Recover Data on Seagate Central NAS Drive

Hi all,

First of all, I don't know if this is the right place to post such a question, but it seemed the most relevant.

Anyway, as a way of introduction, I'm a linux ignorant person, but I appreciate if you can help me regarding this critical issue to me.

I have purchased the Sagate Central NAS drive (3TB) a year ago and for no reason now there is no electric power at all and thus I cannot read anything on the drive at all. Since the data on the NAS drive is very valuable to me, I decided to disassemble the drive and connect it directly to my computer since the drive itself is an ordinary SATA drive.

The problem is I can't seem to read anything on the drive on my Windows 7. I have researched the issue and it seems the problem is that the file system on the drive is ext4 (Not so sure about this since I know nothing about linux and the drive is not recognizable by Windows). I have tried several linux readers including (Paragon ExtFS, DiskInternals, and Ext2explore). The latter two seemed to be able to explore the drive, however, they see it as 4 partitions (a couple 1GB partitions and a couple 20MB ones). There are loads of folders and files. Accordingly, I cannot recover a single file of my own.

I tried to explore another solution and I decided to use Knoppix 7.4.0 live DVD. Again the same problem as the one I faced with the linux readers on Windows 7.

I'm really desperate to recover the data, can you please help. Appreciate it.

P.S. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to provided as much detail as possible.

I am not sure if this will work as you have tried knoppix. I would download Puppy linux 5.2.8  (middle of page) Burn the iso file and boot the disk. In the lower left of the desktop you will see your hard drives and partitions. Your main drive would probably be labeled sda1. Click on one of the partitions of your NAS drive. A file manager window will open. Click on your the drive you want to copy files to. Another file manager windows will open. Highlight the files and folders you want to copy by left clicking the mouse button while holding the Ctrl key down. Drag and drop the highlighted files and folders from the NAS File Manager Window to the recovery drive FIle Manager Window. A small dialog window will open select copy and not move. You can show hidden files by left clicking the little eye in the menu bar of the File Manager

 

(Not so sure about this since I know nothing about linux and the drive is not recognizable by Windows)

If its ext then Windows cant use it.

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Any Puppy Linux will do, all you want is to boot the PC and mount your "c\drive". This video will show you how its done.

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GParted is a free partition editor for graphically managing your disk partitions.

With GParted you can resize, copy, and move partitions without data loss, enabling you to:

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Edited by NickAu1, 29 August 2014 - 06:08 PM.

Thank you all for your replies.

The problem is that one of my linux readers on windows sees the partition types as Raw, so I fear that even if I use puppy linux, it won't be able to recognize the partitions.

But it wouldn't hurt to try. Will do and let you know.

Thanks again.

If the partition is listed as RAW then you will need to use Testdisk to recover the drive. See this guide. Do not write a new partition table if you cannot list your files. If you can list your files, then I would copy them first. If you cannot list the files after doing a deep search you will have to use another kind of software like Easeus Data Recovery or PhotoRec which is also on the PartedMagic disk. You can download the last free version of PartedMagic here.

Ok, so I ran Testdisk but I cannot find my files.

I used Parted Magic as instructed. Diskhealth sees no hardware problems with the drive, so I decided to run Partition Editor (GParted) but it cannot find any system files and sees the drive as one 3TB unallocated space.

Finally, I ran PhotoRec and the results - as much as the layout - is the same as Testdisk.

I guess my only hope now is to try to fix the NAS box hardware if I can.

Any thoughts?

I don't have any experience with the box. I would recommend you start a thread in the Seagate Central NAS forum and also contact Seagate's technical support. If PhotoRec did not find anything I would think Seagate is using some kind of proprietary interface. Seagate has it's own data recovery service but I imagine it is not cheap.

Ok, so after a couple of weeks, I have managed to recover 100% of the data. Just thought I share the simple solution in case anybody gets bitten just like me.

R-Linux which is a freeware software managed to recover all files. The only con was that it recovered the files without the folder structure. But I can't complain especially if it's a freeware.
 

Finally, a piece of advice. Don't think of purchasing Seagate NAS since it seems that it wasn't only me who complained of this fault. Someone had the same fault in their 3TB Seagate NAS on Seagate forum. Although to be honest, the moderator is the one who recommended the R-Linux.

Thanks all.

Thanks for the update. I did not know R-linux existed but it looks like a good tool to recover files or partitions on a linux box.

Hey acct_nael, thanks for the hint of R-Linux!

I had the same F****** problem with seagate, when I call them I've just heard that I should disassembly the case and connect the HD on a Linux machine!

I tried to use the R-Linux for RWindows first, and I got the same sad result than you, all my data became out of order.

So I run it on a Ubuntu 14.10 and, not for my surprise, all my data became on it's original folder structure!!!

I'm just reply to try to help you if you still has your NAS drive!

If you hasn't  complain with Seagate, do it! They will change yours by a new on! As we know the problem is with the NAS's main board project, I believe that the new one will die too, but if we push up Seagate enough times, they can fix it and make something good as they always did in past! 

Good luck pal!

Edited by Ibiki, 29 October 2014 - 07:05 AM.

I viewed this Topic early and then viewed it again later. Glad to hear of the success stories.

 

I wonder how many other people are having this same problem and do not realize they need linux to sort it out.

JohnC_21 has hit the nail right on the head, and it does not just apply to those in the circumstances above.

For those hit hard by eg Cryptowall Ransomware, their data may be harder to recover. But if you use a Linux solution as a backup contingency, you better the odds.

Who knows, if you dip your toes far enough into the pool at the Wonderful World of Linux resort, you may come to like it.

Cheers all, and kudos JohnC_21.

Wizard

BTW -for those in Enterprise situations, you may already be using Linux Servers in the workplace and not know it. More robust, more secure, and on and on. And for the Home User..it's free!

First off I am fully aware this topic is old, but I think that the issue is completely on topic.

My name is jay and I made the mistake of buying a Seagate 4tb NAS (Central) just about a year ago. The thing never worked very well, I always had to remap it all the time, and it was super slow. I calledSeagate and they said something about over time it gets better. I just dealt with it!

Fast forward to now (may 2015) I just moved the drive from Florida to Phoenix in a padded case. It now has about 3 TB on it. The files like everyone else, are very important yadayada .i went to plug it in the other night and the NIC card is not lighting up. i tried three network cables that have been tested to no avail.

I contacted Seagate support this morning and they were very nice (even if unhelpful), After we determined the drive was still under warranty. We troubleshot briefly, but there was not much the tech could do! I know the drive itself is still alive. I got permission from the customer service team to crack open the drive. They are sending me an advance replacement RMA drive to put the recovered data on the new device.

I went ahead and hooked the now freed drive to my windows system. Yes, I know it has EXT4 and windows cannot read it. I used a software called Diskinternals Linux Reader, and I can see all the many partitions on the drive. When I click on the one with all my data I get a warning saying " Can't Open disk", however all the smaller partitions do open, they all show a linux file structure (var, snd, mnt, usr etc).

I know my data is alive and well and the new drive is on its way, I turn to your expertise to help me from this point. I know linux trends change all the time, so I decided to write to see if there is an updated solution. Another thought came to me that when I get the new drive I could just crack the case on the new one and swap the drives, i do not know if there has been any success with that in the past.

Seagate drives (internal) as a whole are solid, but their NAS products really do not live up to the hype!

Ideally, I want to recover my data from my drive and sell the new one on Ebay or something, i really do not want another "Time Bomb"

Thanks in advance for the help!

FYI: I am a former Snr Network Admin (MCSE) with some linux basic background, so no need to "dumb it down" for me!

thanks

Edited by jaysodyssey, 07 May 2015 - 04:05 AM.

I was thinking of doing the USB option since my dvd drive is now taken up by the sata drive i removed from the seagate enclosure

Any specific distro or apps i should be using?