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My RAID array just failed, and I’m desperate to recover some critical business data. I’ve tried a few tools, but none have worked so far. What RAID recovery software do you recommend that’s reliable and effective?
Hello everyone ! I am a freelance geospatial engineer specialized in LiDAR for government application. Lots of data that needs to be retained for a long time.
I switched my backup solution to commvault installed on a server (windows server 2019) with a TS4300 IBM library about 3 years ago when I needed to upgrade my backup solution. I switched to LTO8 tapes with two drives.
I was using Data Protector before that with LTO6 tapes and I am just finding out that my TS4300 library will not read those…bummer. I am looking for a solution right now but I am thorn between some options.
Buy a used external LTO6 tape drive, either with USB (Dont even know if that exists) SFP or fiber port and buy the required PCIE adaptor. I might even already have the correct PCIE card since I kept the old ones from the decomissioned HP server. That solution will cost me around 800$ and no garantee the drive works with the PCIE cards I have.
Hire an external company to restore the data on disks
Buy a used external LTO6 tape drive with fiber port. Unplug one of my used port on my 2019 server, plug the external drive, restore and plug back everything like it was.
Any bit of advice is helpful 🙂
EDIT: Many thanks to everyone who chimed in to help. In a twist of fate, I found out the LTO6 HP library is still on premise (This kind of thing NEVER happens) and I still have the controller cards from the server that was thrown out 2 years ago. I even found a fibre cable to link the library to a workstation that is in my server room.
I am deploying data protector and installing hardware, just hoping the data is not encrypted with an unknown password !
Usual sources (geizhals etc) show that the drive is $4K and media is around $100-120/per cartridge.
Interestingly, prices for last-gen LTO-8 drives are about the same, which makes me think these prices are stale with hefty markup on them.
Given that these thing are sold to datacenters per metric ton, I can’t believe that these guys are paying anything close to those prices.
If so, are there shortcuts for mere mortals ?
Need to restore some very old backups from tapes. Currently trying to find a drive to read the tapes
After shutting down my 2-bay DS218+ for a week, it won’t power on anymore. I’ve gone through troubleshooting and tried a few fixes, but nothing worked. Time to replace it.
I’m thinking about sticking with Synology since I know the software and everything is already synced with other devices at home. The DS224+ seems like the obvious choice, but this failure has made me question how reliable Synology really is.
Has anyone here moved from Synology to another brand? When I first bought mine, it was basically between Synology and QNAP. Not sure if there are any solid new options now.
I’ve also seen some build-your-own NAS setups on sale, but I don’t have much technical knowledge, so I’m not sure that’s a smart move.
For reference, I use it to back up photos and documents, download from Usenet, and run Plex—including 4K streams.
I have Synology DS418play NAS with couple of HDDs in it.
Main data is in RAID1, and I had one more disc with movies and some music shows on it.
It’s a Seagate IronWolf 10 TB (ST10000VN0004). From time to time it was crashing and Synology switched it to Read Only mode, but switching it back to Read/Write mode usually fixed the issue.
Anyways, few days ago, it crashed again, but switching to Read/Write failed this time. I restarted NAS and it said:
Severe file system errors have occurred because of drive errors in this storage pool. To rescue your data, please sign in to your Synology Account and submit a technical support ticket.
I tried contacting Synology support, but they were unable to fix the disc, saying:
We also tried our rescue tool, Btrfs Restore, but due to a serious hard drive failure, the data could not be retrieved.
We have a DL360 Gen10 with 5 SSD’s of 1.92Tb in RAID 6 configuration, running ESXi version 6.7.0-U3.
Last week we had a failed SSD in Bay 1 and replaced it with a new one.
After that we expected the system to rebuild the RAID 6, but in iLO 5 we see on the Volume a “LogicalDriveStatusReasons” which stands for “Recovering”. It is our production server and the performance is very slow, due the large amount of data and the rebuilding process. Who has the same experience and knows how long this process will take? Is this normal and expected, almost more than a week? Any suggestion of comment is more than welcome.
Setting up a RAID system in a custom PC can be useful, depending on your needs. RAID provides either faster performance, better data protection, or both. It’s commonly used by people who work with large files, run demanding applications, or need protection against hard drive failure.
RAID 0 improves speed by splitting data between drives, but it offers no protection—if one drive fails, all data is lost. RAID 1 mirrors data across two drives for redundancy. RAID 5 and RAID 10 offer a mix of performance and fault tolerance but require more drives.
For general use, like web browsing, office work, or gaming with a fast SSD, RAID isn’t necessary. It adds complexity and won’t offer much benefit for everyday tasks.
In summary, RAID is a good choice if you need high performance or data redundancy and you’re comfortable managing the setup. It’s not a replacement for regular backups. Always keep separate copies of important data.
Synology NAS and iCloud are built for different needs.
Synology NAS is a physical device that gives you full control over your data. It offers large, expandable storage and can run additional services like backups, file sharing, and media streaming. It requires some setup and maintenance but keeps your data local and under your control.
iCloud is a cloud service from Apple. It automatically syncs files, photos, and backups across Apple devices. It’s simple to use and doesn’t require any hardware, but storage is limited unless you pay monthly, and your data is stored on Apple’s servers.
For local storage, privacy, and advanced features, Synology NAS is more flexible. For seamless syncing and ease of use with Apple devices, iCloud is more convenient. Many people use both to cover different needs.
If your Synology DS415+ NAS doesn’t turn on and you can’t replace the device, it is still possible to recover your data by accessing the drives outside the NAS. Since Synology uses the EXT4 file system and RAID (usually SHR or RAID 5), simply connecting the drives to a Windows PC won’t work.
One option is to connect all drives to a Linux computer or use a Linux live USB. Then use Linux RAID tools like mdadm to assemble the RAID array. If this works, you can mount the volume and copy your data.
If that method is not feasible or doesn’t work, specialized NAS recovery software such as R-Studio, UFS Explorer RAID Recovery, or ReclaiMe can reconstruct Synology RAID arrays and recover files. These require connecting the drives to a PC and running the recovery software.
If the data is critical or recovery attempts fail, professional NAS data recovery services can help. They have the tools and experience needed for Synology RAID and EXT4 file systems.
Do not format or modify the drives, and keep the disk order the same as in the original NAS.
You’re right—RAID 10 generally offers better protection against data loss than RAID 50. RAID 10 uses a combination of mirroring and striping, which means it can survive multiple drive failures as long as they don’t occur in the same mirrored pair. This gives it consistent and predictable fault tolerance. On the other hand, RAID 50 is made up of multiple RAID 5 groups striped together. Each group can tolerate one drive failure, but if two drives fail within the same group, the entire array can be lost. This makes RAID 50 more vulnerable in certain failure scenarios.
QNAP may label RAID 50 as “safer” because with a larger number of disks, it can potentially survive more individual drive failures—provided those failures happen in separate RAID 5 groups. RAID 50 also offers better storage efficiency and higher performance for large sequential workloads, which some systems prioritize when assessing overall “safety” from a performance standpoint.
Still, RAID 10 offers stronger and more predictable data protection. It handles rebuilds faster, reduces the risk of total failure, and is easier to manage during hardware issues. If your main concern is minimizing the risk of data loss, RAID 10 is the more reliable choice.
Not all RAID levels can survive a drive failure. RAID 0 offers no protection—if one drive fails, all data is lost. RAID 1, 5, 6, and 10 provide varying levels of fault tolerance, but even in these setups, a failing or unresponsive drive can cause the system to slow down, freeze, or fail to boot.
If one of your drives is freezing, it’s best not to reboot the system. The drive might fail completely on the next power cycle. Instead, try to clone the failing drive to a new one using tools like ddrescue, HDClone, or Clonezilla. Once cloned, replace the original drive in the array and check if the system will boot or rebuild.
If the system comes back online, back up everything immediately. If it doesn’t, don’t attempt a rebuild unless you’re sure of the RAID settings. Using recovery tools like R-Studio or UFS Explorer may help, or you can send the drives to a professional data recovery service.
Taking the right steps early improves your chances of recovering the data without permanent loss.
Talia’s right—sometimes after a recovery, Windows creates a new user profile, so check in C:\Users\ for any old folders with your files. If you don’t see them there, it’s important not to use the laptop too much to avoid overwriting lost data.
Next, try running a free data recovery program to scan the drive. Since you haven’t done much after the repair, there’s a solid chance you can recover your missing documents and pictures.
Like Arin said, your card probably got messed up from the phone overheating. And like Ezra asked, if your phone can see the card but not the files, try backing up whatever you can.
Next, pop the SD card into a computer and run a recovery program like Stellar Photo Recovery to try and get your photos back. Don’t use the card any more right now so you don’t overwrite anything. If the computer can’t even see the card, you might need to think about professional recovery.
My RAID array just failed, and I’m desperate to recover some critical business data. I’ve tried a few tools, but none have worked so far. What RAID recovery software do you recommend that’s reliable and effective?