Reading a RAID 1 drive without ReadyNas

[imtrobin]

I think BackTrack recommended earlier has. but my linux skills is too low level to solve the issue.

[imtrobin]

Update. I tried this tool and the trial version seems to be able to read the data fine. Unfortunately it's not free, but it doesn't look too expensive either, fortunately.

http://www.recoverdatatools.com/linux-d ... overy.html

[Avalerion]

Didn't really have any luck reading the drive in USB mode.

I wish there was a quick tool to run on a Linux live CD to access this.
Maybe Infrant can put a quick how-to for this type of thing? I'm sure it's more common than it seems.

[derek]

I'm using ExploreFS for Windows, which is supposed to be able to read ext2/3 and lvm2. No luck.

I have yet to install LVM2 support on a linux system. Is there a live CD that comes with LVM2 native?

Explore2FS itself still cant read LVM, but their beta Virtual Volumes says it can, is that what you tried?

http://www.chrysocome.net/virtualvolumes

[mableu]

I wish there was a quick tool to run on a Linux live CD to access this.
Maybe Infrant can put a quick how-to for this type of thing? I'm sure it's more common than it seems.

I'll 1000...000% second this request!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately I have the same problem with X-RAID (3 discs) and would just like to get my data out of the ReadyNAS
http://www.infrant.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12171

May other would second this too?

[Avalerion]

I have also tried the Virtual Volumes with no luck.
I can read the Ext2/3 partition with what appears to be "links" to the share directories and configuration files. But I can't get into the RAW partition.

[Avalerion]

Any progress on this?

[prahn]

Just found this thread, and I was very sad that nobody found an answer. But after searching a little more I just found another thread which broght me to a solution: <Link>
(I may not post a link here, since this is my first post. If you want to read the thread I found search for "RAID1 external recovery help")

On my debian I also needed to install the package lvm2 first: apt-get install lvm2

After that I just needed to run "vgscan" and "vgchange -ay c". Then I could easily mount the RAID-1 HD with "mount /dev/c/c /mnt/raid/"

Good Luck!

[Fignuts]

I agree that a simple wiki tutorial on accessing a RAID-1 volume disk from Windows XP/2003/Vista would be invaluable for ReadyNAS owners unfamiliar with Linux. Has anyone tried one of these free solutions, and if so, which one and how easy was it to access/recover your files from Windows?

http://www.fs-driver.org

http://ext2fsd.sourceforge.net

[dekkit]

it took a while to bring one together but there is a VMware that you can use to read the RAID 1 driver without the readyNAS

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=35153

*adding this in case someone still requires it*

[alexofindy]

Well, here's one user's attempt to summarize what has been extensively discussed elsewhere in these forums.

There are two issues that make it more complex to read a ReadyNas data volume that simply having an ext3 file system driver.

First, ReadyNas uses at least two software layers, LVM (linux volume manager, I think) and MD (RAID) on top of the raw file system. Most Windows ext2 drivers cannot handle these, and will not be able to access the data files. They will only see the directories that contain the Linux OS that ReadNas uses, and not the users data. Many linux distros however can handle the LVM and RAID functions, if the proper commands are given; these are well described in various posts in the forum.

The second issue only applies to the Sparc architecture ReadyNas systems, not the Intel based ones. With the older ReadyNas 3.X firmware, ReadyNas used a 4 kb raw block size, which is part of the low level formatting of the file system; 4 KB blocks could be easily read by PC's running Linux. Beginning, however, with 4.X firmware, ReadyNas switched to a 16 KB block size to improve performance. Intel hardware is not well suited to handling 16 KB blocksizes, and most Linux distros, and ext2 drivers for windows, simply cannot handle them. Thus, it is hard to read a ReadyNAS data volume from a Sparc-archtecture ReadyNas (such as the NV+) on a PC, with most LInux distros.

There is workaround, and this is the ext2fuse file system. this is an add-on file system driver that can, in theory, be installed on most Linux distros. But this is generally not easy, because ext2fuse is not available in binary form; it must be downloaded (usually from sourceforge) as source and compiled. And it often produces compilation errors with the recent vintage linux distros, which are a real issue for those of us that are not Linux Gurus.

Fortunately, some users have come to the rescue, by preparing vmware based ready-to-run virtual machines that have the necessary ext2fuse drivers already compiled and installed. That is what the link in the preceeding post points to. YOu still need to know how to give commands in a Linux terminal window, but according to reports on this forum, they work. I personally have not tried them yet.

[Mastacheata]

I know this post is pretty old, but the following question came up to my mind when reading this thread.
The original issue was to expand storage capacity of the NAS by replacing 2x 250GB by 2x 750 GB.
Isn't it the main feature of X-RAID(2) that you can replace disks on the fly? (At least that's what I thought seperates X-RAID from conventional RAID)

So if one wanted to replace the drives couldn't this be done one by one?

Replace 250GB#1 by 750GB#1 and let the drives resync (Only 250GB of 750GB are used)
Now replace the remaining 250GB by the other 750GB drive and let the new one resync with the other 750GB.

You'll not loose any redundancy and don't need to fiddle around with command-line linux/unix or finding aged ext3 drivers for windows with LVM and MD support.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[sphardy]

Mastacheata - that is exactly how X-RAID works. But the OP referred to RAID1 and so may not have had this option if RAID1 was in fact the setup he used.

[John Bean]

... and of course X-RAID doesn't help you if you need to access the data in the event of a hardware failure of the ReadyNAS itself.

My solution is to ensure all ReadyNAS shares are routinely backed up to external ext3 USB drives. I use the ReadyNAS as online storage - a "mini server" if you like - and treat it the same way I'd treat any server.

[detuned]

so there really is absolutely no way to setup the readynas to where you can pull the drives and read them in windows without workarounds? thats kinda bullshit and i wish i had realized it before i blew 300 dollars on the thing. ive had it for a month or so and have felt extremely nervous about relying on it, (especially when it does things out of nowhere like booting me and not allowing me to get back in to my files) and have been backing up to a third drive, but thats a complete waste of a 1tb drive that is desperately needed elsewhere.

if anyone has suggestions on other NAS brands/models that allow this, im all ears, cause im really tempted to just get rid of the readynas.