So the drives are fried. Out of the 8, 3 drives are ok. Looks like I put -12v across the drives and pop!

 

Managed to get most of my iTunes. Looks like the majority of what is lost is bluerays.

 

Going to pull the data off, put it on some new drives in a new rig and get each failed drive recovered one at a time as I can afford it.

 

Sorry to hear that.  The "good" news is that the voltage almost certainly killed the drive's PCB, but it's unlikely it harmed the platters or the heads.    From a recovery perspective, that's actually a fairly easy recovery ... so you just may be able to get this done at the £120+vat price => and it's very likely that ALL of the data will be recovered.    Be sure the company knows that the data is in ReiserFS format ... and let them know what happened, and they should be able to confirm whether or not they can do it at that price.

 

I suspect you'll be a believer in backups after this 

 

If you really did get lucky and only fried the controller board then you can buy an identical drive new, swap the board, recover the data,  swap the board again, and use the new drive in the array. I've done it, after a lightening strike, it can work. 

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

Agreed,

 

If you have 2 identical drives (model and manufacturer) you can move the controller board (PCB) from the working HDD to the "bad" HDD (after saving all data from the working drive) and try accessing the drive again.

 

If nothing then switch back the PCB to the working drive - no harm done.

 

It is usually all external to the HDD - you don't need to open the HDD for this.

 

 

Back to the original incident, changing a power supply, that seems pretty routine.

 

I haven't used a modular supply but I can see me ASSUME the connectors are wired the same (maybe even from the same PS manufacturer??).

 

My lesson in all of this, even low voltage can kill. 

 

W.C. Fields said it best, "Play slow, that way you don't lose too fast."

 

I hope you get your data back; and don't beat yourself up too much. S**t happens!

No they aren't, on of the 0v and 12v connections were reversed. Which is what blew the pcbs. The cables look the same in that they are braided and heat shrieked right up to the connectors so you can't see the colours of the wires. I'm taking server all things away from this incident. Namely:-

• Always have a backup. Even for the data you don't think is important to you. Mine wasn't at the time but as it turns out it is to me now.
  Never use modular psus. For the sake of a little extra clutter it's not possible to mess things up.
  Check check and check again. From this point forth whenever the server is opened up every connection will be checked.
  Fewer bigger drives. If this ever happens again it is cheaper to get one massive drive repaired rather than multiple smaller ones.
   
  
• 
  

 

What is a real b@#%h is that I'm an electrician and should know better. Thanks to every one for their help, I've come to terms that ill be spending a fair bit of time re-ripping some 2000+ movies (or paying some kid to do it for me)

Always have a backup. Even for the data you don't think is important to you.

 

Obviously I completely agree 

 

 

I've come to terms that ill be spending a fair bit of time re-ripping some 2000+ movies (or paying some kid to do it for me)

 

Clearly the cost of doing this ... in time, dollars, or both ... is FAR more than the cost of maintaining a set of backups.    I've got over 3,500 movies (and growing) => I can't imagine ripping them all again.    I've helped hundreds of folks over the years, and am (as you can tell) a backup fanatic => I've lost track of the number of times I've been thanked for insisting on backups by folks who have had catastrophic crashes, lightning strikes, etc.    ... but I've also seen many who did NOT have backups lose years worth of personal photos, documents, etc. => and very often even professional recovery services can't recover those.

 

By the way, did you talk again with the folks who had the £120+vat "fixed price" recovery offer?

 

If they can actually do it for that, that's a VERY good price for recovery.

 

Did you also consider replacing the PCBs as you seem to be a technical person (electrician)?

I have talked to the company offering the fixed price recovery. They offer a no data, no fee policy so in that respect I have nothing to lose. They seem very confident that they can do it and their outfit looks respectable (all the right company numbers, VAT registration, an actual unit that they work from. I have visited the trade counter and it certainly feels like they mean buisness etc).

 

My plan is to try them with the smallest fried drive (500gb) to see if they could do it. There isn't much on it and if they do mess it up then so what.

 

Yeah I going to try it. There shouldn't be a problem with the swap. I have 2 drives that are same make and model, one dead one alive. I'm going to get the data off the good one and then try the PCB swap. Who knows, it might work...

Let us know how both options turn out.

Yeah I going to try it. There shouldn't be a problem with the swap. I have 2 drives that are same make and model, one dead one alive. I'm going to get the data off the good one and then try the PCB swap. Who knows, it might work...

 

The PCB has to be the exact same revision with the same firmware -- but if that's true there's an excellent chance it will work.

 

 

... I'm going to get the data off the good one ...

 

DEFINITELY a good idea 

 

reading to the whole thread, first of all - sorry for your loss. i know how it feels 

 

lessons learned should be: if you change a modular psu, you disconnect on the receiving end (hdd, mobo, etc), leave cables connected to psu and take it out. put far away! than new psu in and rewire with provided cables.

only exception, replace psu with same model (sometimes model series - research required!) - you disconnect on psu, new one in and reconnect.

 

as for the backup theories, if you actually have all the dvd's/ br-disks etc. - thats your backup. i really dont see a point in having another set of hdd's as backup in your case (it's a lot of cash as well) plus hdd's dont get better by sitting around unused. i went away from this kind of backup a while ago. used to have hdd backups sitting for extended time periods around (well backup!), when i connected them to install, they had issues to even spin up! generally hdd's dont seem to take extended periods of inactivity to well. just my 2c by experience.

 

you had also the super GAU (well thats german for Grösster Anzunehmender Unfall = Biggest Assumable Incident).

 

i run 2 unraid server, one is my "production" server, number 2 my more or less identical backup/ sandbox. means one is on stable versions, number two gets used for testing new versions etc. of unraid while basically mirroring the server 1 contents. one is sitting right here in the basement, the other one at our beach house. so kinda great setup with reasonable rebuild capacity on each site plus remote location backup. i still look forward to the potential 2+ parity drive option for the next unraid version. it will keep one more at ease.

than again in your case it would have done more or less jacksh*t.

anyway, for the money you where looking at for drive recovery services - you could have a second backup unraid server running from the beginning m8 

 

something to think about for the future....

 

greetz, L

First:

I "notified" this thread but I don't get any notification on new posts. Why?

 

The PCB has to be the exact same revision with the same firmware -- but if that's true there's an excellent chance it will work.

I'm not really sure, since there is no more logic outside the PCB.

It should be indifferent to the drive mechanics what firmware is on.

Of course, assuming its the same model and the same mechanics inside.

 

I'm very curious on the result.

 

(now I will surely get a notification  )

I've not moved on this yet. Waiting for replacement drives to come in and a clear day (no wife/kids/pets to get in the way) and then I'll make a start. And keep you all upto date.

... no wife/kids/pets to get in the way ...

 

Definitely a good plan 

Just an update on my progress. Out of the 10.5TB of data I have now got 3.5 recovered. Its slow progress but i am confident i will be able to recover more. I'll keep you posted.

Glad to hear there's progress -- are you doing this by PCB swaps, or are you using the data recovery outfit you found?

 

A bit of both. I am trying to swap out the pcbs first and if that fails the sending them to the recovery company.

 

So far I have recovered 3x drives myself by swapping the pcb and have sent 1 do be recovered (only because I can't find a suitable pcb ANYWHERE!). Once the pcb is swapped I'm using using FTK imager to pull the data onto my desktop and then onto my new unraid.

 

The pic is one of the pcbs. Each one looks to have the same signs of damage.

Glad to hear that PCB swaps are working so far. I seem to remember reading somewhere about replacing these sacrificial TVS diodes on the HDD PCB. Not sure if that would work here or not, but might be worth a shot if you can do some basic soldering. Certainly cheaper than getting replacement PCBs or data recovery.

Just an update really.

 

All my data is now back. I used a company in the Canada (anyone need to know PM me) for the replacement pcbs. They charged $49 for the boards with free postage and free bios transfer.

 

I would just like to thank everyone once more for all your help.

 

Sam

Excellent !!

 

Now for the real test ==>  Do you have it all backed up now ?? 

 

Not to me. Where would you store the drives? In the same building as the server? In which case, it would be destroyed in the fire as well. And, I'm insured.

 

The likelihood of all 6 drives dying is pretty low. Even the OP may not have had that happen.

 

That's what I'm wrestling with. I'm building a new server, so will keep my old unRaid server with some real cheap 4TB drives in it. I' trying to figure out a way to put in an enclosure high up in an attached garage, but it's get real cold in winter and can get over 130 in garage in Chicago. It's unlike the house and garage would get trashed unless we have a hurricane/major flood (i.e. not a burst pipe: a natural disaster). I don't think the cold will be too bad as the electronics and UPS would keep the (well-insulated) enclosure warm, but the heat could be a killer. It maybe that I just do backups once a week (during weekends or cooler days) in summer when I can cool garage sufficiently.

 

I will be using Crashplan on my new server and I know that will take months to backup, but I'll make sure my meta-data gets to the cloud ASAP

 

Not to me. Where would you store the drives? In the same building as the server? In which case, it would be destroyed in the fire as well. And, I'm insured.

 

The likelihood of all 6 drives dying is pretty low. Even the OP may not have had that happen.

 

That's what I'm wrestling with. I'm building a new server, so will keep my old unRaid server with some real cheap 4TB drives in it. I' trying to figure out a way to put in an enclosure high up in an attached garage, but it's get real cold in winter and can get over 130 in garage in Chicago. It's unlike the house and garage would get trashed unless we have a hurricane/major flood (i.e. not a burst pipe: a natural disaster). I don't think the cold will be too bad as the electronics and UPS would keep the (well-insulated) enclosure warm, but the heat could be a killer. It maybe that I just do backups once a week (during weekends or cooler days) in summer when I can cool garage sufficiently.

 

I will be using Crashplan on my new server and I know that will take months to backup, but I'll make sure my meta-data gets to the cloud ASAP

I would build an insulated enclosure for winter that you can remove two sides from and put a box fan that blows air through it for summer time.  You could add a thermostat to control the fan if necessary and also shut down the computer if the box fan isn't taking care of the heat.  You could also purchase a personal AC and route the cool air into the enclosure for those peak times when it is too hot but you still want to be able to have it on.

YES I have got a (what I hope is) good backup plan going. I have a full backup system that backs up once a week and powers down once complete.

 

I also have a second backup going to my work server which is off site. I had to bring the server home to do the bulk of the initial back up but once complete I took it back to where it live. Now it only backs up the changes.

 

Hopefully this will help avert other disasters.

YES I have got a (what I hope is) good backup plan going. I have a full backup system that backs up once a week and powers down once complete.

 

I also have a second backup going to my work server which is off site. I had to bring the server home to do the bulk of the initial back up but once complete I took it back to where it live. Now it only backs up the changes.

 

Hopefully this will help avert other disasters.

 

Hope you have a decent bandwidth cap from your ISP. One BD backup is gonna blow the entire thing

Good to see more folks getting serious about backups => it's always amazed me how many folks spend the $$ for a fault-tolerant server for their data; spend YEARS accumulating it (and who knows how many total hours !);  and then don't back it up.

 

It's easy to say "... I'll just rip it/download it/recreate it ..." => but if you seriously consider how many hours it took to do that; organize it;  catalog it;  etc. the cost of a backup suddenly doesn't look so bad  :)