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NAS Recovery

Don't spend thousands of dollars on NAS recovery service!
Try this DIY recipe of NAS recovery and get all your data back.

Difficulty: Level 3 (you can do it)

Hands On Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 5 hours including copy time Total Time: 5 hours and 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 NAS, broken
  • Desktop PC having enough SATA ports, own or borrowed
  • Enough SATA cables
  • A screwdriver
  • ReclaiMe File Recovery software
  • Additional blank storage of enough size (not shown on the photo)

Directions

  1. Peel the disks – get them out the NAS.

It is better to label the disks, if you haven't already done this, so that you can return to the original configuration.

  1. Remove the side cover off the PC.
  1. Look at the motherboard and locate the SATA ports.
  1. Prepare enough SATA and power cables to connect NAS disks to the PC.
  1. Connect NAS disks to the motherboard using SATA cables.
  1. Connect NAS disks to the power supply unit using power cables and power on the PC.
  1. Download, install, and launch ReclaiMe File Recovery.
  1. Select the NAS volume for recovery and click Start.

Since NAS is usually a Linux-based storage, look for the NAS volume under Linux md-RAID, Linux LVM, or BTRFS sections. Among Linux volumes, choose the largest one for recovery.

  1. Preview several recovered files to estimate the quality of NAS data recovery.

Preferably, check photos.

If you are not satisfied with the data recovered, most likely your NAS configuration (inner RAID layout) is severely damaged and fist you need to recover it using ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery software.

  1. Buy the license key and activate the software.

For NAS recovery you need ReclaiMe Ultimate edition.

  1. Select folders or files you need and click Save.

Expert tips

  • If you have difficulties with getting the disks out of the NAS, search the web for video instructions covering your specific NAS model.
  • You may have difficulties procuring a PC with enough ports - you may have to buy an additional controller. Additionally, you may disconnect CD-ROM and use its SATA and power cables to connect one of the NAS disks.
  • Although it is not recommended but when you lack SATA or power connections, you can connect NAS disks via USB.
  • The recipe is not for cases involving severely damaged NAS metadata like those where the RAID layout records are completely lost. In all these cases, you need to reconstruct RAID configuration first and only then recover NAS data.
  • In some cases you can do NAS recovery with one disk missing, if the NAS was configured in RAID5 or RAID1 layouts.
  • Since NAS recovery task generates high CPU load and consumes a lot of memory, choose at least 64-bit PC with 8 GB RAM.
  • Be aware that you need to prepare additional storage to save the recovered data, equal to the amount of data you stored on the NAS. It can be one more NAS, a custom-built RAID (hardware or software), or a bunch of external hard drives.
  • Preferably, you should save the files to a directly connected drive, most often an external USB drive. Alternatively, you can save the files to another NAS, but you need to map a shared folder to a local drive using Windows Explorer first.
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