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Table of Contents
NAS - QNAP - Recover RAID or move data from broken NAS
Most NAS brands run Linux as a backbone, so it is usually easy to recover data by connecting the disks from the NAS to a system running Linux.
Remove the drives from your NAS
IMPORTANT: Remember the order in which the disks were arranged in the NAS; as this may be needed for the recovery process.
- It is usually good to place a sticker with the drive number onto each disk.
Connect the disks from the NAS to a PC running Ubuntu
Prepare a PC with enough hard drive slots available to install the hard drives from your NAS.
- For RAID or SHR configurations, connect all the hard drives (excluding hard drives used as hot spares) to your computer at the same time.
NOTE: Ensure the file system running on the hard drives of your NAS are EXT4 or Btrfs.
If the NAS only had a single disk, then this disk should be immediately accessible and no further steps in these instructions are needed.
Install mdadm
sudo apt-get install mdadm
NOTE: When prompted for Postfix Configuration.
- Select No configuration and complete the installation.
Install lvm2
sudo apt-get install lvm2
NOTE: This is needed for vgchange.
Mount all of the hard drives
sudo mdadm -Asf && vgchange -ay
NOTE: The files on the hard disks should be accessible.
- mdadm -Asf: Assemble a pre-existing array. Scan config file or /proc/mdstat for missing information. Insist that mdadm accept the geometry and layout specified without question.
- vgchange -ay: To activate all known volume groups in the system.