Devices · NAS and network drives
Most NAS (Network Attached Storage) failures occur quietly. Every drive is still visible, all folders open as they should, and a drive may be dead in bay three for a month before someone checks. Damage occurs when DSM or QTS suggests a scrub, repair or rebuild operation. A user accepts and the pool is destroyed. Shut off the system power and let it remain that way, wherever in Hull the unit is installed. We receive NAS units from a freight office on Hedon Road, a solicitor's firm in Beverley and a fabrication shop near Scunthorpe.
An engineer will take the details
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| What you see | What the fault is | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Synology: Volume Crashed | When too many disks fail, parity cannot compensate for them. | Power down the unit before DSM suggests a repair operation. |
| Synology: Storage Pool Degraded | There is one dead disk. The layers above it continue to operate normally without issue. | Each hour that it runs, you pay the price. |
| QNAP: system volume not active; RAID unmounted | QTS created this volume and cannot mount it now. | Reassemble it away from the box. |
| DeadBolt — WARNING: Your files have been locked | It has ransomware; there's a ".deadbolt" at the end of every file. | Take a photo of the note; don't touch anything. |
| Buffalo TeraStation E14 — Cannot mount the RAID array | Everything looks good with your array. The box won't let you start it. | Write down the "E" number, then unplug the unit. |
| Buffalo TeraStation E16 — The hard disk was not found | Either the drive is dead or the box can no longer see it. | The files are usually still on the drive. |
| Buffalo TeraStation E30 — The hard disk may be broken | One of the drives has been removed from the array. | Do not rebuild. |
Every piece of gear that shows up receives a case number on the very same day it arrives. An engineer examines it and determines what is really wrong with it and there is no charge for this. We give you straight language about which files we will be able to copy from the disk and which ones we won't be able to. Then we provide you with a single price quote, in writing, based upon these findings. We don't begin working on anything until you agree to the quoted price.
Each and every one of these disks will receive a complete image on imaging hardware built for the job, to include its weak points. All of the work after that will be done to those images. When an enclosure does arrive it will sit on our bench (powered off) to prevent it from picking up where it left off.
When we're talking about a NAS volume, we're rarely ever talking about a single item. In Synology, it is partitions matched into groups; an md array to contain the groups, and LVM to cover everything. Buffalo, Netgear and QNAP organise their arrays differently from Synology. Each layer will go back up in software, starting from the bottom.
After we've got the stack to hold, we'll fix the btrfs or ext4 filesystem. Then shares will come online with names as you named them, and with folder trees as they were. You'll get the full listing and can verify it yourself; no one here closes the case until you do.
You will not be charged while you think about this. First, you receive a list of everything that was recovered from the drive. Once you have seen the list and given us the go-ahead, the bill comes next. Files are returned to you on media purchased specifically for this job and we cover the return postage as well. Your job is kept open by us until you can view them on your personal computer.
Lesson of 2022: On 25 January 2022, the first "DeadBolt" wave hit approximately 3,700 QNAP systems that replied from the public Internet. More waves occurred during that year. Prior to that two other types of malware attacks called QLocker and eCh0raix had used some of the same techniques. Virtually all systems attacked had two characteristics in common: they were reachable from the public Internet, and their firmware was still the version provided in the box.
Two red lights, and it was still salvageable. Someone then started to rebuild it, and that process killed it. The unit's own metadata got overwritten. We then took images of all the disks beyond their bad sectors. We built the mirrored image back piece-by-piece using whatever disk provided clean reads at each location. Ultimately the shared volume came back complete.
Rarely. The disks contain their own descriptions of the volume: where they were located in the bays, stripe size, all layers stacked on top. None of this lives in the box itself. Good disks in a dead box is some of the easiest work we get.
If possible, just send us the disks as bare drives. The Leeds lab would like to have these bare, and if you cannot remove them, please send the entire NAS. Remove them one bay at a time, and write the bay number on each before packing them. Get a quote first, by phone or with the form, then post them, tracked and fully insured, to the Leeds intake lab, or bring them to the Leeds intake lab personally (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed). No data is read from a disk until it has been imaged.
The Synology Hybrid RAID exists to prevent waste when using non-matching sized disks. Each drive contains multiple slices of partitioned space that find matching "partners" across the entire set. An md array sits atop each matched group. LVM is used to tie all of the arrays into a single volume that is visible. This is what we take apart layer-by-layer, starting at the bottom.
No. Volume Crashed is describing the boundaries of your box and not the state of your data. Image every disk, build the pool in software and most likely a DSM-written-off volume will still read normally.
Leave it off. There are only a few start attempts left in your failing drive and each attempt uses up a little more of what remains. Our complimentary diagnosis will determine what files are readable.