Power loss while formatting HD = Complete Data Loss


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Decided to add more space to my UnRAID server today.  I powered down the system installed the drive, powered up again setup the drives in the "Devices" section and then hit the start button to commence clearing.  When that was done I then hit the format button to create the partition on the drive.  While that was happening the area that I live in experienced a power failure for a few minutes. When it came back on I powered up the system and got back into the menu screen it shows all my drives are free, and none of my files can be accessed. I'm starting to panic here ???:o I don't know what to do now!

 

 

 

Screen shot:

 

unraid.png

syslog.txt

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It would not. This is unusual. I would run reiserfsck on each drive, except parity, and see what it reports. The initial iteration of reiserfsck is nondestructive. But it's hard to imagine that all of the drives are having file system problems. I'm not sure what to do next. You may need to wait for a Mod to comment.

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I copied over a previous backup of the flash key nothing changed, except a parity check was automatically initiated but I stopped it because I saw there were writes occurring on the Parity drive and I don't want to lose any data on that.  This is just weird ???

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Are you sure that all of the drives did not say they were unformatted when you pressed the format button? I'm quite certain it's a bug that started in 4.5.3. When the array is started all drives can sometimes appear as unformatted and if you press the format button and they all get formatted.

 

4.5.3 is a VERY bad version to be using unless you are VERY careful with the format button.

 

I believe the only way to recover your data now is to use reiserfsck with the --scan-whole-partition option. It will search the whole drive for what it thinks are files and create a lost+found folder holding all these files it recovers. You can not revert back to your present state after you do this so you might want to wait for a second opinion before starting.

 

I also think that disk3 may be dying. You could check or replace the cables to that drive and see if it helps. It would have been nice if you told us which drive you just added...

 

Peter

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As long as you did not press the "Format" button, you'll be fine.  When the file-systems come back after a major interruption is is very normal for them to replay their file-system journals.  This I've seen take as long as 15 minutes or so.  While this is occurring the disks will not be mounted and you'll not see their contents. (sound a bit familiar)

 

Basically, be patient, do not panic, do not reformat ANYTHING until you get experienced advice and only after they get a chance to look at your system log.

 

Once the file-system journals are replayed, then a simple stop-array/start-array should show you all your files.

 

Joe L.

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What happens if I did press the Format button and it started formatting all of my drives?  What I don't understand is I have been using 4.5.3 for years without any problems I have added many hard drives without a problem except for now.  After the pre-clearing process was complete I think I did see Unraid identify all my drives as unformatted but I didn't think anything of it.  

Are you sure that all of the drives did not say they were unformatted when you pressed the format button? I'm quite certain it's a bug that started in 4.5.3. When the array is started all drives can sometimes appear as unformatted and if you press the format button and they all get formatted.

 

4.5.3 is a VERY bad version to be using unless you are VERY careful with the format button.

 

If this is true I'm going to be a very PO-ed person.  I paid 80$ for a piece of software to run my $300+ system with over 4TB of data that I have spent over 2 years building up only to find out somebody at Lime Tech released this on the market with a flaw in one of the most used options of the OS ADDING HD SPACE TO THE DATA SERVER.  Instead of just preparing the new drive it decides to format ALL the data.  I'm seriously thinking about whether or not I want Unraid handling my data in the future from now on after this...The whole purpose of Unraid is to create a system that protects data, but with one click of a button and it destroys 4TB of your data.

 

I believe the only way to recover your data now is to use reiserfsck with the --scan-whole-partition option. It will search the whole drive for what it thinks are files and create a lost+found folder holding all these files it recovers. You can not revert back to your present state after you do this so you might want to wait for a second opinion before starting.

 

Disk 4 is the new drive. How would I go about doing this?

 

What are my options, if I have any left?

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I do agree that there should be more checks. There should be a brainstorm made of many situations that could affect the array, and take the proper precautions to stop accidental data loss.

 

• Format button should be away from the front page, with definite warnings on what it does.

• Web interface should have real time status bars etc, to show progress of running functions. For example, journal being recovered.

 

Much of this is in the web interface, and would require a lot of testing. But, once you have the groundwork sorted then it will save time and future pain. One of the issues is that Tom is the only developer, and he really can't work on much at a time.

 

If, perhaps, he open sourced the web interface then we'd see some massive improvements to this solid platform. I'd definitely work on it if it was open sourced. The web interface is the main source of the problems imho.

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Did you press the format button?

 

If you did, then you can basically recover your data as long as you did not write to your array.

 

If you did not format the disks, then you will have a slightly easier time. You just need to fix the file-systems.

 

To recover the files will take time, but many before you have had success.

 

You will need to rebuild the file tree and scan the entire partition.

basics are shown here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ#How_can_I_undelete_files_from_an_unRAID_disk.3F

 

Joe L.

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Did you press the format button?

 

If you did, then you can basically recover your data as long as you did not write to your array.

 

If you did not format the disks, then you will have a slightly easier time. You just need to fix the file-systems.

 

To recover the files will take time, but many before you have had success.

 

You will need to rebuild the file tree and scan the entire partition.

basics are shown here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ#How_can_I_undelete_files_from_an_unRAID_disk.3F

 

Joe L.

 

Thank a lot for your help.  I'm rebuilding one of the drives right now hope it works

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