Yep. Three of my disks failed me. (Actually I failed them by making a bad power connector. But let's not talk about that   )

 

One of those disk 1 contains most of the data. Is it possible to recover the data in disk 1 and ignor the loss in the other two disks?

 

If not, what is my next step once I have three new disks installed ?

Yep. Three of my disks failed me. (Actually I failed them by making a bad power connector. But let's not talk about that  )

 

One of those disk 1 contains most of the data. Is it possible to recover the data in disk 1 and ignor the loss in the other two disks?

 

If not, what is my next step once I have three new disks installed ?

 

You need to explain exactly what happened, step by step.

 

To answer your question, though, if you lost three drives (lets just say someone accidently drilled through them with a 1/2 inch drill bit), there would be no way to recover the data that was on any other them.  One failed disk, yes, you can recover it.  Two+, no way.

 

The way you may be able to recover it to revive the disks.  This usually works.  That's we need to know exactly what happened.

To the best of my knowledge, if you have more than one disk fail at the same time, then UnRaid's parity system will not allow you to recover any data.

 

Unless someone thinks otherwise, I should think your best bet is to attempt data recovery on the failed disk independently... here's a post about data recovery from a failed drive

I made two of these SATA conectors:

 

 

I didn't cross the black wires on one of the two kits I made.   The three drives plug on the connector where the black wires were not crossed are now drives that won't even spinup anymore.

If the drives won't spin then we can do nothing. You could try a recovery service if the data is valuable enough. UnRaid can recover a single failed disk. There are plans to allow the recovery of two...

 

If the drives still operated then there are things we could try to save the data.

If you have a disk of the same type/year/model number you could try swapping the controller board. If the three disks are the same, try warrantying one (which doesn't have much data on it), and use the replacement as a possible donor (providing it's the exact same type of disk).

I didn't cross the black wires on one of the two kits I made.   The three drives plug on the connector where the black wires were not crossed are now drives that won't even spinup anymore.

 

Eeek!     

 

Most likely the electronics are fried.  The suggestion of swapping the electronics with that of a donor drive is a good one, but you clearly need to match the model and version of the drive as closely as you can - and you need to be comfortable with the work involved - some drives bury some of the connections under plastic resin to ensure mechanical security.

If the data is REALLY important, best to send to data recovery specialists. They'll re spindle the drive if worst case scenario. If it's just movies, well, bad luck mate!

I didn't cross the black wires on one of the two kits I made.   The three drives plug on the connector where the black wires were not crossed are now drives that won't even spinup anymore.

 

I find that puzzling!  The black wires are zero volts, or ground, and the connections are usually commoned at both ends - I don't understand why crossing the two black wires should have caused any problem.  I have to suspect that something else happened.  Swapping one of the black wires with one of the coloured wires ... now, that could easily cause a major problem.

 

In any case, the controller board may include fuses on the power lines - try following the tracks and see where they go.

They sound completely dead so it'll likely take a recovery service to get anything back. I have heard of the controller board being swapped so that might work if you can match the failed drives up with a working one and you are also willing to risk bricking another good drive.

 

Both black wires are common and connected together in the power supply so I can't see any reason why "crossing" or not "crossing" the black wires would make any difference at all. Sounds like there is more to the story, like having the black connected to red and red connected to black.

 

Peter

 

I am soooooooo sorry. :(

 

When I made my "power rail" cable, I remember checking it over and over with my multimeter to make sure nothing was crosswired.  I am going to try to find those old posts and include extra warnings.

 

I have never used a data recovery service.  Not sure if they preserve an exact image of the data, or copy the data onto a new disk.  If the latter, you'd need all three disks repaired (unless one was parity - you don't need to recover parity).  If they provide an image restore, you'd could rebuild the third.  That is, of course, if the rest of the disks in your array are not updated in the slightest between now and the time you get your disks back.

 

The swapping controller trick might be worth a try.  Of course you run the risk of losing yet another disk and certainly voiding warranties.  If you know any EEs, this might be a good time to call in a favor.  You might have luck RMAing the three disks and getting refurbs.  You'd lose your data, though.

I didn't cross the black wires on one of the two kits I made.   The three drives plug on the connector where the black wires were not crossed are now drives that won't even spinup anymore.

 

I find that puzzling!  The black wires are zero volts, or ground, and the connections are usually commoned at both ends - I don't understand why crossing the two black wires should have caused any problem.  I have to suspect that something else happened.  Swapping one of the black wires with one of the coloured wires ... now, that could easily cause a major problem.

 

In any case, the controller board may include fuses on the power lines - try following the tracks and see where they go.

 

As I read it the swap (or not) is between a Molex 4-way disk drive connector (yellow-black-black-red) and a SATA power connector (should be [optional orange]-black-red-black-yellow).  I am guessing one block of SATAs may have been wired in the same sequence as the Molex connector.

ya, if the wires were reverse that means the polarity to the electronics were reversed. so instead of applying +12V and gnd, you applied gnd and +12V... this would have blown out the electronics on the board.

 

There's a good chance that swapping out electronic boards could save the drive, unless if the motor is blown too but I doubt that.

 

There's a good chance sending it to a data recovery service will work, but it will be $$$. I would suggest above, someone recommended trying to swap out electronics on a drive that the data isn't as critical to see how that fares first.

There is a slight risk that the read amplifiers (which take the raw signal from the heads) would have been damaged.  They are generally mounted with the head assembly (inside the drive enclosure) in order that they are as close as possible to the heads themselves and therefore they would not be fixed by changing the main board.  However, it's all speculation at this point - they could just as easily have been protected by the other electronics failing first.  B1G (the OP) needs to decide which options are viable relative to the value of the data.

I have never used a data recovery service.  Not sure if they preserve an exact image of the data, or copy the data onto a new disk.

 

I have -- Ontrack give you a new USB hard drive with your data on. When the recovery costs $1,000 they can afford to throw in a free drive... they really do have people in clean rooms in those bunny suits taking drives apart.

They tell you which files they can recover (for free) -- they give you a file listing, and then you pay a huge amount of money for the recovery.

I do not think swapping the PCBAs works nowadays but you can try. And if you decide to remove them before swapping please take a high resolution picture of the circuit board (component side). Chances are the power rails will be protected bu fuse (surface mount - does not look like a traditional fuse), TVS etc. and they have taken the brunt. So if you decide on that, please post the pictures.

I didn't cross the black wires on one of the two kits I made.   The three drives plug on the connector where the black wires were not crossed are now drives that won't even spinup anymore.

 

I find that puzzling!  The black wires are zero volts, or ground, and the connections are usually commoned at both ends - I don't understand why crossing the two black wires should have caused any problem.  I have to suspect that something else happened.  Swapping one of the black wires with one of the coloured wires ... now, that could easily cause a major problem.

 

In any case, the controller board may include fuses on the power lines - try following the tracks and see where they go.

 

As I read it the swap (or not) is between a Molex 4-way disk drive connector (yellow-black-black-red) and a SATA power connector (should be [optional orange]-black-red-black-yellow).  I am guessing one block of SATAs may have been wired in the same sequence as the Molex connector.

 

That's exactly what happened. The two black wires were not crossed like it should be when making a converted Molex to SATA plug.

Lessen learned: When you get tried, don't insist on finishing the job. Go to bed!

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I just decided to give up on recovering the data. It's mostly films, music and pics. I just hope I didn't loss too many family pics in the process  

 

 

 

Another reason to have another server or a backup solution.  I backup my wife's laptop to the synology, and run rsync between the syno and unraid for specific folders. 

 

I don't back-up my movies, which will be painful to re-rip, but the family photos lost would be reason for a permanent residence in the dog house!