Congratulations! I’m very glad you were able to recover your data and that this thread was helpful to you.
Definitely copy all of your data off the drive as soon as possible and then rebuild the RAID array through the web interface. Once that’s complete, it will be safe to copy your data back to the drive. As always, this is a good time to remember that RAID is redundancy but not a backup, so be sure to have your important pictures and videos on another physical drive as well! You may want to burn them to optical disc (CD or DVD).
I’ve been having the same Sharespace problem. Following the steps written here I’ve managed to get someting done, but when I reach the “fsck.ext3 /dev/lvmr/lvmr0” step i get the following error:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblockis corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock: e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
I also tried e2fsck but I get the same error, can anybody help me with what to do next…
Urrrgghh. That’s exactly as far as I got, and couldn’t solve it myself, so I’d also be keen to hear if there’s a solution to this.
I tried lots of guesses for the alternate superblocks - some sensible ones, too :). Then tried a professional recovery - turned out to be amateur, so I tried various software recovery options too (which is all the “pro” was doing) - also to no avail. DiskInternals Raid Recovery, UFS Exporer Pro, DTIdata.com RAID diagnostic tool, R-Studio (demo) all consumed huge amounts of time, but no progress - as much due to my ineptitude/lack of documentation for dummies as anything else.
I’m now with another professional outfit - hopefully real, this time.
Am sorry to hear that the problem is rearing its ugly head for someone else, too, and also that I cant help. I dont like being beaten by a machine and my own ignorance…
I have a failed 8TB unit that had RAID5. What command would I run differently on an 8TB unit? Also can anyone provide the link to the firmware update or send me an email using yousendit.com with the firmware 2.2.8 or later? The link I found apparently doesnt work.
I managed to sort out all the errors I was getting when following the steps describing how to bring back the data, and when I ran fsck I was so glad it started to ask me tons of questions etc. :smileyvery-happy: and while I was going through the questions my ssh connection dropped, putty disconnected…
I thought well I’ll just start all over again but since than I can’t access my Sharespace on the network, and I can’t even power it up, my power LED is always off (except for the first few seconds when I connect the power cord in the unit). I tried different cables, routers, networks, tried connecting it directly to a computer (few of them actually), tried reseting it(with the button on the back, which just resets IP address and user credentials and leaves the files intact) and no use, I just can’t reach it…could it be that with all the “Data volume doesn’t exist” problems hardware in my WD Sharespace is failing?
Any advices how to access my device to try and getting the data back?
If in this “Data volume doesn’t exist” state I connect another 4TB device to the front USB port and try doing the automatic backup to that new device with the button on the front will it transfer my data correctly??? I’m so desperate in getting the files back (few years of medical documentation for thousands of patients)
So I’m facing the same: Data Volume ‘DataVolume’ doesn’t exist! error on a 4tb ShareSpace (RAID5). It was working fine yesterday - then I just happened to upgrade the firmware to 2.2.91 and after it restarted - I could NOT connect to the share any longer. I can access the admin pages ok and all 4 drives appear to be in good status. But then the DataVolume doesn’t exist message showed up… All lights on the unit are green except for the light with a check mark on it (the “System Identification/error” light) – that is flashing red.
After reading this thread last night - I saw the info on things to try via SSH - however after my firmware upgrade - I don’t see an option to enable SSH access. Can someone verify WHERE that is? I believe I’ve been through every option in the Advanced section and see nothing. I thought based on info here it should be in Advanced->Network->Services - but there is no mention of SSH there…
I also called WD support this morning and they are RMA’ing 2 drives for me. They say when I get them to call them and they will walk through how to recover the RAID – and it WILL preserve the data. I’m very skeptical - because I thought RAID5 only supported losing 1 drive (which I did tell the rep - but he said it does support 2 drives being replaced)? Can someone tell me if this is right/wrong? Can someone point me to a link of the process to replace 2 drives??? Also - the admin pages are not indicating that 2 drives are bad (not even 1)??? Or maybe replacing 1 drive forces it to automatically rebuild the RAID and that’s what they are relying on???
This link seems to indicate 1 drive could be replaced (not 2 – under RAID 5):
I have the same problem! I have seven years of photos on this unit. I bought the 4GB WD ShareSpace last year thinking that RAID 5 had to be the ultimate secure storage solution! What shall I do? I might lose all the photos I have ever taken!
I get this message:
“01/16 17:15:42 [Volume Status] Data Volume ‘DataVolume’ doesn’t exist!”
Any ideas how I can restore the unit? Should I download a firmware update for the WD unit? I have version 2.1.93, there might have been released an update. I’m just afraid of making things worse… I just cannot live with having data loss.
This is the System Information on the configuration web interface:
System Information
Device Name
are-nas
Version
2.1.93 with MioNet 4.3.1.7 built on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:00:00
Thanks to everyone on this thread for putting together what is an extremely useful resource. This thread, along with the ShareSpace wiki notes at http://myworldbook,wikidot.com/, have been enough to allow me to recover an otherwise “dead” device and rescue my data files in tact.
To anyone that is wrestling with the “DataVolume does not exist” error, I would say don’t do anything before you have a more detailed diagnosis of the problem. There are a ton of possible causes of this error, and *some* of those causes are quite easy to fix. Rebuilding your RAID volume could well be avoidable.
Here is a quick newbies list of shell commands to start with:-
“df -k” What disk partitions are actually on the air at the moment?
“cat /proc/mdstat” What does the running kernel say about the meta-devices?
“vgdisplay” “lvdisplay” and “pvdisplay” as described elsewhere in this thread…
“cat /etc/auto_mount_list” What partitions are automatically mounted at boot time?
and let’s not forget
5. “top” What is keeping the CPU busy?
At the end of the day, the WD Sharespace is basically a cut down Linux machine. Yes, WD support is effectively useless for anything other than simple problems, but there are also many other technical resources available as well…
I’m getting a permission denied error when I try to run mdadm -D /dev/md2
Has anyone tried putting their four drives into a PC and attempting to recover the array from a Linux Live CD? I was contemplating that after getting this permissions issue, but I’m afraid to try it in fear of corrupting my data.
I tried pulling out 1 drive at a time and restarting the NAS to see if there was a problem with a single drive that would then allow the data to be accessed - but that did not help at all.
I finally had to go through a data recovery service to recover my RAID. They seem to have recovered everything - but a few scattered files that were new within a few hours of the RAID failing with the DataVolume doesn’t exist message. This doesn’t make much sense to me because there were some new files before and after the ones that are missing - that actually do exist in the recovered version… Because of the few recent files that I know did not get recovered - I’m a little concerned that I might find some older data that is corrupt or not all there…
This occurred apparently in conjunction with my firmware upgrade to 2.2.91 - that also appears to have failed (since I do not have the SSH option available).
All I have to say is - GOOD BYE WESTERN DIGITAL! This experience with their support staff has been miserable. I’ve had enough. Maybe I will say hello to Synology…
I have been struggling with Volume group lvmr, I followed the solution provided by fibreiv (many thanks!) got it to work and then after copying off a large amount of data there was nothing visible again. So I figured something happened when I wasnt paying attention. So I did a controlled shutdown and reboot of the NAS figuring I would need to start over again. But now I cant get the dang vgcreate to work. It appears that the lvmr is there, but its not available for lvcreate to work with.
Has anybody else had this new wrinkle come up, and more importantly know how to get around it?
SYSOUT posted below:
~ $ mdadm --assemble /dev/md2 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdb4 /dev/sdc4 /dev/sdd4
mdadm: /dev/md2 assembled from 2 drives and 1 spare - not enough to start the array.
~ $ mdadm --assemble --force /dev/md2 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdb4 /dev/sdc4 /dev/sdd4
mdadm: forcing event count in /dev/sdc4(2) from 1545120 upto 1545122
mdadm: clearing FAULTY flag for device 2 in /dev/md2 for /dev/sdc4
mdadm: /dev/md2 has been started with 3 drives (out of 4) and 1 spare.
~ $ pvcreate /dev/md2
Can’t initialize physical volume “/dev/md2” of volume group “lvmr2” without -ff
~ $ pvcreate -ff /dev/md2
Really INITIALIZE physical volume “/dev/md2” of volume group “lvmr2” [y/n]? y
WARNING: Forcing physical volume creation on /dev/md2 of volume group “lvmr2”
Physical volume “/dev/md2” successfully created
~ $ vgcreate lvmr /dev/md2
/dev/lvmr: already exists in filesystem
~ $ lvcreate -l 714329 lvmr -n lvm0
Volume group “lvmr” doesn’t exist
Is there any options for those not familiar with Linux, or is this a good time to learn.
I am really trying to see the humor in this as I have just replaced a failed drive with a new drive. Then waiting two days to get it to finish recover, only to find that it has failed, yet all four disks are showing up as good, but the raid 5 has failed.
My reading of the matter is that you cannot rebuild the RAID5 array with data recobvery because the OS is written across the array. Maybe WD would care to give a definitive answer or denial?
Update : I eventually resorted to a data recovery service having reached my personal limits with ssh/linux volume management/time/risk tolerance.
The first one (“cheap”) said they couldnt do it (after charging an evaluation fee and wasting about a month) - “data is corrupted”
The second managed a complete recovery of the data (hurrah!), although they also cleaned me out of a hefty chunk of cash. Still, I can recommend them for the desperate (in Australia).
So, I have my data back (and backed up), but the Sharespace is now completely incommunicado. Unable to connect via ssh, ftp, http etc. even the WD Discovery doesnt see it. Its not even picked up on my router table.
Reset button doesnt work, can’t even restart it without removing the power lead. Green LEDs for power and LAN, but amber for three drives installed.
So I suspect the OS is now defunct. How can I rebuild the OS using just 2 of the old drives (or 3, at a pinch)? I aint gonna use all four because that would put my data in jeopardy again.
Any suggestions? Maybe completely wipe and reformat the 3 drives, reinstall in the sharespace and cross my fingers? Isnt the OS installed on the drives, though - so reformatting them would lose it. But how did it get to the drives in the first place?
