Help recover my data please. Freaking out.

[Z300M]

Just a quick update. Drives were received today and evaluated. The results:
Recovery Chance*:Excellent
Media Failure Details: Disk Head Failure, Media Damage Present (slight)
Notes: Degraded heads and media damage are causing data inaccessibility.
Evaluated Cost : $1370.00

Is it a lot...yes. Could have been much more....absolutely! I have no idea if this is a justifiable amount for the work that will be done. I could very easily be getting rolled. But I don't have the knowledge so I must be OK with it.

Additionally, there is an ext hdd cost and return shipping so all in it will set me back $1500.00. I am OK with that. I was ill prepared and completely blind to the inevitable "not if but when" and I have now paid the tuition fees. The next hit will be cloud service, auto sync software, and a new out of the box ready to go minimal setup required by me NAS. I plan to use the ext hdd for my "in process" file back ups paired with an internal ssd as well (sort of a mirror approach). This will be every changing as design projects come and go. The NAS will store all the released and archived projects, as well as business related and the family related, much like what just failed only better set up and the appropriate RAID setup. The cloud will store business and family content (I think cad files might be way too big to push up and down). So I have several more grand to spend I am sure, but this will most likely help me sleep at night???

Any info on the best ix NAS and RAID setup would be greatly appreciated. Will the mini be sufficient? https://webnew.ixsystems.com/freenas-mini/with RAID 10? I ahve alos been looking in to BOX or Dropbox for cloud. I really want this to all be automatic, seamless, easy, and bullet proof. Thanks for all the help, support and keeping the heat to a minimum. You may now all flame the crap out of me if need be LOL

For the people in my same situation that just stumbled on to this thread...The best advice I got was STOP freaking out, breath and calm the crap down. If your data is extremely important and you have zero capabilities, turn them off unplug them and send them off. Let the pros take over, take the hit and learn from your very costly mistakes. I did.

Both disks have suffered head crashes? More or less simultaneously? Strange! What's the deal with the recovery service? -- Do you pay their quoted price no matter how much or how little they actually manage to recover? Do they understand zfs? And a question for the gurus: even if they were able to image the drives partially, does that mean that some of the data is recoverable, or is it an (almost-)all-or-nothing situation?

 

[anodos]

Both disks have suffered head crashes? More or less simultaneously? Strange! What's the deal with the recovery service? -- Do you pay their quoted price no matter how much or how little they actually manage to recover? Do they understand zfs? And a question for the gurus: even if they were able to image the drives partially, does that mean that some of the data is recoverable, or is it an (almost-)all-or-nothing situation?

It didn't say 'head crash'. It indicated mechanical failure related to the read heads. It's not impossible to have this happen to multiple drives. That's the reason why people like having lots of parity. Just speculating, but a mechanical failure can prevent reading the drives even if the data is intact. Presumably there is enough parity that once the mechanical part is fixed, data recovery is fairly straightforward. Presumably, this is also at a lower level than the FS and so ZFS specific recovery may not even be necessary.

My experience is that data recovery is almost always an all or nothing affair. The level of confidence of recovery is a good sign. Prices are not typically negotiable (this isn't the sort of service you go with the lowest bidder on).

 

[Ericloewe]

Even if a minority of sectors proves unrecoverable, ZFS should be able to recover from that with parity, unless damage is extensive and/or affecting similar areas.

 

[depasseg]

OP - How's it going? Did you get your data? Any updates?

 

[3dmdlr]

It has been 11 business days, 1 day past the quoted 7-10 business days. I have been informed that "Both drives have media damage, which is making it difficult to get a good clone. We are working on getting a good clone of the drive, at that point we can move forward." I am being assured we are still in an "excellent" chance of recovery. At this point I am trying not to let my paranoia get to me. Even typing this reply, I can feel the dread creeping in again. At this point, even if the recovery was as simple as updating a mouse driver, I would have paid $1500.00 just to have my data back, no drama, no embellishments, just facts, quick turn around, get on with my life. As it stand this scenario is still playing out.....so very slowly. Could all of the reviews for this place have been faked? :-| tbc.....

 

[pirateghost]

I still wonder if they understand zfs....

 

[3dmdlr]

and what would one ask to test this theory? i plan to call tomorrow to discuss this further. can i come right out and post the service for anyone to look into the website, see if it has any clues as to what they can and can not do? if not flat out, can i hint to it? i certainly don't want to break any rules, but i would definitely like to get the forums take on it.

 

[cyberjock]

Sure.

 

[Noctris]

Just out of curiosity, did they recover the data?

Sent from my portable microwave

 

[cyberjock]

I'm curious to know this myself. What bothers me is the most recent post...

I have been informed that "Both drives have media damage, which is making it difficult to get a good clone. We are working on getting a good clone of the drive, at that point we can move forward." I am being assured we are still in an "excellent" chance of recovery.

That sounds like they are just trying to clone the drives using something like badblocks. That's not a service worth paying for. I could have offered the same service for $200 and walked to the bank very very happy. For $1500 I'd expect them to do the whole "disassemble the drive and read the data directly" type of recovery, which doesn't sound like they do it (whoever 'they' are).

I'm also very confused because claiming they can't get a good clone while simultaneously saying that there is still an "excellent" chance of recovery seems to be very conflicted. If you can't get a good clone then the recovery is NOT "excellent" in my opinion. In fact, I would argue that if you can't get a good clone, then the recovery potential is probably "poor".

It's also hard to read into what they say. No clue if they do "true" ZFS recovery or not. If they don't the next step would be to use some software recovery tool to try to piece together the files (this will fail pretty miserably for most everyone). If they do real ZFS recovery then who knows how good/bad the situation is. I tend to think they don't do ZFS just because of the small fee they are charging.

 

[Noctris]

I'm curious to know this myself. What bothers me is the most recent post...


That sounds like they are just trying to clone the drives using something like badblocks. That's not a service worth paying for. I could have offered the same service for $200 and walked to the bank very very happy. For $1500 I'd expect them to do the whole "disassemble the drive and read the data directly" type of recovery, which doesn't sound like they do it (whoever 'they' are).

I'm also very confused because claiming they can't get a good clone while simultaneously saying that there is still an "excellent" chance of recovery seems to be very conflicted. If you can't get a good clone then the recovery is NOT "excellent" in my opinion. In fact, I would argue that if you can't get a good clone, then the recovery potential is probably "poor".

It's also hard to read into what they say. No clue if they do "true" ZFS recovery or not. If they don't the next step would be to use some software recovery tool to try to piece together the files (this will fail pretty miserably for most everyone). If they do real ZFS recovery then who knows how good/bad the situation is. I tend to think they don't do ZFS just because of the small fee they are charging.

Yup. And in all honesty ( allthough i am by no means a recovery expert) looking at the output of various commands, i find this approach 'intressting' to say the least. But almost 2 months later, the result should be clear by now. Keeping my fingers crossed for the op though.

Sent from my portable microwave

 

[3dmdlr]

A quick update....recovered data will return tomorrow via an external usb 3.0 drive. I will then quickly look at all the data to determine if it was a 100% recovered or not. I am still being told "We are pleased to inform you that we have performed a successful recovery of your case!" so we will see how it goes. Why it took 2 months to complete I do not know nor will I ever as I am being told, sometimes it just takes that long. If the data is 100% recovered then it was well worth it in the end. Tremendously emotional experience to say the least. Almost over the goal line, fingers crossed I get everything back I want. Thanks for the forum info and support. I will chime in one more time after data confirmation. :)

 

[bollar]

A quick update....recovered data will return tomorrow via an external usb 3.0 drive. I will then quickly look at all the data to determine if it was a 100% recovered or not. I am still being told "We are pleased to inform you that we have performed a successful recovery of your case!" so we will see how it goes. Why it took 2 months to complete I do not know nor will I ever as I am being told, sometimes it just takes that long. If the data is 100% recovered then it was well worth it in the end. Tremendously emotional experience to say the least. Almost over the goal line, fingers crossed I get everything back I want. Thanks for the forum info and support. I will chime in one more time after data confirmation. :)

Great! Thank you for taking the time to let us know.


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[Robert Trevellyan]

Why it took 2 months to complete I do not know nor will I ever as I am being told, sometimes it just takes that long.

Maybe they had to learn how to do ZFS recovery ... ;)

 

[Noctris]

So... You might be leaving the dog house soon? [emoji14]

Sent from my portable microwave

 

[Ericloewe]

Maybe they had to learn how to do ZFS recovery ... ;)

Two months' worth of education sounds like a bargain for the fortunes I could charge.

By the way, have you guys heard that extending a RAIDZ2 vdev with a single drive vdev is an awesome way of expanding your pools? :D

(the above is a joke. Do not, ever, under any circumstances, add a single drive to a pool made up of a RAIDZ2 vdev.)

 

[3dmdlr]

Data is IN MY HANDS! WOOHOO. I am currently offloading the ext drive onto several redundant drives for copy sake. Once I have copies, I will go thru the data and make sure it's intact. Obviously, I won't be going thru it all, it would take way more than the 5 days I have before they dump the originals, but the pressing things I need right now will get the look over. Momma's pics look perfect, so no, no more dog house. A quick, random, check over multiple file types, multiple programs has yielded perfect results. I am pretty freaking stoked right now. And all for the measly out the door price of only $1487.45 USD and over 2 excruciating months of my life:D Even if I happen upon a corrupt file somewhere down the line I am completely satisfied with the results. Looking back, I should have never turned them back on, should have took them out, boxed them up, found a recovery place and sent them off. But hindsight is a b*tch. Thanks all for what ever your role was. Keep helping us noobs who think we can but can't. Time to close this nightmare of a chapter.;)

 

[rogerh]

That's great! I think the firm concerned deserve a bit of free advertising here. Although I wouldn't be totally surprised if they were a bit more cautious with their quotation the next time they get a ZFS problem.

 

[gpsguy]

I'm glad to hear that the data was recovered.

Recovering from a pair of mirrored drives is probably much easier, than a RAIDzX pool.

 

[Darren Myers]

I'm so glad to see this turned out well.