NAS box died; trying to recover files from disks (file system: ext3) in Windows 7 environment. Help?

[xxxcliffordxxx]

I had an Iomega ix-200 StorCenter that died on me. For some crazy reason, I assumed the file system on the HDDs would be NTFS or FAT32 but have since learned they are in fact ext3.

I have gone into Windows Disk Management and Windows can see the HDD and its partitions, but will not allow me to access them. It will not assign the drive a letter, either. (Don't know if that's relevant). It does say the disk and partition are healthy.

I have tried an ext3 program (ext2explore) designed for Windows which WILL allow me to access HDDs, however, not the partition I want and I do not see an option to access another partition.

Ideally I would like to transfer the files to my main HDD, format the drives from the NAS to NTFS and install them in my machine instead of getting another NAS. My main priority is to recover the data - approximately 900 GBs. I would appreciate any help and am open to suggestion.

Thanks in advance.

-Cliff

 

[Nothing_But_NAS]

For future reference (if you decide to buy another NAS), most NAS uses ext[34], unless the NAS specifically state it is running a Windows Server OS.

Best/Easiest way to recover is to get a Linux live CD/USB image and boot your system in Linux. Linux can read/write both NTFS and ext3 natively.

 

[mogaar]

Cliff, did the Linux live boot work for you? I am having a similar problem. I recently purchased a WD My Book Live 2 TB NAS for ripping all my DVDs and BluRays to. After many many hours of ripping I found out that 2 TB is not enough space so I purchased another WD My Book Live 2 TB NAS. My desk was getting too cluttered so I decided to move the NAS boxes to a new location. I powered down the 1st NAS, moved it and powered it back up. The LED indicated that it went through a normal boot up but now my computers can't see the NAS anymore. I tried rebooting everything several times (NAS, router, computers), swapped cables and still nothing. I installed the new NAS and it works fine. I am guessing the controller died when I shut it down. Western Digital said I should remove the HDD from the case and recover my data and then do an RMA with them. I pulled the HDD out and put it in my Win 7 computer but it says it can't recognize the boot sector (Disk manager sees it and assigned drive letters to it). I heard about trying Linux so I made a Knoppix live CD, I think it is a flavor of Debian, and it gives me the same error about the boot sector. Could it be Western Digital is using something different than Ext3? Could it be a problem with Knoppix not having the right tools to read it? Any help would be great. I really don't want to lose my movies.
Thanks.

 

[Nothing_But_NAS]

Boot sector error would only be an issue if you are trying to boot from the disk. Are you sure it didn't say partition error? How are you trying to read the disk in Knoppix?

 

[mogaar]

I'm at work right now so I can't look at it but it appeared to be an explorer window similar to Windows Explorer (I don't know very much about Linux). I was able to look at the files on my other HDDs in my computer. When I get home tonight I will run it again and repost exactly what it said.
I think I may have burglarized someone elses post. I reposted my question under storage forum.
Sorry Cliff.

 

[xxxcliffordxxx]

I think I may have burglarized someone elses post. I reposted my question under storage forum.
Sorry Cliff.[/quotemsg]
Ha ha. It's OK. We all need a little help sometimes.

 

[xxxcliffordxxx]

For future reference (if you decide to buy another NAS), most NAS uses ext[34], unless the NAS specifically state it is running a Windows Server OS.

Best/Easiest way to recover is to get a Linux live CD/USB image and boot your system in Linux. Linux can read/write both NTFS and ext3 natively.

Thank you for your reply. Here is what I am experiencing now:

I have loaded Ubuntu 12.10 into a VM and have been trying to mount the drives (I've tried both separately) using Terminal, but as of yet having no luck. Command: sudo mount /dev/sda1 /home/clifford/mnt. It is giving me an "unknown filesystem type" error. When I use the blkid command it tells me the file system type is "linux_raid_member". So I guess my new question is this: is that a filesystem, or do the disks believe they are still in a RAID array or what? I'm at a total loss here. Again, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Nothing_But_NAS]

That means the disk is a RAID member. What RAID level did you have running on the Iomega? Hope it was RAID1.

 

[xxxcliffordxxx]

That means the disk is a RAID member. What RAID level did you have running on the Iomega? Hope it was RAID1.

I believe it came in default RAID 1. I did not adjust the RAID settings.

 

[Nothing_But_NAS]

This disk were in RAID1 so they cannot be mounted directly. You will need to rebuild the RAID and mount the disk. You can do this with the mdadm tool. Fire up the command line and run:
mdadm --assemble --scan /dev/md0

Check the RAID with:
cat /proc/mdstat

Mount the RAID with:
mount /dev/md0 /home/clifford/mnt

Note all three commands should be run by switching to root and using sudo.