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Frank KavanaghFlag for United States of America

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Have I lost all my files?

I have a Synology NAS on my network.   Now the status light flashes amber and the disk 2 and 3 lights flash green.   When I connect to the device, it says there are no volumes.   Have I lost all my files?   I am attaching a file showing the error.
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Alan
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Hi,

Nothing attached?

What is the configuration of the NAS - is it running RAID 5 or RAID6 perhaps?

If you have lost one drive from a RAID5, then replace that one drive, and wait for it to rebuild.

If you have lost two drives from a RAID5 then you will need to restore from backup after fixing the drives / RAID array.

If RAID6, you can lose up to two drives, and still be okay.

Thanks,

Alan.
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How do I determine if it is RAID 5 or 6?
Hi,

You should be able to tell from the main configuration page.

That should also tell you the status of the array and the underlying disks.

Are you able to get a copy of that and post here.

Thanks,

Alan.
This is a print screen imageUser generated image
Hi,

Please can you check the array status.

It is probably under Info Centre > Storage or maybe Main Menu > Storage Manager > Overview (and / or HDD Management) depending on your model.

If not sure, screenshot anything that looks like a candidate.

Thanks,

Alan.
can you post the overview, volume and disk group tabs as well. the overview tab has a 'Repair' button which could be used if you have RAID 1 (mirror),  RAID 5 (contents of any disk is stored redundant in the other disks) or RAID 6 (contents of any disk is twice stored redundant in the other disks). in any case you have to replace the defective disk (or disks if RAID 6) by a new empty disk of same size (or greater, not recommended). then the Repair button should help to restore all data.

Sara
There is no repair button on the overview tab.
Overview.jpg
Volume.jpg
Disk-Group.jpg
How do I know which RAID I have?
you first need a volume. a disk which is not initialized (what might happened if there was a power loss) must be added to a volume in order to be able to initialize again. you seem to have lost the volume settings, the disk groups (if any) and the raid configuration (if any). actually i don't know whether you could regain those settings by creating a new volume and and adding disk by disk to that volume. but surely, you may not have much choice if there is no information how the disks have been configured before. if you want to go absolutely safe (i. e. if you want to make sure that a new configuration would not destroy data), you should buy 4 new disks same size and clone them by using a desktop pc which has two free sata slots. maybe for a first approach it would be sufficient to clone the first disk. then create a volume and add the first disk. if you are lucky, the disk1 would initialize and the overview would tell that you have a raid 5 with 4 disks where only the first disk is part of a volume. but i fear, it will be not so easy. if the system prompts that something was absolutely wrong or that it would destroy data or anything else you don't understand, you definitively should cancel the operation.

see https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/StorageManager/volume_diskgroup_repair

for general trouble shooting. it might help even if the case where no volumes are showing was not listed. but they gave the advice to call the synology support what surely is the best choice before you make any repair action.

Sara
I have contacted Synology support three times with not even a confirmation they got my email.   I spoke to a tech support person who advised submitting a request from the program so they could review the logs.   I have not heard back from them.   I still do not know how to determine if the setup was RAID 1, 5 or 6.   How can I determine this?
a NAS with 4 disks normally is configured as RAID 5 what means that you have space for 3 disks and 1 lost disk could be recovered from other disks . if you achieve to add the disk1 to a volume the synology nas should be able to show which configuration it has and whether there is actually a problem with one of the disks or less dramatical that only the configuration has gone for some unknow reason?

who did configure the NAS? don't you have any documentation? actually if you used the NAS for some time you at least should be able to tell how many drives it offered. perhaps you had some screenshots.

Sara
Sorry, I have  no idea who configured it.   I just bought it and put it on the network 2 years ago.   Until a few days ago, when it started beeping, it just kept running normally.   I had several shared folders on it and simply added files over the network as required to each of the shared folders.   I assume it was set up for whatever the default RAID was.   All I know is that whenever I connect to it, it says there is no volume.   Can I just create a new volume without the risk of losing whatever files were on the disks?   Alternatively, is there some way to recover the files that are still there?
Hi DoctorK12008,

I realise this will be a pain, but perhaps you could take a screen-shot of each and every 'page' in the configuration web interface, and post it here.

Hopefully we can the work out how it is configured and what to do to see if we can recover your data.

I mentioned backups earlier in this thread - please can you confirm that you have a backup regime in place, so worst case you won't lose anything (or very little) if the array has to be wiped and re-initialised?

Thanks,

Alan.
I tried to migrate the files per the Synology website, using the file DSM_ds415+_15152.pat, but when I try to do this, it say I need version 6.1.4.15217 or later.   I cannot finds this file on the Synology website.   I tried to use the hard reset button to try to reinstall the OS, but this is where I end up.
if you never configured it, i would assume that there is no RAID beside that the NAS had a suffix like 'mirror' or 'raid' in the name. you may try to find the invoice and check the naming. and try to find whether the offer still exists and if yes get some more information from that. especially you could go to a synology forum and ask how to auto-configure the system by using the 4 disks you have.

anyway, if no raid, you should be able to add each disk separately to a desktop computer and find out whether you could access it or not. if yes, all files of that disk should be available. you also should be able to add a volume and add disk1 to this volume. as long as there is no warning you should be safe that the contents is not destroyed by this operation.

Sara
I tried adding one of the hard drives to a PC and there were several partitions on it.   How do I get to see what files are in each partition?
I found this from the user guide.   I assume I chose the SHR (simple) option.
Synology-User-Guide.docx
How do I get to see what files are in each partition?

type 'disk management' at start button, then you get an applet where all disk (and their partitions) are listed. tryt o find the new disk (it shouldn't have any drive letter assigned) and assigne a free drive letter to each non-empty partition. better choose drive letters K, L, M, ... rather than the next free drive letter. also Z, X are letters which might be mapped dynamically.

Sara
I tried that.   The option to assign a drive latter is grayed out.   I can see the partitions, but the only option is to delete.
what file system is shown for the partitions? can you send a screenshot of the disk management screen?

another suggestion: you may move disk2, disk3, and disk4 of the disks in the NAS at slot 1, slot2, slot3.

then reboot the NAS and check if the disks were initialized (in the storage tab).

Sara
I am attaching screenshots as suggested.   Disks 1,2 and 3 are 3TB, disk 4 is 1TB.   As far as rebooting is concerned, I did a hard reset and now when I launch Synology Assistant  I cannot access the disk station.   DSM requires a later version of the software than is on the Synology website,    Is there some way, using Linux, to access the files?   Synology tech support has not responded to my emails.   I will try phoning them.   Wish  me luck!
Disk-1.jpg
DIsk-2.jpg
Disk-3.jpg
Disk-4.jpg
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I finally reached tech support.   They said they emailed me a response, but id did not go through.   I opened a gmail account and it went through.   I am waiting for a reply from tech support to remote in and hopefully solve the problem.   I read somewhere it is possible to retrieve the files using linux.   The person who answered the phone at Synology was not one of their main tech support people but he was able to direct me to the current version of DSM and I am now able to connect to the NAS device.   He did not know why the latest version is not on the website.   I will let you know how this pans out.
Still no response from Synology tech support.
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