[HELP] Data loss after factoryRestore noreformat using RAID1

WD Legacy Products My Book Live Duo
1

Hi,

My MBLD 6GB has been becoming slower and hotter over the last few weeks/months, and I also have troubles to connect it from my XBMC using either NFS or SAMBA.

I therefore decided to try to:

  1. activate SSH and log in as root
  2. move my data from my share to public, by doing: mv /shares/Data /shares/Public
  3. run /usr/local/sbin/factoryRestore.sh noreformat , since people claimed it would keep their data
  4. reboot.

N.B. : My MBLD was so far configured in RAID 1, hence having effectively only 3GB of usable space.

However, after restarting and getting a green light:

  • A) I can no longer access the Public share from an explorer window.
  • B) If I reactivate SSH and try to search for my files:
  • i) I can’t see the shares folder under /DataVolume
  • ii) I can’t see any share under /shares
  • iii) I can’t see any share under /nfs
  • C) When I go to the dashboard, it claims that I am back in RAID 0. But running parted shows only 3GB, so it seems in an inconsistent state. This makes me believe my data could still be around.

Questions:

  1. Is there a way to get my data back?
  2. Is there a way to safely rebuild the RAID1?
  3. How to properly factory-restore is my case?

I had some important data on this drive which I would really get back.

Thank you very much in advance for your time and help!

Regards,

Z.

2

If you cannot see the /shares/ directories with SSH, then you will need to remove the drive and access it with a SATA cable to a linux machine.  Then use a data recovery software to get the data.

3

Any:

  • software or command line tool in particular?
  • tutorial which would give more details?

Thanks for the tips!

4

This issue has been discussed on this forum quite a bit. Do some searches and look through old threads

5

I had done it in the meantime and found some recommended tools:

Someone also recommended a Linux Live CD: 

I had planned to try these, but thought you might have something else in mind.

Thanks anyway!

6

After you have your data recovered (and moved off the MBL), you should do a debrick process to get your MBL back to factory settings.

7

Update:

After having plugged either disk A or B in my desktop using a SATA cable:

  • Opening the disk using ex2fsd / Ex2 Volume Manager shows the drive as having a “RAW” filesystem. Nothing else can be done.
  • Linux Reader fails to read anything on the drive – probably because of the corruption of the filesystem, visible above.
  • R-Linux fails as well. I have done a full analysis of the drive and it managed to find some fragments of files, but there are in practice not usable and metadata (folder structure, filenames, etc.) have been lost.

I will do some more research and try some other things in the meantime, but:

Would anyone know any proven way to repair the filesystem in similar case?

Thanks again for your help!