RAID 5 File Recovery

The upper controller portion of our raid's array was broken. The drives all seem to be in working condition but can't be accessed. Is there any way to get any data off the drives short of sending them to a data recovery service that would charge a Harley to do it?

Not sure of the architecture of your array, but working for a storage manufacturer myself, i can only tell you that your data should not be lost, if only the controller is damaged. Typically replacing the controller should do the trick. The configuration of the array including the RAID group setup is usually stored on either some private LUNs of the drives or on the other controller, so when you swap the defective controller, the new one should get the config information of the array from the private Luns for example. At least that's how most storage vendors do it. Hope that helps.

Similar Messages

Can I use gpt to recreate/unerase a partition table? (Rebuild the GPT/GUID partition table?) I don't want to do FILE recovery.

(Yes, I've googled a bunch and read threads like this one already.)
Can I use gpt or some other app to recreate/unerase a partition table? That is, how can I rebuild a disk's GPT/GUID partition table?) I don't want to do FILE recovery.
What happened: Instead of erasing a single partition off a disk with many partitions, the entire partition table was erased (using Disk Utility, w/o deleting the underlying files). Somehow the "Erasing a disk deletes all data on all its partitions." warning message was missed.
I have a copy of the output of df, with the number of blocks in each partition, from just prior to the erasure, so I should be able to recreate the GPT/GUID partition table. Editing the GPT with a hex editor is not feasible. Simply recreating the partitions with Disk Utility will overwrite the key filesystem tables on each partition, and I don't want to do that, plus Disk Utility doesn't allow me to specify exact partition sizes anyway.
Surely there's an app for rebuilding the partition table (other than emacs' hexl-mode!) for recreating/unerasing a partition table when the partition sizes and orders are known? I've looked at the advertising for a bunch of recovery software and none of them clearly indicate that they will do what I want.
I guess I can try using gpt on a copy of the reformatted drive I've made with dd, and see what happens. But perhaps someone knows of a tool that should do what I need, or knows if gpt is that tool or not.
There are answers and tools that will do FILE recovery - search for files and recover the ones that aren't fragmented or deleted. As far as I can find, they just look for files on the disk, and don't pay much, if any attention to the filesystem info or directory heirarchy, which in this case is valuable. Of course I could send it in to DriveSavers, or the like. But none of that seems necessary, and the scavenging file recovery apps won't do the job well,
E.g. some are mentioned here:
I don't want to do FILE recovery.
Thanks for any help.
The links in this post are to pages describing the underlined term, e.g. the man pages for df and gpt.
dd output includes:
Filesystem
512-blocks
Used Available Capacity Mounted on

Aperture has the ability to work with files in their existing location. They are called "referenced masters." When you import images, you should select the "In their current location" in the "Store Files:" drop down box. Have a read of the documentation for full specifics. Unsure how you can resolve your duplication; might be some work but next time have a read of the manual first
Information for versions is stored in the Aperture database (library file). The masters can be inside the library file itself, or they can be somewhere else.

File recovery after system recovery?

One of our students has a laptop that has had a system recovery performed on it by someone else by holding the zero key while pressing the power button. I'm trying to see if any file recovery is possible using standard forensic tools or suites. I haven't been able to find out exactly how the system recovery process works so I don't know what I have to work with. Does anyone know how the original partition is cleaned up before copying the files from the hidden backups?
Thanks in advance for any help or information you can offer.
Bill
[email protected]

Same thing happened to me except that they were audio MP3 files. Where did all those WAV files go?

File Recovery Question

Hi there, before I ask my question, let me explain my situation:
I lost all of my data off my hard drive partition, and used the program "Stellar Phoenix Macintosh 4.0". It is a recovery program that allowed me to view and retrieve my lost files from my deleted partition.
It managed to recover EVERY file in its original file structure.
Now, when I try to view pictures, play songs, or do ANYTHING with these files, they don't work, however the FILE SIZE makes sense: Pictures are 1mb-5mb. Songs are 2mb-15mb, etc.
For example: I get this error when trying to view jpgs:
The file filename.jpg could not be opened.
It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize.
I changed the permissions on the file so everyone can "read & write" but that still didn't help. I tried copying the files to another drive, but still no luck.
If someone could help me either with making the files readable, or a different setting on the recovery program, that would be great.
Is it possible that the files were viewed in 10.6.2 and I recovered them in 10.6.0?
Any suggestions would be appreciated!

30 day trial, no money spent.
So why would anyone buy this Keith, if they could get full use out of it for up to 30 days, when just 30 hours would probably do ? Excuse the rhetorical question.
What is noticeable about the various file recovery programs is they let you sample them but mostly require payment if you want to seriously use them.
It is remarkable in the software universe of freeware, and OpenSource ware, that software recovery are the exception and give no free lunches, or at least none that I know.
*I suspect you will have to pay for this app to facilitate your file recovery*.
I'm not sure which one, but there is one that lets you restore one file, just to prove itself, but to get the rest you have to buy the software. Can't remember which one that is but see if you can find it, at least to prove something is recoverable before you fork out the money.
On the matter of creating a backup image using Disk Utility, did you do it according to these procedures?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553
Still, if it has no mountable file system, I doubt if it can be created after the fact.
Sorry to be unable to throw some sunshine on your problems, but gee you are gonna have a great backup strategy in place after this. ...a little ray there.
P.S. You need to contact the providers of these software to clarify things - your expectations, payment, whatever.
Message was edited by: roam

File Recovery Software

A software bug has apparently erased one of my email folders. I don't use Apple Mail.
Can anyone recommend a good, reliable file recovery program that might be successful in recovering the previous file?
I'm avoiding that partition in hopes of preventing any overwriting of the deleted data.
Thanks.

a brody wrote:
If the mail was stored on the server, ask the internet provider for their tape backup. Any messages you didn't open between the time it arrived and was taped will be safe.
If the mail was stored on the server, but was checked before it was taped, the internet provider might be able to do a data recovery on their own machine to see if they can find a trace of it.
If it was stored locally, you need to know the local file name of where it was stored, and recover it to the location that it stored it.
Definitely stored locally. I've become very security conscious, and avoid almost everything cloud related. This year, plan on doing taxes and next years records on an OS many have never seen, and not connected to the internet. So, it's been a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong time since anything identity related has been stolen from me.
This isn't the first time I'm used recovery software, but the first time on a Mac. First experience doing it was on an Atari 800.
What e-mail program did you use? These programs can recover such files, if not too much else has been written to the hard disk since the file was lost:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1689
Leaving the machine on lessens the chances it can be recovered locally.
I use Thunderbird, but I seriously consider switching if I could find an equivalent program. That has been a fruitless search.
The attempts at recovery using TB quite possibly overwrote the needed file at the outset. It all depends on how the filesystem selects the vacant sectors to write changes to.
Have you used any of the programs listed in the article?
I've opted to not try to recover the data, and have installed a back up from Time Machine. But, because I was troubleshooting issues copying massive amounts of data between hard drives, I'd turned off Time Machine, so the back up is missing some emails for all accounts. But, I have the accounts set to leave messages on the server, so just have to learn how to get those messages. I'd forgotten I'd done that, so hopefully there will be a way to just get the ones that are missing.

What's a good file recovery program for a MacBook Pro running IS 10.7.5?

Hey gang - I ordered a miniStack 4TB external hard drive from OWC a few months ago during a long overseas trip. I finally unwrapped it and started dumping data to the drive from the 1TB drives (also from OWC) I used via my MacBook Pro. I connected the 4TB to the laptop with FW800.
I came back from the gym (gone about two hours) and saw a "the drive wasn't disconnected properly..." window. There was a clicking noise coming from the drive, which means mechanical failure.
I went into Disk Utility and the drive is there but it's grayed out. I changed cables to USB 3.0. Unplugged the drive. Shut down the laptop. Then went through the start up and nadda.
So before I run off a disk repair place in town and spend $1000, what's a good hard drive recovery program to use to pull the data? I only dumped 1.5TBs until the 4TB and have other drives to dump that data too if I need to.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Bill.

General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads. Recovery software usually provide trial versions that enable you to determine if the software would help before actually paying for it. Beyond this or if the drive has completely failed, then you would need to send the drive to a recovery service, such as Data Recovery by DriveSavers, which is very expensive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

File recovery and file structure?

Bummer: Some combo of Excel, Google Earth, and my involvement have left my Sandisk thumbdrive corrupted. Disk Utility sees the drive but can't mount it and can't repair it. I used Sandisk's RescuePRO software which pulled off lots of files, but most of them had been deleted and few were actually the latest copies. Lots of the recovered files had odd file types like .MOF, .ANM, and Illustrator and Codewarrior files were just gone. And (finally, here's the question): is there any way to handle Pages and Keynote files when you're in a desperate file-recovery situation? They are bundles of xml, tiff, and other files, and on recovery, all these bits seem to emerge as separate files. Is there any way to put Humpty Dumpty together again, or are data from these apps particularly bad news when disk failure happens?
Thanks for any advice, philosophy, tips or tricks.

Is your SanDisk drive formatted MS-DOS or Mac OS Extended? If the former you will have a major problem because Mac files are not properly saved on MS-DOS formatted disks. If the SanDisk recovery program is not a Mac program, then it probably knows nothing about Mac files. All of this would seriously complicate trying to recover file created by Mac programs.
There are file recovery programs for Mac OS X, but I have no idea if they can recover files from an MS-DOS formatted thumbdrive. You would need to talk to the developers about it. Your choices are Data Rescue II (www.prosofteng.com) and File Salvage (www.subrosasoft.com.)

Re Mackeeper Smart Uninstaller have done Files recovery how do I get it all back as before?

Question. I know this might sound really dumb but I installed MacKeeper thinking it was an Apple product. I used Smart Uninstaller to removed what I thought was a list of unnecessary stuff from my laptop. When I realised it wasn't unecessary I ran the Files Recovery. It took 24 hours in total and now there is an enormous list of items to be restored. I want to just put it all back, is that possible? I am confused - do I need to buy an external drive to do this? PLEASE HELP. Thanks B

Read this user tip for info.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3039

FF 34 - Restoring Sessions from old folders of files recovery.bak and recovery.js that are not in the original folder. Is this possible?

After crash all the recovery files were gone. With a recovery software I could get old versions of recovery files (recovery.bak, recovery.js). I try to implement them in the new profile folder by exchanging the files, but FF34 just ioverwrites them. Unfortunalty I could not restore the old sessionstore.js file.
Any idea how I can restore the ols session with this 2 old files (recovery.bak, recovery.js)?

Did you check in a text editor that the recovered files are not corrupted and only contain ASCII text?
You would have to copy such a recovery file to the main profile folder as sessionstore.js to replace the current copy.
If you do not use "Show my windows and tabs from last time" then you need to use "History > Restore Previous Session" and possibly "History > Recently Closed Tabs/Windows".

Possible file recovery for Excite AT300

Unfortunately my AT300 started freezing up during startup and I had to face the invetiable and do a factory reset after two years of usage. Unfortunately I didn't back up anything. My main concern was after resetting it was that I had lost text files of writings etc. I am wondering, however, is if it is even possible to recover anything after a factory reset? The only thing I could think of would be to attemp to connect the tablet to a laptop and try to use file recovery software if the laptop can even acknowledge the AT300. Has anyone attempted this?

30 day trial, no money spent.
So why would anyone buy this Keith, if they could get full use out of it for up to 30 days, when just 30 hours would probably do ? Excuse the rhetorical question.
What is noticeable about the various file recovery programs is they let you sample them but mostly require payment if you want to seriously use them.
It is remarkable in the software universe of freeware, and OpenSource ware, that software recovery are the exception and give no free lunches, or at least none that I know.
*I suspect you will have to pay for this app to facilitate your file recovery*.
I'm not sure which one, but there is one that lets you restore one file, just to prove itself, but to get the rest you have to buy the software. Can't remember which one that is but see if you can find it, at least to prove something is recoverable before you fork out the money.
On the matter of creating a backup image using Disk Utility, did you do it according to these procedures?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553
Still, if it has no mountable file system, I doubt if it can be created after the fact.
Sorry to be unable to throw some sunshine on your problems, but gee you are gonna have a great backup strategy in place after this. ...a little ray there.
P.S. You need to contact the providers of these software to clarify things - your expectations, payment, whatever.
Message was edited by: roam

Third Party File Recovery

I was currently working on a video project, using FCP with a few friends. When I woke up the next morning the project file was in the trash. I removed the project file from the trash and put it back on the computers HD and an external that I am using for the video project.
When I open up FCP to start working on the project a bunch of the video files were not connected anymore. Not sure how this happen, I cant find the files anywhere!! I have heard about third party file recovery systems that allow you to get back files that were deleted. Can anyone shine some light on this topic for me.. I need the media that is missing badly.
Thank you

ERizzal wrote:
*I never really deleted the folders that were put in the trash.* I removed the folders and put them back where they were. Do you have any ideas where they could have gone?
Hi Eric, Hmmnnn, If you never deleted them then they should be there someplace. Try the Spotlight and / or *Cmd f* is all I can think of.
Best Regards, JP

Windows 7 Offline Files Recovery

Thanks for all your help!
Facts: Domain Network, Server 2012, Folder Redirection Enabled (Docs Only), Shadow Copy Enabled, Windows 7 Clients
I have a domain user who was not syncronizing with the server through Folder Redirection. We deployed a GPO to disable Offline files and sure enough, she reported that her files went missing. We looked at the Shadow copies only to find that the folders are
in fact empty.
Attempts: Shadow Copy, HBCD (to access the CSC folder offline, turned up empty)
Are there any tools or techniques that I am missing here to recover her files? Remember this is Windows 7.
All your help is much appreciated.

Hello all,
Just thought I should come back and share my findings.
FolderRedirection can be a useful tool, but can be a pain if used or removed improperly. I found that permissions can play a role in Syncing documents, if permissions are modified for whatever reason in the server, it will not always sync properly and the
user will mostly not notice. This will cause your system to hold "temp" files on your pc.
I had success with Recuva for file recovery but mostly the classic HBCD, this allowed me to browse the contents of CSC without hassles, and move to the local drive. The particular machine in question did not turn out successful, but these methods worked
for the remaining.
Thanks to all for your help.

Auto-save and file-recovery

Dear Adobe,
It is the year 2015. Just lost several hours of work in Illustrator. Thanks for making your professional community the beta tester of your half-baked products. I have no interest using Illustrator if you release version after version with new "features" and leave out the most important thing: file recovery and auto save. Honestly, I am in severe disbelief that this is not built in. Don't release an update if you don't do this first. This has happened far too much for me to have any patience, or just to say, "it's ok, I will re-do it".
I can't find words to express my severe disappointment in this software. I am not the first one to have said this. If no solution is in the works even, you really don't care.
Sincerely disappointed and frustrated,
A Creative Cloud User

spybraek,
Only an old native here.
With regard to autosaving, you may consider these (I am aware that you may know (of) them):
CS5/CS6/CC & Vista/7/8 or 10.7+
http://www.astutegraphics.com/software/autosaviour/
https://forums.adobe.com/message/6616027#6616027
For Mac users with CS6 or CC, the app "Ai Auto Save" can be bought here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ai-auto-save/id877602617?ls=1&mt=12
With regard to file recovery, the following may apply (this may also be (too well) known to you):
One thing often tried first is to create a new document and File>Place the (PDF contents, if any, of the) corrupted one to see how much may be rescued that way.
Here are some websites where you can see whether it can rescue the actual file, and if it can, you may pay for a subscription to have it done,
http://www.recoverytoolbox.com/buy_illustrator.html
http://markzware.com/adobe-software/fix-illustrator-file-unknown-error-occurred-pdf2dtp-fi le-recovery/
http://www.illustrator.fixtoolbox.com/
As far as I remember, the first one is for Win and the second one is for Mac, while the third one should be for both.
Here are a few pages about struggling with it yourself:
http://daxxter.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/how-to-recover-a-corrupted-illustrator-ai-file/
http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/troubleshoot-damaged-illustrator-files.html
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/500/cpsid_50032.html
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/500/cpsid_50031.html
http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/enable-content-recovery-mode-illustrator.html

Deleted File Recovery software?

Is there deleted file recovery software which is cheap or has a limited demo or something?
I accidentally deleted some files, but they're not worth hundreds of dollars to me. I'd just like to get them back if I could.
I downloaded some software which says it can find them, but I have to pay -- so, how do I know it will actually work after I pay?
I'd like to get some samples, like, have it just retrieve ten files or something, just to prove it works!
Mac OS X (10.3.8)

Hi John,
As Kurt suggests, Data Rescue is a commercial product that you will have to purchase to retrieve your files if you choose but it at least allows you to test the demo first to see if it can scan and find your files and to test to see if it will retrieve one file of 500k in size.
Dr. Smoke, of the X-Lab, has an excellent FAQ explaining data recovery that can be found here.
One major point, if you're not aware, is that you should not use the affected drive until you recover the files as the more you use the computer the more chance that the files will be overwritten and unretrievable.
hope that helps some,
littleshoulders [:-)

N8: No file recovery for files stored in mass memo...

Greetings everyone, I am experiencing a lot of trouble retrieving files that were accidentally deleted on the mass memory. I have tried all sorts of file recovery programs but they DO NOT read the mass memory. They can't even see it as a drive on the computer whenever I connect via usb cable. Please advise me as to what I can do to get those files back.
I wish I saved them to the memory card...
Many thanks and kind regards.

1. Connect the phone to the PC
2. On the phone: Tap the small status icons in the upper right corner of the screen
3. Tap the connections icon in the upper left corner of the pop-up (two horizontal lines with arrows)
4. Select USB
5. Select Data Transfer mode / Mass Storage mode (or what it is called in your phone's language)
- On my N8 it is the second choice from the top, under the default "Nokia Ovi Suite" mode
Wait for Windows to select the proper drivers and pop-up the autoplay dialog
Now there are 2 new drive letters in Windows File Manager to work with
I hope that you now can retrieve the missing files?
Best regards,
Hans

Iphone vs PC: File recovery capabilities comparison

We all know that even if we reformat a pc, files deleted before the pc was reformatted could still be recovered from the hard disk using any recovery software.
Does it work the same way as in an Iphone? let's say I deleted files from my iphone then I reset my IOS. Would I be able to recover files I deleted before my IOS was reset? I'm not talking about file recovery from backup (itunes or icloud), what I mean is file recovery from the phone itself.
Just kinda confused on this. Some say yes its the same, some say no its different. I'm thinking iphone works the same way as in a pc.

it's the same as with a pc apart from if you update the os that nuke the data
the thing is that flash storage have a limited amount of times you can write data to them before they die
same as with dvd-rw really just more writes in case of the flash
so when you delete data you just delete the reference you don't make the 1's into 0's or the other way around
but there are no undelete tools for ios
and most undelete tools for computers require the device they are to undelete from to act as a drive volume which the iOS devices does not do
if you are asking because you are worried that selling your iOS device will make it possible for the person to access all your data then unless you're a secret spy and they are very very professional you need not worry

RAID 5 File Recovery

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