DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

oli · 2008-06-24 23:48:12

When I first purchased the DNS-323 device I was extremely pleased with the unit and it's performance. I used the device with 2 x 250GB Seagate drives in RAID 1 configuration.

It's been a little over a year now and everything seemed to be running smoothly until a couple of weeks ago when I noticed that my Backup software was reporting that it could not access my NAS drive (my DNS-323 network drive). I thought to myself, that's wierd, so I tried navigating to it through windows explorer and sure enough I could not access the drive.

The LED lights in front of the unit appear fine. Neither drive LED is showing up as amber. The device is connected to a top of the line surge protector and I don't hear any wierd noises coming from the unit so by all accounts it should be working. Network magic also spots
the device yet I can not see the drive letter for the device. When I try to view the device folders through the network I can only see "lp", "Printer" and "web_page" shares but no file folder shares. When I try to login into the configuration for the device, it starts up as if both drives
are new, asking me which drive configuration I would like to format the drives as. OK ... panic sets in.

I continued to try to troubleshoot the problem by completely powering down the DNS-323 and left it off for several hours before plugging it back into the power outlet, router and power the unit back up. Still the same issue.

I finally decided to contact D-Link and there support is almost non-existant to say the least. It takes days to receive a response to an email and when they do respond they offer very poor advice. I don't think they realize that what's most important to me at the moment is first obtaining my data from the drives before trying to see if I can get the DNS-323 to work again. They offered few suggestions such as installing the drives on a linux machine and retrieving the data that way. Sure thing ... if only I had a linux machine (or knew someone that did) and if only I knew how to use one.

So here I am begging for help. Does anyone know how I can get my data off of these drives? I've tried everything! I've tried several recovery software packages, I've installed an application that allows me to view Linux drives on windows, I've installed a Linux OS on my computer yet nothing has helped me to get my data back. The software that came the closest was DiskInternals Linux Recovery. This software allowed me to see all my files but reported the files as 0 file size. I'm in the process of contacting this company to see what this means.

What a nightmare! And here I thought I was protecting my data by using DNS-323 and using RAID 1.

The DNS-323 hardware revision is A1 and the Firmware version is 1.03. I'm using it on a network with 2 XP machines and a Vista Machine.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.
Oli

fordem · 2008-06-25 00:34:37

If you have access to a Windows system with SATA drives, you can install one of the drives (doesn't matter which one) and load the ext2ifs installable file system driver, which should give you access to your data if it is still available.

If you can't see the data with ext2ifs your only hope will be a data recovery firm, and that is assuming you haven't screwed it with "everything" that you have tried.

oli · 2008-06-25 05:29:49

Thanks Fordem. I'll try that.

As for screwing things up with what I have done thus far ...

The drives themselves are working perfectly ... no issues. The D-Link guys tell me that the DNS-323 device is the culprit. They said something to the effect that the DNS-323 device memory has some how reset and that it doesn't recognize the drives and their previous structure. They claim that installing the drives, reformatting them and upgrading to Firmware 1.05 will correct this issue and will stop it from happening again in the future. Wierd advice since I want and need my data back.

The approaches I have taken to read or recover the data is non destructive and will not write anything to the drives themselves. Reading the drives shouldn't cause any issues since the drives are not failing.

Like I said, I will try your suggestion though and let you know how it goes. Seems odd though that when a RAID 1 array is broken by the DNS-323 device (the device I was counting on to secure my data in the first place) there is now way (at least so far that I've come across) that help to reconstruct the RAID array and recover my data. Hopefully your method will be the one!

Thanks,
Oli

oli · 2008-06-25 05:56:41

Foredom,

After clicking your link to Ext2 IFS I realized that this was actually the first tool I used (in readonly mode). The problem is that when I assign a drive letter to either one of the drives and I try to access it through Windows Explorer I receive a message stating that "The Disk Drive is not formatted. Do you want to format now? Yes - No". Obviously I don't want to format ... but judging from the fact that I can't see anything when I should be (based on your suggestion of this tool) I'm guessing that I'm in deep S#!% here. So I guess my data is lost forever unless I am willing to pay top $$$ to see if a Recovery firm can retrieve it.

Talk about a HUGE disappointment. I go out and get a product to protect my data and use it as RAID 1 which is supposed to protect against just about everything except against catastrophic physical damage to both drives and the device but instead the device ends up killing my data by somehow screwing up my drives file structure on both drives. Ever get that cold sweat feeling when you realize that you're in trouble ... I've got that right about now.

What to do next? If I only knew. In the meantime D-Link has quickly become my most dispised computer hardware/device manufacturer. Not completely due to the complete failure of their device but also due to the lack of support they have offered. It take them days to respond and when they do they offer quick one line answers that have no real use in helping me solve the issue. Sorry venting.

Oli

fordem · 2008-06-25 15:58:39

Oli - can you see my signature?

Too many consumers misunderstand what RAID is all about, and end up like you are - regardless of who made the device, you have to back up your data.

Now - are you using ext2ifs properly?

There is a control panel utility that allows you to assign a drive letter to a partition, assign drive letters to all available partitions - there could be as many as four or five - and then go back to "My Computer" and check each of the drives.

oli · 2008-06-25 16:56:22

Thanks again for the response Fordem.

I get your point about the difference between RAID and backup ... but really, a RAID 1 setup is supposed to protect your data from something like a disk failure to ensure that you continue to have access to your data should one fail. That's really all I am expecting here.

Most of my sentitive data is backed up in 3 locations ... my laptop, my 250GB portable drive and my NAS (DNS-323). The DNS-323 however servers another purpose for me in that I access certain items from this drive such as fonts, web projects, music etc. Like I said, I do have the majority of my information backed up but the information contained in these drives are structured in such a way that certain programs access information from them in specific ways. To set this all up again would be VERY time consuming.

In my case the drives didn't fail but instead the device failed, which is fine but really, shouldn't it be a simple task to get my drives up and running again? ... unless of course the DNS-323 device somehow butchered my drives file system.

As for ext2ifs, I have used the control panel utility to assign drive letters to both of my drives' partitions. There are 2 partitions per drive and 4 in total. After assigning drive letters I go to Windows Explorer and trying clicking on each of these drive letters but receive the "The Disk Drive is not formatted. Do you want to format now? Yes - No" message.

Have missed a step somewhere?

Thanks again.
Oli

blahsome · 2008-06-25 17:16:03

My shiny $1800 laptop just wiped its file system out, and guess what Dell's response is? Reformat and reinstall the OS. That doesn't work? We'll ship you a new hard drive. What if that fails too? We'll install a new motherboard. Sadly, nowadays that's a pretty typical response from hardware manufacturers.

I'm glad that I started backing up any of my it's-a-pain-to-replace data in at least two places a long time ago. I wouldn't trust a $150 consumer-level device to protect my data at all.

It sounds like your data is safe, and it's just a matter of time before you are back and running again, so you're already better off than a lot of people in this forum.

fordem · 2008-06-25 19:30:59

oli wrote:
Thanks again for the response Fordem.

I get your point about the difference between RAID and backup ... but really, a RAID 1 setup is supposed to protect your data from something like a disk failure to ensure that you continue to have access to your data should one fail. That's really all I am expecting here.

Most of my sentitive data is backed up in 3 locations ... my laptop, my 250GB portable drive and my NAS (DNS-323). The DNS-323 however servers another purpose for me in that I access certain items from this drive such as fonts, web projects, music etc. Like I said, I do have the majority of my information backed up but the information contained in these drives are structured in such a way that certain programs access information from them in specific ways. To set this all up again would be VERY time consuming.

That's why you back it up.

oli wrote:
In my case the drives didn't fail but instead the device failed, which is fine but really, shouldn't it be a simple task to get my drives up and running again? ... unless of course the DNS-323 device somehow butchered my drives file system.

That's why you back it up.

As for ext2ifs, I have used the control panel utility to assign drive letters to both of my drives' partitions. There are 2 partitions per drive and 4 in total. After assigning drive letters I go to Windows Explorer and trying clicking on each of these drive letters but receive the "The Disk Drive is not formatted. Do you want to format now? Yes - No" message.

Have missed a step somewhere?

Thanks again.
Oli

There is something wrong somewhere - I don't think I've ever seen less than THREE partitions on a DNS-323 drive, and depending on the disk configuration, there could be more - so either one is missing or you didn't get all.

fordem · 2008-06-25 20:04:13

blahsome wrote:
My shiny $1800 laptop just wiped its file system out, and guess what Dell's response is? Reformat and reinstall the OS. That doesn't work? We'll ship you a new hard drive. What if that fails too? We'll install a new motherboard. Sadly, nowadays that's a pretty typical response from hardware manufacturers.

I'm glad that I started backing up any of my it's-a-pain-to-replace data in at least two places a long time ago. I wouldn't trust a $150 consumer-level device to protect my data at all.

It sounds like your data is safe, and it's just a matter of time before you are back and running again, so you're already better off than a lot of people in this forum.

Just out of curiosity - what do you expect the hardware manufacturer to do?

My not so shiny Dell laptop (it's 3+ years old) works great, and the hard drive was replaced - two days after it fell, end over end, down a flight of stairs - so I had to reinstall the OS and restore my data.

The hardware manufacturer will never, ever, take responsibility for your data - not on a $150 consumer level device, not on an $1800 laptop and not on a $70,000 SAN, price plays no part in it - the data is ALWAYS the user's responsibility.

blahsome · 2008-06-25 21:07:55

fordem wrote:
Just out of curiosity - what do you expect the hardware manufacturer to do?

Nothing. I was merely stating the "sad" fact that hardware manufacturers would not be responsible for doing much anything else. All manufacturers, not just D-Link, behave similarly. To the OP, it IS a pretty sad fact.

So what did you read this time?

Last edited by blahsome (2008-06-25 21:09:10)

bq041 · 2008-06-25 21:16:09

fordem wrote:
There is something wrong somewhere - I don't think I've ever seen less than THREE partitions on a DNS-323 drive, and depending on the disk configuration, there could be more - so either one is missing or you didn't get all.

The older F/W (1.03 and before) only had 1 partition on each drive in a RAID 1 configuration, unless you also had JBOD. In 1.04 and 1.05, 2 partitions is the norm for a RAID 1 setup (also unless there is JBOD).

fordem · 2008-06-25 21:29:37

bq041 wrote:
fordem wrote:
There is something wrong somewhere - I don't think I've ever seen less than THREE partitions on a DNS-323 drive, and depending on the disk configuration, there could be more - so either one is missing or you didn't get all.
The older F/W (1.03 and before) only had 1 partition on each drive in a RAID 1 configuration, unless you also had JBOD. In 1.04 and 1.05, 2 partitions is the norm for a RAID 1 setup (also unless there is JBOD).

It's been awhile since I looked at a disk formatted with 1.03 firmware, but I seem to recall more than one partition - there was at least a swap partition in addition to the data partition.

Just look at the partition sizes - do they add up to the total capacity of the drive?

oli · 2008-06-25 22:33:05

The partion sizes do appear to add up to the total capacity of the drives. The first partition is 512MB while the second contains the remainder minus the unallocated/unused space which is about 10MB or so.

To add to the question about what would one expect the manufacturer to do .... I guess I really don't expect much but I think in almost any relationship, transaction, situation .. whatever ... all anyone is every really looking for is to be acknowledged. I think everyone can agree after reading what has happened to me thus far is that I have experienced the worst possible device failure with this product. I figured the best people to contact was the manufacturer and yet the have been the least helpful ... know what I mean? That's bound to make someone frustrated. So basically, I feel, that they have turned their backs on their customer. Anyways, that's just my opinion.

As for my data ... still no luck. I keep researching and racking my brain trying to think of something I can do without ruining any data on the drives. Hmmmm ... very stumped over here.

Oli

bq041 · 2008-06-25 22:55:08

fordem wrote:
It's been awhile since I looked at a disk formatted with 1.03 firmware, but I seem to recall more than one partition - there was at least a swap partition in addition to the data partition.

You are right. I was not counting the swap partition, only the data partitions. Anyway, the generic setup is partition 1 is swap, partition 2 is main data partiotion, partition 3 is JBOB partition (after a RAID 1 on partition 2) and partition 4 is the config partition used under the new firmware.

fordem · 2008-06-25 23:24:49

blahsome wrote:
fordem wrote:
Just out of curiosity - what do you expect the hardware manufacturer to do?
Nothing. I was merely stating the "sad" fact that hardware manufacturers would not be responsible for doing much anything else. All manufacturers, not just D-Link, behave similarly. To the OP, it IS a pretty sad fact.

So what did you read this time?

I'm just curious - consider me to the representative of one (or actually many) manufacturers - I want to know what you expect us to do.

When the product leaves the factory it's built to a meet a particular standard - take my Dell laptop for example - do you expect Dell to be able to recover the data after it falls down a flight of stairs? To be quite honest I was surprized that it even powered up after the fall. My son borrowed it one night and brought it back partially infected with a Trojan (my AV stopped it from being fully infected), do you expect Dell to be able to recover the data at that point?

The only thing that I see as "sad" is the end user not being willing to recognize that they have a responsibility in this and expecting the manufacturer to do it all.

fordem · 2008-06-25 23:39:34

oli wrote:
The partion sizes do appear to add up to the total capacity of the drives. The first partition is 512MB while the second contains the remainder minus the unallocated/unused space which is about 10MB or so.

To add to the question about what would one expect the manufacturer to do .... I guess I really don't expect much but I think in almost any relationship, transaction, situation .. whatever ... all anyone is every really looking for is to be acknowledged. I think everyone can agree after reading what has happened to me thus far is that I have experienced the worst possible device failure with this product. I figured the best people to contact was the manufacturer and yet the have been the least helpful ... know what I mean? That's bound to make someone frustrated. So basically, I feel, that they have turned their backs on their customer. Anyways, that's just my opinion.

As for my data ... still no luck. I keep researching and racking my brain trying to think of something I can do without ruining any data on the drives. Hmmmm ... very stumped over here.

Oli

Oli - my question on what you expect the manufacturer to do was not meant for you. If you're not happy with how D-Link responded to you, that is your experience, and I can't argue with it - personally I didn't care for they way they responded to me either, but let's say my situation was different to yours, and leave it there.

I've already said all that I have to say about your predicament, which is that you should have backed up the data, even with RAID1. I'm not suggesting anything I don't personally do - I have a RAID1 array in my server, and that gets backed up to my DNS-323 and some folders that I consider vital also get backed up to tape.

oli · 2008-06-25 23:51:30

Sorry Fordem,

Correct me if I'm wrong but it seemed like you maybe mistook my previous post. I'm not against anything you have said at all. I agree with you 100%. To say that I should have backed up all of my data including file structure etc is true. I'm not debating any of that so please don't feel like I'm against your statements .... or maybe I just read your last post ... who knows!

Despite my disappointment with the device and manufacture the only thing that I'm looking to accomplish is to get my data back somehow. In the future I will handle my data backup slightly differently but for the most part I think I've done a pretty good job. For now though, I am just hoping that someone might have a possible solution for me for my current situation. If only I had a time machine!

Oli

fordem · 2008-06-25 23:57:11

nah - just clearing the air - whilst I don't think you can hold the manufacturer responsible for your data, I feel they do have an obligation to respond to you, even if it is to give you the unwelcome news - as for getting it back - you've already done what I've suggested, and what I know should work, at least in my disk failure simulations, that worked for me.

blahsome · 2008-06-26 00:27:57

fordem wrote:
I'm just curious - consider me to the representative of one (or actually many) manufacturers - I want to know what you expect us to do.

Nothing. Didn't I say that last time too?

When the product leaves the factory it's built to a meet a particular standard - take my Dell laptop for example - do you expect Dell to be able to recover the data after it falls down a flight of stairs?

No. Did I ever say I would?

To be quite honest I was surprized that it even powered up after the fall. My son borrowed it one night and brought it back partially infected with a Trojan (my AV stopped it from being fully infected), do you expect Dell to be able to recover the data at that point?

No. Did I ever say I would?

The only thing that I see as "sad" is the end user not being willing to recognize that they have a responsibility in this and expecting the manufacturer to do it all.

Good. We finally can agree on the "sad" part at least.

blahsome · 2008-06-26 00:37:38

You may have a corrupted partition. Try go into XP (or Vista)'s Disk Management and see what type the largest (e.g. data) partition has. If the partition is corrupted, it often is listed as "raw", which basically means that the partition has lost its file system info.

If so, software packages exist to recover as much data from that partition as possible. Some allow you to see what files can be recovered before paying for them. Unfortunately I have very limited experience with these, so I cannot recommend one. The last resort is to send it off to a professional data recovery place, but the cost is usually prohibitive.

mihar · 2008-06-26 06:28:07

blahsome wrote:
You may have a corrupted partition. Try go into XP (or Vista)'s Disk Management and see what type the largest (e.g. data) partition has. If the partition is corrupted, it often is listed as "raw", which basically means that the partition has lost its file system info.

If so, software packages exist to recover as much data from that partition as possible. Some allow you to see what files can be recovered before paying for them. Unfortunately I have very limited experience with these, so I cannot recommend one. The last resort is to send it off to a professional data recovery place, but the cost is usually prohibitive.

Actually, the cost of professional data recovery is not prohibitive per se...

But rather, the cost effectiveness of such a service really depends on how much a person would value his data...

For example, suppose a person keeps photos of his vacations on the hdd and it fails(motor failure/electrical component failure)... Say he puts a monetary value of $2000 on his photos... Why $2000? Well, he can just go for more vacations and take more photos... Not really a big deal....So,if the cost of professional data recovery is $1000 then this translates to 50% of the value of the data...

But let's say his vacation photos also includes photos taken with loved ones who has since departed and there are no other backups, the monetary value of the data may be higher say $10000 or more...So, the cost of data recovery would still be the same, $1000, but, this now translates to only 10% of the value of the data....

This is all very subjective and really depends on the end user... If you could put a value on your lost data, what would it be? From there, you can decide if professional data recovery is worth the money....

Also, the cost of the data recovery is also dependent on the state that the hdd are in... These companies are highly specialized in data recovery involving hdd that are physically damaged where you'd think it was impossible to retrieve any data at all... Think along the lines of airplane crash, fire or complete submersion in water... Those kinds of catastrophic data loss...

For hdd that suffer from motor failure, electrical component failure or even missing FAT. it's kid's play for them and the costs involved in retrieving the data are much lower...

Anyway, the above posting is for general information should anyone decide to seek professional data recovery...

thorium90 · 2008-06-26 06:46:02

Oli - have you tried a restore programme such as Restoration, used for recovering deleted data. Have a browse at http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html . Do not know if it will work with EXT2 but might be worth a try.

Last edited by thorium90 (2008-06-26 06:46:48)

oli · 2008-06-27 22:09:44

Hi Thorium

I have searched and tried a couple non-destructive Linux EXT2/EXT3 recovery programs. So far no luck. I'm currently testing another one however and so far this one appears to look promising. The other recovery software packages I tested either didn't recognize anything or crashed part way through the scan. So far, this one is doing well. I'll report back.

Oli

oli · 2008-06-28 16:55:25

Success!!!

I finally was able to get my data back from my drives that were used in the DNS-323 device!

For anyone who has followed this post, you will know how much of a struggle this has been. Fortunately I found software that properly found the damaged/lost partitions and was able to recover my files and data from these.

The software is called Kernel Recovery for Linux (Ext2, Ext3 Partition Recovery) and is developed by Nucleus Data Recovery. It is very inexpensive at about $50 USD. It can be can be found here:

http://www.nucleustechnologies.com/Linu … tware.html

Download a trial version first and use the software. Be sure to download the correct software title since they have several flavors made for Linux. If the software finds your files and folders, you can then save the scan information to your desktop. Purchase and install the full version, load the scan information and your ready to recover. Thats it!

I've already read other posts where users seems to be experiencing the same issues as I did so hopefully this will help.

As for me, I'm happy to have recovered my data. I'm not sure if I will continue to use my DNS-323 however. I've lost faith in it. I think I'll switch to something else to handle my NAS RAID1.

Oli

mig · 2008-06-29 08:46:16

Oli, I'm glad to see you were able to get your data back and I'm sorry you lost
faith in the DNS-323, but perhaps I can lend a little perspective here...

What you have just gone through is an unanticipated failure condition on your NAS. You
protected your data against power spikes by using "a top of the line surge protector". You
protected your data against drive failures by using RAID1. Your protected your data against
data corruption by using Backup software (well, you backed up most of your data). But what
you experienced is a loss of the partition table on your drive(s), a failure condition you
never anticipated.

Now, I don't think you REALLY know how this happened, or EXACTLY what caused it to happen.
And I assume you believe the DNS-323 is the root cause. Since you are using RAID1, the problem
was replicated to the mirror drive, making the failure worse. No amount of surge protection or RAID1
will protect against this failure. Even a total backup will not prevent this type failure, but a total backup
would make recovery much easier.

The perspective I'm trying to give is that whether you put the DNS-323 back in service or find another
RAID1 device, the only protection you can have against this failure (loss of partition table) is a total
backup. D-link or any other hardware vendor is not going to do anything to help you protect your data.
It's up to you to protect your data to whatever level you think the data deserves. Once you have a solid
"data recovery" plan implemented you don't need to have "faith" in the hardware you choose to store your
data.

Good luck with whatever you decide is best for you, I'm sure Kernel Recover recommendation will be
very valuable for others experiencing the same issue.

Last edited by mig (2008-06-29 08:49:23)

DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

Announcement

#1 2008-06-24 23:48:12

Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#2 2008-06-25 00:34:37

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#3 2008-06-25 05:29:49

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#4 2008-06-25 05:56:41

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#5 2008-06-25 15:58:39

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#6 2008-06-25 16:56:22

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#7 2008-06-25 17:16:03

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#8 2008-06-25 19:30:59

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

oli wrote:

oli wrote:

#9 2008-06-25 20:04:13

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

blahsome wrote:

#10 2008-06-25 21:07:55

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

fordem wrote:

#11 2008-06-25 21:16:09

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

fordem wrote:

#12 2008-06-25 21:29:37

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

bq041 wrote:

fordem wrote:

#13 2008-06-25 22:33:05

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#14 2008-06-25 22:55:08

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

fordem wrote:

#15 2008-06-25 23:24:49

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

blahsome wrote:

fordem wrote:

#16 2008-06-25 23:39:34

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

oli wrote:

#17 2008-06-25 23:51:30

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#18 2008-06-25 23:57:11

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#19 2008-06-26 00:27:57

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

fordem wrote:

#20 2008-06-26 00:37:38

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#21 2008-06-26 06:28:07

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

blahsome wrote:

#22 2008-06-26 06:46:02

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#23 2008-06-27 22:09:44

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#24 2008-06-28 16:55:25

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

#25 2008-06-29 08:46:16

Re: Total DNS-323 Failure! Help!!

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