[SOLVED] NAS HD Moved to Desktop Wont Display Data

[Infidel 254]

Hear ye! Hear ye! My fellow nerds, gather 'round and I shall tell you a tale, a tale of frustration and confusion. A tale filled with fraught and...alright I'll get to the point.

I need some help with this one. I know some of you guys live for this stuff so hopefully you can help me get this sorted out. I need to provide a little context that I think will help you so bear with me please.

Way back in 2013 I bought a WD NAS, specifically the My Book Live Duo. You can find legacy support info on the product here: https://support-en.wd.com/app/products/product-detail/p/232

It came with 2 WD 3TB HDs and worked well until today when it finally died. The solid yellow LED on the front panel indicated a boot failure. It occurred after a power failure so I think the device is finally dead. I tried to do a factory reset on it but alas, the yellow LED remained.

So...now I'm left with the dilemma of recovering my data, right?

I removed the HDs from the NAS and installed them into my desktop. When I go into the disk management tool (Win 7 64bit BTW) I see the HD. It shows as a healthy, but raw partition requiring a format. The most I can do is assign it a drive letter but cannot access the drive without formatting the drive. Of course, formatting the drive is not an option as my data will be destroyed. This is my backup and formatting the drive is not an option for me.

What is the work around here? Is there a way to access this data without formatting the drive? Please help. I'm considering going to a data recovery service but would prefer to avoid that due to the costs involved. Any help is greatly appreciated.

FYI, the HD is a WD30EZRX. Here is a link to one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Green-Desktop/dp/B004RORMF6

I took a couple of screenshots from my computer but couldn't add them to this post. I uploaded them to google drive instead, they are linked below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DZ9FKmQoyyAtP9I5ibIv4R4Dmyy9PzIc/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U2uaLYn_IyVGtdwQmdRzuC_Hi7ajB4VP/view?usp=sharing

 

[USAFRet]

This is my backup and formatting the drive is not an option for me.

If this is the only source of this data, that is not a "backup".


Which specific MyBoook is this? Model number, please.
We can probably discover the user manual, and see if it did any encryption or other foolisness inside.


EDIT: Found it, I think:
http://products.wdc.com/library/UM/ENG/4779-705065.pdf

 

[USAFRet]

How did you have this set up?
Spanning, or RAID 1?

------------------------
Features
Maximum storage capacity with drive spanning—Out-of-the-box, this two-drivesystem combines both drives into one volume that acts like one big drive for maximum capacity.

Double-safe backup with RAID 1 technology—Set this system to data protection mode(also known as mirrored mode or RAID 1) and the capacity is divided in half. Half of the capacity is used to store your data and half is used for a second copy. If one drive fails, your data is protected because it is duplicated on the other drive.
------------------------

 

[popatim]

Either way the drives are in Linux format.
The question is it Raid1 or not? Did the MBLD present itself to you as 6gb or 3gb?
If it was 3tb then any of the linux file reader apps will get you access to the drive.; such as Ext2Read which only allows you t read from the drive so you can't accidentally delete or damage files.
Be sure to have someplave to restore these files to.

If the drive was showing as 6tb when connected to the pc then you will probably need raid recovery help.

 

[Infidel 254]

Responding to a number of questions/comments here.

1. It IS a backup as I have the same data on a duplicate disk. I do not want to destroy the redundancy. I've learned in life that many times two is one, and one is none.

2. Yes, it was in a RAID configuration. One might have been able to infer this given my comments about a duplicate disk in my point above.

3. The exact model number is in the link I provided, it has the specific user manual on that page provided.

4. As you may have guess from point number 2, it's a 3TB HD. This was demonstrated in the image I provided. I linked it in my original post.

Concerning Ext2Read Linux reader, I can use that to view the files on a HD that is otherwise unviewable? How is that possible? Forgive my ignorance, I'm not very good at all with Linux based applications. Do you have a tutorial guide for the reader you recommend? If not I suppose I can begin the Youtube journey but sometimes those are dead ends. Any advice or guidance you can provide is appreciated. Thanks.

I believe this answered everyone's questions. If I missed something let me know and I'll work to address it. Thanks for everyone's help as I stumble through the darkness on this one.

 

[USAFRet]

1. Since this is apparently a true backup and the data exists elsewhere, reformat as required. If possible. It might actually be one of the drives, or the enclosure, is dead.

2. Nothing in your original made mention of how it was configured. RAID 1 or 0.

3. My initial foray to your product link, and then subsequent looking for the user manual etc simply led to the WD main page.

4. Your Disk Management showing the 3TB may have been 2x3TB in RAID 1, or a single 3TB member of a failed RAID 0.


Given that the data does exist elsewhere, I personally would not try to make this readable in its current state.
Reformat it out of its RAW state and see what happens. It might be one of the drives, or it might be the enclosure.
Assuming it eventually works, then copy that data back to it.
Yes, this means that for a while you will have a single copy, wherever it currently lives.

 

[fzabkar]

Could we see the Partitions window for each drive in DMDE?

https://dmde.com/download.html

This will tell us the file system, sector size (4Kn or 512e), RAID type (RAID 1 or 0) or whether the two drives constitute a 6TB spanned volume.

A dump of sector 0 should tell us whether the drives are encrypted.

 

[popatim]

Concerning Ext2Read Linux reader, I can use that to view the files on a HD that is otherwise unviewable? How is that possible? Forgive my ignorance, I'm not very good at all with Linux based applications. Do you have a tutorial guide for the reader you recommend? If not I suppose I can begin the Youtube journey but sometimes those are dead ends. Any advice or guidance you can provide is appreciated. Thanks.

Linux uses different drive format types then Windows which Windows cannot natively read so you need a 3rd party utility.
Most Enclosures like this use a Linux OS at their core because it's free and well developed already.

 

[fzabkar]

Can we see a detailed photo of the PCB inside the enclosure? Do the drives spin up inside the enclosure? If not, then there may be a simple, zero cost, DIY fix.