NSA-221 - Accessing Data on Disc Outside of NAS

BilbooToo

Hi,

A friend is having problems with their NSA-221, they can’t access it over their network anymore and the log is showing issues with the discs. 

The data is their main concern so i’m thinking the best way forward would be to remove the discs, put them in an enclosure to copy the data onto their Windows 10 machine, then worry about sorting the NAS.

Any ideas on the best software to read the data from the discs (using Windows 10)?

Thanks in advance. 
John

#NAS_February

JockeSve

If I recall it correctly does NSA-221 use XFS filesystem but Windows doesn't handle that (out of the box at least).
That might be a problem as well as how Your disks are configured  (Raid 0/1 or JBOD)...

Mijzelf

Any ideas on the best software to read the data from the discs (using Windows 10)?

I'm afraid that is not possible. The 221 has an XFS filesystem, and as far as I know there are no Windows utilities which can read that. (Complicating factor: the filesystem is inside a Linux software raid array).
So you'll need a Linux system. You can boot your PC from a Linux Live USB stick, or install it in a virtual machine (VirtualBox is fine), in which case you'll have to pass the disk(s) to the VM.

Here you can find general instructions how to mount the disk(s). I don't think modern Linux distro's support XFS out of the box. So you'll have to install that:
http://ask.xmodulo.com/create-mount-xfs-file-system-linux.html

Anyway, do NOT allow Windows to 'initialize' the disk. 'Initializing' is a Microsoft euphemism for generating a Windows supported partition table, silently destroying all existing data. 

BilbooToo

Hi both,

Thanks for your responses. 

Im not sure of the disc configuration at the moment, not had a chance to look at the NAS as yet but I understand it’s a RAID config. 

If I was to access the disc from a Mac (rather than a Windows machine) would that make any difference?

Regards
John

Mijzelf

If I was to access the disc from a Mac (rather than a Windows machine) would that make any difference?

As far as I know, no.

Im not sure of the disc configuration at the moment, not had a chance to look at the NAS as yet but I understand it’s a RAID config. 

It doesn't really matter for the way how to mount it. Only if it's raid1 you only need to connect 1 disk to mount a (degraded) array. But 2 disks won't hurt.

Boo

For anyone looking for a Windows application that can read XFS partitions I found this after a fairly long search and trial and error: ReclaiMe Pro
I had a RAID1 setup on a Zyxel NSA221 when it kicked the bucket leaving two perfectly good mirrored HDDs with XFS systems on them. At first I tried running Linux (don't recall version) on PC to read/copy data from one of the drives. This didn't work as well as I thought (albeit, I haven't run linux/unix for years...). ReclaiMe worked natively in Win10 and could read/present the disk directory structure just as I was accustomed to. I found an older version, 196, in someone's junk drawer (if you know what I mean) that I keep around if I should need to look at XFS partitions again someday...