Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

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gonzo01

Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by gonzo01 »

I have an Iomega Home NAS (2tb) which has been running fine for several years.

Recently all of my files "disappeared"

I removed the drive, placed it in my PC and cloned it to a new,unused 2TB hdd using Linux and Clonezilla.

Both drives match and show that the storage partition (xfs format) is unused and around 1.9gb is available.
The OS partition is fine.

With the original drive back in the NAS I can access all of my folders using Gigolo from LinuxMint 17.3, so that indicates that the partition is fine.

I believe that my files are still there, but are just not seen by the OS.

GParted shows:-

/dev/sda3 unknown 25.53 gb
/dev/sda1 ext3 3.92 gb raid this is the OS partition
/dev/sda2 xfs 1.82TB (961.69 used) raid this is the data partition (previous to problem 1.73TB used)
/dev/sda4 unallocated 2.49 Mib

GParted shows

ata st2000 DM006-2DMI
1.82tb
/dev/sdb
part table MSDOS
heads 255
sectors/track 63
cylinders 243201
total sectors 3907029168
sector size 512

file system is damaged
fs unknown to gparted
no file system available

dloaded and ran testdisk

sudo xfs_repair /dev/sdb2 ( on dup HDD)

Sorry, could not find valid secondary superblock

I can, with a lot of work, recreate my NAS from data scattered over several HDDs, external USB HDDs, DVDs etc but 'd like to be able to solve and fix this problem and "resurrect" the NAS

Help appreciated


Also posted to https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Iomega-Des ... -p/3708355 no reply as yet
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
MintBean

Re: Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by MintBean »

In Mint, open 'Disks' application, select the original disc from the NAS (with it connected directly to your Mint system's SATA bus), then from the 'hamburger' menu at the top of the application select 'smart data and self tests.' This should tell you if there's a physical problem with the disc.

Once you get the NAS up and running (fingers crossed for you), it's worth keeping a regular backup of its contents.
gonzo01

Re: Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by gonzo01 »

thanks mintbean

wasnt aware of the Disks prg in Mint.

Ran the short test on each of the 4 partitions - all ok

using the "Contents" link I mounted the 2 partitions ( OS and data. Everything was fine on the OS partition ( it does run the NAS) but the data (sdb2) included all of my directories but they all show as empty.

No idea how this could happen. How could the contents disappear but not the Dirs?

I do have backups of the individual data files, but spread out over several internal/external drives and different computers.

Have just bought new 2 TB HDD to amalgamate data once again.

Thanks
MintBean

Re: Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by MintBean »

Not sure how the files could disappear but not the directories. Just for the sake of considering all the options, is there any possibility someone else with access to the computer deleted them?

It doesn't sound like it was an automated backup, so I doubt you have any logs in case a piece of software caused it?
gonzo01

Re: Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by gonzo01 »

Thanks for the reply

No, no one else accesses my PCs

I didnt undertake any action on the NAS HD, other when it was relocated into my PC so that I could clone it ( using Clonezilla)

At no time during this did anything take any length of time sufficient to have deleted files, and if this occurred, why didnt the OS directory get wiped also?

Really weird.
MintBean

Re: Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by MintBean »

There's a command 'xfs_repair' you could try on the disc (connected as SATA). Apparently some people have recovered missing files that way. If you Google 'XFS disappearing files' it seems that a fair few people have encountered it, although none that I saw had them all disappear at once. If your NAS supports it, I would go with a different filesystem like EXT4.
chiefjim
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Re: Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by chiefjim »

MintBean wrote:Not sure how the files could disappear but not the directories. Just for the sake of considering all the options, is there any possibility someone else with access to the computer deleted them?

It doesn't sound like it was an automated backup, so I doubt you have any logs in case a piece of software caused it?
This thread reads quite similar to a situation I had with an external hard drive. Using GRSYNC everything was automated so my commands would remain the same. Yet my backup failed. Took awhile before I discovered that I was at fault. Seems I had not mounted the drive.

Yes the drive normally mounts automatically. But on that day I had manually unmounted it after completing a task but left the drive powered up. Later on when performing another task GRSYNC was trying to use the unmounted drive.

Suffice to say that was a lesson learned the hard way.
gonzo01

Re: Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by gonzo01 »

thanks mintbean and chiefjim

Beginning to think that maybe I turned off the power t the powrpoint whilst my NAS was still active.

Unforunately when logged into th NAS via browser and selecting"shutdown" no indication is given that the NAS has actually powered down.

If I cant see the LEDs on the device I dont know if it has actually shutdown.

GRSYNC looks interesting.

I have 2 new HDDS with which I was going to use with FreeNAS and an older PC to create a reduntant array NAS. Now wondering whether I'd be better off using the drives as normal drives and using GRSYNC to create duplicate drives as backup.

I have 3 "removable" drive bays in my main PC so I wouldnt actually need to have these drives active at all times. Thats what I currently do wit my data drives now. Only conect them when I want to transfer/save data coped/dloaded bto my system hdd.

Thanks again.
MintBean

Re: Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by MintBean »

I've never used FreeNAS but I see it uses ZFS and that is an excellent choice for ensuring data integrity. IF you can afford it, I would create a ZFS mirror with the same data on all 3 drives.

Personally, I have found plain old Ubuntu server with Webmin to allow you to administer it via a web browser on another machine to be every bit as easy as a NAS dedicated appliance distro. You can also install ZFS on it easily.
gonzo01

Re: Iomega Home NAS 2tb - files "gone"? (XFS partiton)

Post by gonzo01 »

Now also investigating OpenMediaVault ( update just released) and it's browser interface seem more user-friendly than that of OpenNAS, plus it allows use of filesystems other than zfs or xfs.

I recently purchased 2 Seagate IronWolf NAS 8TB HDDS - figure that should be enough storage to consolidate my required data from existing HDDS.

RAID 1 (mirrored drives) seems to be the way to go giving me Duplicated HDDS for a total of 8TB of data.

Still researcing via google :D
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