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

On the data being safe with this RAID thing - the only thing RAID will save you from is the failure of a single disk - any other failure, every other failure and you can probably kiss your data goodbye.

Looking at your post - it seems that the only thing that would have saved you is a backup to some sort of removable media, and in that case, even if the drive was taken out by the lightening strike, a replacement drive would/should have been able to read the media - you can consider that router as well as perhaps surge/power protection - just be aware that a direct strike will pretty much destroy all of your gear, power protection devices included.

What is important is to ensure that all connected devices are powered from the same power source - by connected devices I mean anything with a data cable between the device and the computer - CAT5 network cables can generally be ignored as they pass through isolation transformers at both ends.

You mentioned connecting the drives to a desktop using a USB enclosure - the desktop needs to be able to read an ext2 file system for that to work - I've successfully used ext2ifs and Windows XP Pro to read disks from my DNS-323 - not because I needed to, but because I wanted to see if it could be done.

Try ext2ifs - don't expect your drives to immediately show up in my computer, they may or they may not - you may need to assign drive letters, if that doesn't work, the drives themselves may have been fried - you might need the assistance of a data recovery service who will be able to remove the platters from your drives and install them in another unit to read the data off of them - expect a hefty bill for the service.

PAlford wrote:

because of the raid1 format, I am out of luck with getting back to the files.  Is this true ?

No, that'd be RAID-0 or -5 or most of the others.  With RAID-1, both drives are (theoretically) identical, and in the case of the DNS-323, formatted with EXT2 - readable on any Linux system, or under Windows with the proper utility.

PAlford wrote:

I also tried buying an external HD enclosure for the sata drives, and put one of the NAS drives in there and USB connected it to a desktop and it still wont see the drive.  I tried both sata NAS drives in the enclosure and still nothing.  The NAS powers up like its supposed to.  Both drive lights are on solid.

If you mean the drive lights were solid-on in the HD enclosure, that's a bad sign; it could mean the drive electronics are as fried as everything else.  You'd need to send one of the drives to a data recovery specialist, which could be very pricey.  Or if you're handy with tools, you might consider trying a desperation move: buy a new drive of the same model # (and firmware rev if possible), and swap the circuit boards...   I don't even know if that'd work these days, but it used to, and I know it's one of the first steps a drive recovery service would try.  The magnetic platters can be surprisingly resilient, you just need a way to get at them.

However, if you're lucky it's only the DNS-323 that's fried - others in this thread have pointed out EXT2 filesystem readers for Windows, which would be the next step to try.

- B

Glad you got your data back.

I will never use another NAS nor raid1.

What do you mean? Neither the NAS nor RAID1 was the source of your problem.

PAlford wrote:

I want simple and less stress.

There are quite a few people that post on this forum with similar feelings, disappointed with
the DNS-323 because of EXT2 file system, Linux OS, and RAID/backup expectations.  I'm
quite comfortable Linux and the DNS-323 fits my needs nicely, but if you find a better solution
for Windows OS oriented users, please post your solution here.  I'd be curious to know what
you found.

I would have preferred ReiserFS -- by the way, did anyone here thought of using this FS through Debian or custom kernel?

Not really an answer to your question: The ZyXEL NSA-220 uses ReiserFS for it's internal disks.