TopTrainer Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I have 4.7 Unraid unit, very recently I added two new 2TB WD green drives a process I have done before I pre-cleared them and did not add them to the array as i was not ready to do that. I have this morning attempted to add them to the array. I noticed when I stopped the array they did not appear when I started it to be added. In fact, i took a few times before the box appeared inviting me to format the disks. I clicked the box that said there are unfomatted disks do you want to do this. I did. It appears to me that unraid has formatted 11 disks in the array with 20gigs of information and left one drive which was also in the array. Please help me I think I am going to hang myself im looking at all 11 disks and they show 1% i have not turned the machine off or anything since this happened and I just dont know what to do now. Why is there just one drive left? why has it formatted drives in the array? is there any way to recover this please help im really desperate. Peter Quote Link to comment
CHBMB Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 OK, first of all, you've posted in the V6 board, but I think you're still on V4.7 right? No worries, I'm not the chap that can help you, but someone will, in the meantime turn off the machine, and don't be tempted to try anything in the meantime. Seen someone lose data because by the time they came and asked for help they'd done so much to the disk, that recovery became far more difficult. Just post back here and confirm which version of Unraid you're running and someone will help before long I'm sure.. Good Luck Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 The Web GUI should have shown which disks it considered Unformatted on the screen where it presented the button to check to allow it to do the formatting -- were there only two disks shown as "unformatted"? If it showed all disk as unformatted you definitely should NOT have started the array !! Post a picture of the Web GUI so we can see just what it's "telling" you right now. Quote Link to comment
TopTrainer Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 Hi Sorry I posted in the wrong area, i was in a panic, im using 4.7. This the point I precleared the disks and when I shut the array down and restarted it waiting for it to see the new drives it did not show them??? They were listed in UnMain menu. I just closed the area again not sure why it was not seeing them, after a few times the box appeared saying there was drives that were unformatted, I naturally assumed it was the two I had put in as all the others were in the array. so I said yes, thinking it was going to format the new drives as I had previously done 10 times before. To my utter horror it has formatted 11 drives all of which were in the array. it has chosen not to format the new drives, which incidentally are not shown in UnRaid. It has also left one drive and not touched it which was/is in the array. I have attached a screen shot but will have to do one at a time because of file size restrictions Peter Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 You have indeed formatted all of your disks ... so the data is effectively gone. I gather from your panic that you do not have backups [FWIW, RAID is NOT a backup ... you should ALWAYS have data you don't want to lose backed up => but that's another discussion ... http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31020.0 ] HOWEVER ... there MAY be some hope. Reiserfsck can do some pretty miraculous things ... and unformatting a partition you've formatted is one of them. I am NOT a "Linux guy" ... and don't want to suggest specific Reiserfsck commands, as the wrong command can destroy the likelihood of a successful recovery. I THINK the correct command is "reiserfsck --rebuild-tree -S" for each of the disks you've inadvertently formatted ... but do NOT run that until somebody who's an expert with Reiserfsck chimes in and guides you through the appropriate commands. For now, I'd shut the system down and do NOTHING. ANY write activity to the system at this point will reduce the likelihood of a successful recovery. Quote Link to comment
TopTrainer Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 Hello Thanks for your reply, not the answer I wanted to hear but you give a glimmer of hope in the darkness I am concerned though as to how this has happened. As stated it is not the first time I have put new drives in and my procedure did not change at all. Im not clear why unraid did not see the new drives as normal? which is, again what i thought had happened, as nothing else was not in the array. Peter Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I sent a PM to somebody I think can help -- hopefully you'll get some additional guidance later today. Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Suggest you wait to hear back from LimeTech. I will make a comment unrelated to recovery. UnRaid 4.7 has a format button that will format all unformatted disks in the array. (It does not list the unformatted disks as 6.0 does.) 4.7 was a long lived version, and I can not remember anyone ever reporting a bug that unRaid formatted an already formatted disk. It is therefore my conjecture that something happened that resulted in your disks appearing unformatted BEFORE you hit that button. We may never know. A syslog taken immediately after you noticed would have been helpful. If you have not rebooted since that time, I would suggest capturing it now and posting it. I do think there is a reasonably good chance of recovery. Just be patient and don't try anything desperate. Quote Link to comment
TopTrainer Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 Gary Thank you for passing my issue to someone who may be able to help me. Joe Thanks for the informative view regarding the situation, as you say very unusual and having put 10 drives in there myself previously without issue even stranger. Peter Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I've been called worse. Quote Link to comment
TopTrainer Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 my god I am making a pigs ear of everything today it seems, apologies P Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I've been called worse. Than what ?? Quote Link to comment
CHBMB Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I've been called worse. Than what ?? Joe Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Ahh ... and WHERE in bjp's post is his name shown?? If you don't either sign your posts or include you name in your "handle", it's hard to complain about how you're referred to I suspect (but don't know for sure) that Joe came from a PM from Joe L, as I had sent him a note asking if he could look at this and perhaps help a bit. Quote Link to comment
CHBMB Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Ahh ... and WHERE in bjp's post is his name shown?? If you don't either sign your posts or include you name in your "handle", it's hard to complain about how you're referred to I suspect (but don't know for sure) that Joe came from a PM from Joe L, as I had sent him a note asking if he could look at this and perhaps help a bit. I guessed it was Joe L whom he was referring to, but I'd already in my mind predicted that would be who you'd PM. bjp hasn't stated his name anywhere, but not sure that gives us carte blanche to call him whatever we want... Betty? Bobbie? Britany? Barbie? Reckon he'd get upset if we all worked by that rule.. Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 bjp hasn't stated his name anywhere, but not sure that gives us carte blanche to call him whatever we want... Betty? Bobbie? Britany? Barbie? Reckon he'd get upset if we all worked by that rule.. Brian Quote Link to comment
CHBMB Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 bjp hasn't stated his name anywhere, but not sure that gives us carte blanche to call him whatever we want... Betty? Bobbie? Britany? Barbie? Reckon he'd get upset if we all worked by that rule.. Brian Actually, I think I knew that in the deepest depths of my strange brain... Quote Link to comment
remotevisitor Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 You might want to look at the program PhotoRec mentioned in this thread where it was able to recover files for a user who had partially overwritten a data disk. I know nothing more about it than was mentioned in that thread. Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 LOOK HERE That post chronicles a rather disastrous situation and was able to recover and explains how to run reiserfsck. I thought Gary had reached out to LimeTech. I would suggest you email (not PM) Tom and ask for assistance. I am not clear on what you did, but with so many disk's data at risk, I'd definitely reach out for help. You did buy a license and this is the time you need support. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Agree a note to Tom might be helpful: [email protected] I thought Joe would be a better/quicker resource, as he's by far provided more help for folks on 4.7 than anyone else on this forum. But if he doesn't have time to help, going directly to LimeTech is a good alternative. Quote Link to comment
TopTrainer Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 Gentlemen and ladies if they are reading !! As of this moment in time I have not received any contact from anyone other than contained in this thread. I also don't want to pester people but this situation is a very desperate one for me that is adversely affecting a whole host of daily activities which I am having difficulties to concentrate on. Please advise what you consider to be the best option to go forward to hopefully bring about a satisfactory outcome for this disastrous situation and reduce my rising stress level too !!! Peter Quote Link to comment
RobJ Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I held back as it looked like you had plenty of help. You have 2 options, using TestDisk and using reiserfsck. Both have a good reputation and can recover almost everything, but you will almost certainly have a fair amount of handwork to do, identifying unknown files and renaming and moving them back where they were. TestDisk: If you can connect a CD drive, download and burn a CD with TestDisk and its tools. Boot your unRAID server with it, carefully select a drive that needs recovering, and carefully follow the instructions. reiserfsck: Read the instructions on the Check Disk File systems wiki page, the leading sections, the section for unRAID v4, and the section on the reiserfsck command itself. While I could give you some steps to follow, I think it's best for you now to fully understand the process, especially since you will have to repeat the process for each drive needing recovery. The instructions for v4.7 include how to prepare for running reiserfsck, and what you do afterward, including starting and stopping samba and mounting and unmounting the drive. However the instructions are for the normal case, to check and repair the file system, and don't apply to your case, as it would only check the new and empty format, NOT the one that's partially overwritten. So you will NOT run a check on the drive, you will only run the full "reiserfsck --rebuild-tree -S /dev/md?" command, and it will build a new file system from the remnants of the old one that it finds scattered across the entire drive. It will recover many files and folders intact, but others will be placed in a "lost+found" folder in the root of the drive, and it will be up to you to sort them out, identify, rename, and move them. I'm really sorry, but it's a laborious process. I do think you will be pleased with what it recovers. By the way, this reiserfsck command takes a VERY LONG time! It has to examine every sector on the drive. One side effect that can be bad, it will find old files that were deleted and 'recover' them too, and you will have to remove them again. I have never had to do either, so can't help you by experience. Others here can though. After reading through the info, please feel free to ask questions, before and during the process. I expect that shortly you will be THE expert on this! As to how it happened, older versions of unRAID did not deal with certain drive mounting problems correctly because they were quite rare. But if one of those rare conditions occurred, and a drive or drives could not be mounted, then the system did not try to figure out why, but just assumed they needed formatting, which was usually correct but not always, as in your case. Those conditions have been greatly improved in more recent versions, and this would not have happened if you had upgraded. Sorry! Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 As Rob noted, recovery is going to be a laborious, one-drive-at-a-time process. I suspect TestDisk is the easier of the two options he noted, but either should work fine as long as you are VERY careful and follow the instructions exactly. Regardless of which process you use, the safest approach is to disconnect ALL of the drives except the one you're working on at any given time. Quote Link to comment
itimpi Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 A point to note is that the TestDrive approach is non-destructive and will not alter a disk in a any way as the recovery process involves copying any files found to another drive. As such it does not prejudice you from later trying the reiserfsck recovery approach on the same drive. What is not clear to me is whether you have a mix of drive sizes. If that is the case then whichever of the two suggested recovery approaches you go with I would suggest that you start with the smallest drive as that will give you a feel for the recovery process with the smallest initial investment in time. EDIT: Just seen the screenshot from earlier in the thread and from that it looks as though all drives are 2TB so the suggestion of starting with the smallest is not relevant. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Definitely agree that TestDisk is the safer approach -- like all good recovery programs, it does NOT alter the disk you're recovering data from in any way. That does, of course, mean you need to have a disk available with enough space to write the recovered data to. Quote Link to comment
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