Data Loss and Recovery

[i300e]

Hello,

I recently noticed some missing files on my unraid share unfortunately I don't have them backed up anywhere else except what I thought was on the parity drive which doesn't really count as a back up.  The Parity said there are 0 error in the parity check the files are just not there.

 

I have some old hard drives that where in the server before that might have some of the files I'm looking for on them.   Is there anyway I can access them.  I tried putting them in the server and unraid seems like It can only format them. 

 

Any other suggest would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

[Hoopster]

40 minutes ago, i300e said:

The Parity said there are 0 error in the parity check the files are just not there

Parity drives contain no files at all.  Parity drives have no file system and are not a backup of anything on the array.  The parity drives are filled with nothing but the results of calculations that allow a failed drive to be rebuilt from the information on the parity drive(s) and all other data drives in the array. They protect against disk failure, not data loss.

 

43 minutes ago, i300e said:

I have some old hard drives that where in the server before that might have some of the files I'm looking for on them.   Is there anyway I can access them.  I tried putting them in the server and unraid seems like It can only format them. 

Those disks are not currently part of the unRAID array so unRAID sees you have inserted a "new" disk and assumes you want to format it and add it to the array.  It has no idea that those disks might have previously been part of the array.  What has been done with the disks since they were removed from the array?  

 

If the drives are still formatted with Reiserfs, XFS or BTRFS as they were when in the array, you could try mounting them in a Linux machine or VM and see what you can read from the disks.  If there are files you need there you could copy them over to the array.

 

The real disk experts in these forums might have other suggestions.

 

[JorgeB]

You can also use UD plugin to mount the old drives in Unraid, but if any of the disks was part of the array and upgraded and is formatted xfs or btrfs it needs the UUID to be changed before it can be mounted.