Synology, QNAP, Buffalo, WD My Cloud, Netgear ReadyNAS: these are the boxes that Scotland relies on for both families’ personal archives, as well as small businesses. When a box fails, loses access to data in a volume or greets you with a blinking amber light, use the golden intake rule: if you can remove the disks, they will travel to Edinburgh for evaluation, labelled by bay, while the enclosure remains at home; if you cannot remove the disks then the entire unit is sent.
Each of your files in a NAS sits above a multi-layered stack: physical disks are below, followed by the software RAID (mdadm for most NAS manufacturers, while Synology uses SHR hybrid models); next is the volume manager; after that comes a Linux file system, either ext4 or the newer btrfs with its own snapshot logic. A failure at any level will take down the shared storage. The recovery process has to climb the entire stack: first, create images from the original disks; second, rebuild the RAID maths; third, build out the volume; finally, restore the file system on the new copy. This explains why simply plugging a NAS disk into Windows results in the inability to read the disk; it also explains why we read them natively.
Disk death is the most common cause, naturally, and it makes sense that the second-disk-during-rebuild story is a NAS story too: NAS devices are always on (24/7) and thus all their disks age together. Firmware updates gone wrong may cause an operating system to lose communication with its healthy data volumes. A power outage may damage the RAID configuration of your NAS or the file system while all disks pass testing. And, most recently, ransomware attacks NAS devices in the same way it attacks any other mapped drive, with internet-exposed boxes attacked directly. If your files have been encrypted and there's a note where they were, our ransomware page is your route. Don't reinstall the NAS operating system. Don't agree to a repair process you do not completely understand. Do not rebuild. Get a quote, label them, pull them, send them.
Don't let the console fix itself until you know how safe your data is: some of its fixes will rebuild by erasing what was on the disk. Turn off the NAS. Get a quote first, either over the phone or with the form. Then pull the disks, label them by bay order and send them. If the disks won't come out, send the entire NAS instead. SHR and btrfs structures are cleanly reconstructible from images when no 'repairs' have been done to those structures.
Windows will likely ask to format this disk; don't allow it to do so, because as NAS storage, these disks contain a Linux RAID and file system that your computer does not understand. Connected on its own, the best you might be able to get from one disk of an array is fragmented pieces of files and other data. This is exactly why we use the bench to read mdadm, SHR, ext4 and btrfs natively.
Rarely: the actual data and the configuration of the array are stored solely on the individual disks. Labelled disks are easier and safer to transport than an entire unit with a power supply in it. If possible, please remove the disk(s); if not, we can take the entire unit. One exception worth mentioning when you call: some encrypted volumes, where the keys or the unit itself matter.
First, a free diagnostic, then a fixed written quote before any work is done. This means no surprises on the invoice (because we don't give you an invoice until you approve the number).
Examples of some of our other work from the bench that are similar to this kind of job.
It will take only two moves to place your device at our service area, and once that has been accomplished, the clock on your free look starts.
First get a quote, over the telephone or using the online quotation form. When sending your internal drive, remove all cables, caddies and power supplies, as they will have little use when sent to us. But when sending an external drive, send the complete item, including its original casing, together with the supplied cable and power supply. Ensure that the device is securely wrapped and unable to move during transportation. Either post it insured to 4 Redheughs Rigg Westpoint, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ or call into our offices Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed. Please include a brief description of how your device was damaged. If you have printed a shipping form, please attach it along with the device.
Once the arrival of your device has been confirmed, the diagnostic will run free of charge, and then when we make the phone call to you, we'll name the problem and tell you the fixed price to fix it. The bench will remain dormant on your device until you give us permission to proceed.
Free diagnostic first. Every disk imaged before any rebuild: the rebuild is usually what finishes a struggling NAS off.