help needed to restore data

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sksbog
Posts: 470
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:14 pm

help needed to restore data

Post by sksbog »

I have a seagate NAS drive, where we store family pictures. All os a sudden the folders disappeared and there is no data in the explorer. I need some help restoring the data.

Worked with seagate support. They concluded that that there may be software failure and asked me to contact their data restoration department which can recover for a fee.
They probably would require yo send in the hard drive via FedEx.

Have anyone used such service? How was the experience?
Data privacy concerns?
Anyone can suggest similar service?
michaeljc70
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Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2015 3:53 pm

Re: help needed to restore data

Post by michaeljc70 »

I haven't used their service, but if I remember correctly, it is very expensive and there is no guarantee. There was no backup?
bob60014
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Location: The Land Beyond ORD

Re: help needed to restore data

Post by bob60014 »

If it's not a communication issue and truly a data recovery issue, try Recuva for free.
https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
Topic Author
sksbog
Posts: 470
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:14 pm

Re: help needed to restore data

Post by sksbog »

michaeljc70 wrote: Tue May 22, 2018 8:46 pm I haven't used their service, but if I remember correctly, it is very expensive and there is no guarantee. There was no backup?
no backup. it is a NAS drive.
THY4373
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Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:17 pm

Re: help needed to restore data

Post by THY4373 »

If you send it off to a service you will likely pay several hundred dollars or more depending what they need to do to recover the data (if that is possible). Also you don't necessarily need to use Seagate's recovery service. They may or may not be better and likely won't be cheaper (a lot of these companies outsource recovery to a third-party anyway).

You basically have a decision to make. If the photos are worth several hundred dollars to you and you want the highest chance of getting them back. Send to a data recovery service and be done with it. If the hard drive(s) is(are) failing in NAS then anything you do now may lessen the chance of recovery.

If you aren't willing to pay that price and/or are willing to roll the dice you can try a few things. One if this is really network attached storage that is a network device, if it has a USB port try connect to one or more PCs using that and see if they will mount the drive(s). If that doesn't work and you are somewhat technical you can try removing the drives from the NAS enclosure and connecting them to a PC using the SATA interface. You may need to try a Linux distro since the NAS file system may not be one that Windows understands.

Oh one other thing if you do get access to the data pull off the most important stuff first and then go back at get less important stuff. You never no how long the drive may or may not stay accessible so prioritize.
Last edited by THY4373 on Wed May 23, 2018 9:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
THY4373
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Re: help needed to restore data

Post by THY4373 »

bob60014 wrote: Tue May 22, 2018 8:49 pm If it's not a communication issue and truly a data recovery issue, try Recuva for free.
https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
That is basically a file carver (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_carving) and there are many, many tools out there that do this. Keep in mind if the failure is a hardware failure this will likely not work (except in some instances where there may be bad sectors that have destroyed some of the file system metadata) and it can hasten the demise of the drive because it will force the OS to keep trying to reread bad sectors which tends to speed up the failure of the drive. Generally speaking if you are going to try to do a recovery of a hard drive that is at least recognized by a PC you should use ddrescue under Linux to make an image of the drive and then use a file carver if necessary on the image (rather than original drive). ddrescue tries to limit the damage by skipping over bad sectors and recovering anything it can on first read. You can then send it back to try to repeatedly reread the damaged sectors (which is much more risky and likely to damage the drive further).
nexesn
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Re: help needed to restore data

Post by nexesn »

Does the drive boot at all? If the NAS is making sounds and these are really important pictures, I would suggest not using any software program on the hard drive. Using software programs can potentially create a more difficult time recovering the files, or even worse, corrupt them.

If the drive doesn't boot at all, you could try removing the NAS shell and putting the drive into one of these (https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Dual-Bay ... dpSrc=srch) from amazon and externally plugging it into your computer. You obviously don't need the clone part but the device itself is really reliable.

Hopefully it's a hardware issue. I've dealt with several hard drive losses in the past, they are never fun (I'm in IT).

The only company I've ever trusted to restore information has been Kroll Ontrack (https://www.ontrack.com). They use to charge a flate rate of $75 to evaluate a hard drive. However, while going onto their site for their link, it looks like they now offer free evaluations... I would double check this. What I like about them is that they will tell you ahead of time what the cost will be and give you an option of what can be recovered. The least amount of money I've ever spent on a recovery is $125. The most hast been $700. I'd definitely call them if you truly want the data back. Great service all around (One thing I should mention, I haven't used their services for 5 years). So, I can only write of my past experiences.

Good luck and hopefully it's an easy recovery.
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Pancakes-Eggs-Bacon
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Re: help needed to restore data

Post by Pancakes-Eggs-Bacon »

sksbog wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 7:46 pm
michaeljc70 wrote: Tue May 22, 2018 8:46 pm I haven't used their service, but if I remember correctly, it is very expensive and there is no guarantee. There was no backup?
no backup. it is a NAS drive.
I know this doesn't help your current dilemma, but in the future, it'll help to have at least one if not two back-ups of your NAS.

So something like:
  1. NAS - Primary location of family photos, documents, etc.
  2. Backup NAS or backup hard drive - this can live in your house and is the primary backup location.
  3. Offsite backup - This can be done many ways. You can have an external hard drive or NAS that you rotate every so often to an offsite location like a safe deposit box in a bank. Or you can automate this and use online backup services like Carbonite or Backblaze. The offsite backup protects against both your NAS and your local backup from being damaged/stolen.
I wish you the best of luck in recovering your family photos on your failing NAS. I bet they're still there.
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Rob5TCP
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Re: help needed to restore data

Post by Rob5TCP »

I second ontrack - I used them years ago for a client that had a disk damaged in a fire.
We could not do ANYTHING with it. Two companies tried before ontrack.
They got most of what was needed. It was expensive; but worth it to the client.

https://www.ontrack.com/
seawolf21
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Re: help needed to restore data

Post by seawolf21 »

Backblaze have been working great for me for a number of years and going.

I also do 3-2-1.

3 copies total
2 on-site
1 off-site

For on-site I keep PC/laptop files as well as phone video/pictures in sync with NAS using SyncBack.

PC runs Backblaze client to sync with offsite.

Even if on-site copies are lost due to simultaneously hardware failure, theft, fire etc, loss of data is something I don’t have to give a second though.
michaeljc70
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Re: help needed to restore data

Post by michaeljc70 »

seawolf21 wrote: Thu May 24, 2018 8:03 pm Backblaze have been working great for me for a number of years and going.

I also do 3-2-1.

3 copies total
2 on-site
1 off-site

For on-site I keep PC/laptop files as well as phone video/pictures in sync with NAS using SyncBack.

PC runs Backblaze client to sync with offsite.

Even if on-site copies are lost due to simultaneously hardware failure, theft, fire etc, loss of data is something I don’t have to give a second though.
I follow a similar approach. One of my on-site is in a fireproof safe (only most crucial data on USB drive). I think it is important to have different levels of frequency too because if you get a virus, it can infect multiple (or eventually all) backups. I use Google Photos and Google Music as another form of backup for those types of media.
seawolf21
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Re: help needed to restore data

Post by seawolf21 »

michaeljc70 wrote: Thu May 24, 2018 8:15 pm
seawolf21 wrote: Thu May 24, 2018 8:03 pm Backblaze have been working great for me for a number of years and going.

I also do 3-2-1.

3 copies total
2 on-site
1 off-site

For on-site I keep PC/laptop files as well as phone video/pictures in sync with NAS using SyncBack.

PC runs Backblaze client to sync with offsite.

Even if on-site copies are lost due to simultaneously hardware failure, theft, fire etc, loss of data is something I don’t have to give a second though.
I follow a similar approach. One of my on-site is in a fireproof safe (only most crucial data on USB drive). I think it is important to have different levels of frequency too because if you get a virus, it can infect multiple (or eventually all) backups. I use Google Photos and Google Music as another form of backup for those types of media.
Oh I forgot about Google photo. But I didn’t want to pay for extra storage so the version google maintain is not original resolution and no video once the free amount of space is exceeded.

Virus is an interesting point. I do keep Norton updated weekly and in more 20 years has less than 10 quarantine alerts. Virus would affect more on the operating system, keylogging and not as much on files.

In the event of ransomware, usually that would encrypt the whole drive which would then prevent Syncback and Backblaze from running rendering the NAS and offsite copies unaffected.

If some ransomware only encrypt data files but allows Windows and by extension the Backblaze client to run and the Blackblaze client upload the corrupted/encrypted files, Backblaze keep file versioning for 30 days. Just blow away the PC and NAS hard drives, reinstall OS and restore using an earlier Backblaze snapshot. No worries about data loss there; just time spent to rebuild the PC/NAS and file restore.
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Rob5TCP
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Location: New York, NY

Re: help needed to restore data

Post by Rob5TCP »

One other thing about Ontrack - they do sell software for your DIY types.
I've heard good things, but again that was years ago.
I assumed they've had major improvements over the years.

https://www.ontrack.com/products/data-r ... -software/
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