files!
Really appreciate the quick help from this community. I’ve now enabled backups and the delete confirmation so I don’t repeat this mistake again 😅
Marking this as resolved.
Update us after the scan.
And for future — enable this:
Right-click Recycle Bin → Properties → “Display delete confirmation dialog”
Saved me many times.
Good luck! 👍
I recently tried recovering some deleted files from an external drive using a data recovery tool. The scan detected many files and even showed previews for some of them, but after recovering the files, several of them either wouldn’t open or appeared corrupted.
I’m wondering why this happens. Is it because the files were partially overwritten, or could it be related to file system damage or the recovery method used?
Has anyone experienced something similar?