How to recover data from XPEnology RAID? (Acer Aspire H340)

[David Li]

My Acer Aspire H340 NAS with DSM operating system don’t turn on, it may be out of order.
I failed to reset this NAS device and install a standard operating system, so I decided to install a DSM operating system instead, and do it with the XPEnology bootloader.

What should I do with all the data that’s still on the disks? (I hope that all drives are working and my data is still there)
There is no way to access the files by just connecting the disks to the computer. I can't try replacing the device itself - there is no similar device available.
What should I do to read the disks and retrieve information from there? Or, is there any well-tested data recovery tools for NAS solutions?

[dj_nsk]

1 час назад, David Li сказал:

My Acer Aspire H340 NAS with DSM operating system don’t turn on, it may be out of order.

Are you sure it was the DSM operating system that was there? This is the most important question.

If there was a DSM, then Xpenology was already installed. Then it will be enough to build a new server (any hardware suitable for Xpenology), prepare a bootloader, connect all the disks from H340 to it and boot - the data on the disks will be saved.

But if there was no DSM/Xpenology, then you need to know exactly what it was?

[David Li]

16 hours ago, dj_nsk said:

Are you sure it was the DSM operating system that was there? This is the most important question.

If there was a DSM, then Xpenology was already installed. Then it will be enough to build a new server (any hardware suitable for Xpenology), prepare a bootloader, connect all the disks from H340 to it and boot - the data on the disks will be saved.

But if there was no DSM/Xpenology, then you need to know exactly what it was?

Yes, it was DSM/Xpenology. I installed it there myself.

But my device does not start, and there are no others at hand (to roll the system on it).

That's why I thought that maybe the fastest and easiest way in my case would be to try any data recovery tools for NAS solutions.

I already had time to google a little and came across some information: https://hetmanrecovery.com/recovery_news/how-to-bring-an-old-nas-acer-h340-back-to-life.htm#plan_7

I want to try this software. What do you say about this?

[dj_nsk]

18 часов назад, David Li сказал:

my device does not start

does this mean that the hardware does not start, or does the DSM does not start?

If it's hardware, then yes, Hetman RAID Recovery is a perfectly reasonable choice for data recovery.

You can also see other options: https://www.easeus.com/data-recovery/best-nas-recovery-software.html

[IG-88]

On 11/24/2023 at 9:36 AM, David Li said:

But my device does not start, and there are no others at hand (to roll the system on it).

that does leave some room for interpretation, "not start" could mean the hardware does not start at all (no bios message, just a blank screen maybe some beep code)

in that case 1st hing would be to check psu and try to start the system with the least possible attached hardware to rule out as much other components

 

if its about software, like bios screen visible, maybe loader still shows its message and then it does not boot into DSM ... in that case depending on the loader you used it could simply be a "wrong" dsm update that does not match the loader and the thing to to might be just to use a newer loader and install a new version of dsm with it (dsm system and data in raid volumes are separate  and updating or upgrading dsm does not change the raid volumes

 

in both cases there would be no need for a recovery as its just a case of operating system not starting, nothing to "recover" (as nothing is wrong with the raid)  just  "use" the working raid in some way

DSM uses standard linux software raid (mdadm) and LVM2, so you could just start a recovery linux from a usb media and mount your raid and volume to access the data

similar would be to prepare a usb media with open media vault and boot it, that way could access your data over network when the raid data partition is mounted (if your hardware is working or you use a spare where all dsm disks are connected)

 

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/7004-tutorial-how-to-access-dsms-data-system-partitions/

 

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/42793-hp-gen8-dsm-623-25426-update-3-failed/#comment-200475

 

and if you need a recovery you might have a look at this too (raid recovery is for free)

https://www.freeraidrecovery.com/

but you would still need to have enough free sata ports to connect all you disks

 

edit: example for a real recovery case would be a raid5 set of 4 disks and after a power drop out (without ups) there are only two disks valid in the raid set, as redundancy of raid5 is one disk the raid set is failed and thats it for DSM, only option offered is to delete and create new - thats the point where recovery comes in, mdadm (used software raid in DSM) uses a sequence number for write events and only the disks with the highest number will still be valid as part of the raid set, the two disks that are shown as failed have lower numbers, depending on the conditions its possible to ignore that and "push" the disk with the least difference back into the raid set, after that ist3 disks and would be within the 1 disk fail condition of raid5, so you would be able to access it again, that raid set in the end will be used with a file system (like ext4 or btrfs) and the file system might be able to deal with it or at least you would be able to read most of the files again, depending on the amount  of lost writes on the 3rd pushed in disks there might be erros in the file system or the content of files you will have to deal with (of live with)

depending of the recovery software and time used you might be able to pinpoint the missing parts from the raid set to the file system and to the files in question to exactly know what files might be not ok and need to be checked to still work and be consistent for further use

there are a lot more possible recovery cases and in a professional environment you would not use the original disks/data but disk image files instead of the original disks as you are trying not to change the state the original disks are in to not deepen the problems (like hardware defects on disks) or want to have more the one try to recover data (depending on the situation you might need to find out the right configuration of things as of missing information and doing it with the original disks you have just one try and can't revers it if it s not the right choice), with image files und copy's of them you can start over and have another go with a different method, different assumptions of the state things are in or a different recovery software

 

haste and hurry are your biggest foes and planing is key, even if you buy new bigger disks to store the image files might pay of as after you are finished you will need disks for backup (as you have learned now you should not go without) or even buy new nas hardware as you will later need a stable system to run your recovered data from - it depends on how much you need your data or what they are worth from your point of view

Edited November 26, 2023 by IG-88

[David Li]

On 11/24/2023 at 10:36 AM, David Li said:

Yes, it was DSM/Xpenology. I installed it there myself.

But my device does not start, and there are no others at hand (to roll the system on it).

That's why I thought that maybe the fastest and easiest way in my case would be to try any data recovery tools for NAS solutions.

I already had time to google a little and came across some information: https://hetmanrecovery.com/recovery_news/how-to-bring-an-old-nas-acer-h340-back-to-life.htm#plan_7

I want to try this software. What do you say about this?

I tried the data recovery method described in this article, and everything worked out for me. The proposed program perfectly coped with its task.
Thanks to everyone who tried to help.