QNAP RAID 5 Recovery

QNAP NAS devices, despite all their reliability, can break down for several reasons:

  1. Physical problems - network devices, like any other equipment, can be damaged as a result of falls, s hocks, exposure to water or other liquids. This may cause the device's hardware components, such as the motherboard, hard drive, or other components, failure.
  2. Overheating - some models of QNAP network devices have problems with the cooling system, which can lead to overheating and failure of the device. This may be caused by dust contamination, improper installation, or use of the device in a hot environment.
  3. Firmware failure - sometimes the firmware of a network device may become unstable or corrupted, causing the device to malfunction. In this case, you may need to update the firmware or restore factory settings.

If for some reason you cannot access the data stored on a QNAP where disks were combined into a RAID5 array, then you can try to restore the data yourself.

On many forums you can find recommendations that you can use various Linux commands, however, remember that this can make situations worse.

Full-scale data recovery from QNAP, which was configured in RAID5, consists of 2 stages:

  1. Restoring RAID parameters.
  2. File recovery.

Going through these stages requires the use of different programs. To restore RAID settings, you need to use ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery, and to recover files - ReclaiMe File Recovery. However, just by looking at the drives and the NAS box, it is difficult to determine what type of damage you are dealing with.

Therefore, we recommend first to run ReclaiMe File Recovery on QNAP disks, and only if the software cannot show the QNAP volume, download ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery and recover the parameters of the RAID5 array. This will help you reduce your overall recovery time.

How to recover data from QNAP RAID5

  1. Remove all drives from the QNAP and label them according to their bays. This is not important for the recovery process, because the programs restore the disk order on their own. But, if suddenly the configuration is significantly destroyed and the software cannot do it, then knowing the correct order, you can return to the starting point and look for other ways to restore.
  2. Connect all available drives from QNAP RAID5 to your computer. It is advisable to connect the drives directly to the computer motherboard via SATA, but if SATA ports are not enough, you can use USB-to-SATA adapters.
  3. Download and install ReclaiMe File Recovery. In the list of devices available for scanning from ReclaiMe, find the volume from QNAP. It should be displayed under the QNAP volumes section and be of the appropriate size. If you do not see a suitable volume, or it is displayed in red, then skip step 4, which are described below and go to step 5.
    4. ReclaiMe reading QNAP volumes
  4. Wait until you receive a message that the “Initial scan is completed” and start checking the recovered data in the Preview. If the data is displayed good and the size of the recovered data is as expected, then you may not continue scanning, but start copying the data. If you are not satisfied with the result, continue scanning by clicking Resume.
    5. ReclaiMe software - file preview
  5. If the volume from QNAP does not appear in ReclaiMe or is marked in red, then most likely the RAID5 array configuration is corrupted, and you need to first restore the RAID before restoring files. To do this, you first need to use another program - ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery.
  6. Download and install ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery. Select all disks from RAID5 in the software window and click Start RAID5.
    7. QNAP RAID5 recovery
  7. Wait until the software determines all RAID5 parameters. The speed of recovery of RAID parameters depends on the number of disks, their size, connection method and the specifics of the data itself.
  8. When the RAID 5 parameters are restored, select the Run ReclaiMe to recover files option.
  9. ReclaiMe File Recovery will open in RAID data recovery mode. Select the reconstructed QNAP volume and start scanning.
  10. Next, return to point 4.

Still have questions?