Out of the blue, my drobo is inaccessible. Looks like the MFT is corrupted. chkdsk /F can't access the drive and under disk management, it shows as RAW data.
This is a Drobo gen 2 and when setup I created a 16TB volume but only have 3 drives in there - about 1tb of data. I tried a few data recover software but none seems to work.
Getdataback - after ran for 2 days, reported that there's no NFTS file system
Recuva - can't access the drive
testdisk - didn't work
r-studio - this one is SLOW. Ran for almost 2 days and had to stop...
Stella Phoenix - currently running....
Does anyone have any idea of how to recover this? I heard partition magic can recover lost partition but it's not sure if it works in this case.
If the MFTMIRR isn't also corrupted there should be some salvage utilities that can recover things somewhat timely. If it is then the only utilities that can do anything do take days... not only that but then you need to spend weeks of your own personal time figuring out what stuff is... Cuz the file names and extensions will just be alphanumeric jumble.
Bifurcator, thanks. I ran Getdataback for almost 2 days - it had to scan the whole 16tb volume instead of allow to scan the data/available space only and after 2 days, reported that the file system is not NTFS, even though I know it's NTFS, chkdsk and other software confirmed that it's NTFS. Two days wasted
Lars, I have backup but not completely (slap on head). I talked to support and they escalated to level 2 but haven't heard back from them.
Meanwhile I downloaded and tried ZAR - Zero Assumption Recovery, and it was able to scan and see the files structure. The nice thing is it can scan just the data portion and not the entire volume and still for 2TB it takes along time. It's in the process of copying the files from the drobo to another external, about 50% now and probably about 12 hours togo.
Now, I need to find out which of the 3 drives in the drobo is going bad.
Actually I thought Drobo was not NTFS, now come to think of it... Its physical format is proprietary but it uses some kind of virtual layering to "support" a number for FileSystems.
I wasn't sure just now so I looked it up:
Wiki says that's right (Maybe ):
FeaturesData protection for all drives, as Drobo controls any access to the data.
Recognizes and utilizes newly added storage devices on the fly.
Hard drives do not need to be matched in terms of capacity, speed, or manufacturer.
The drives appear as one unified drive to the host operating system without requiring the installation of the management software on the host.
Supported file systems: HFS Plus, NTFS, ext3 and FAT32 File system redundancy is managed by a virtualization layer which lays data out in a proprietary Drobo format.
I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago, but I don't remember which utility I used to recover files. I've learned my lesson since then. Now I have a Netgear ReadyNas to hold my files and that uses the Drobo as a secondary back up to guard against any data corruption.
IT’S A DESASTER!
I have entrusted DroboS data (double redundancy protected) I have collected, arranged and put in xxx of hours of work in the last 4 years – Now, the data ist lost! (90% of about 5 TB).
How this could happen? – I am not sure but the story began when Drobo showed a red light at one of its bays (this light indicates *add a drive here”). I should have been alerted at this time as the bay already had a drive inserted. Nevertheless, I followed the instructions, then the next bay showed a red light, so another drive was inserted. After the “rebuilding” process (all lights greeen) the Drobo was not showing on the Desktop anymore (although mounted).
Drobo “Support” recommended to buy recovery software (of which I tried R-Studio and Data Rescue 3 – about 180.- U$ value) to no success – after over a month of writing emails, investing time and money and occupying my Mac with scaning (7d) and recovering the result was shattering: most of the data was lost!
I have not given up as R-Studio shows the files with their correct name and size, so for me the data still exists. Is there any “expert” out there who could help – at any costs?
Oh man sorry to hear that. You can download ZAR and give it a try to see if your data is still intact. You can recover a few folders with thre trial version too.
Good luck.
Dec 06, 2011 at 11:53 AM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
sorry but i am unsympathetic. a single anything, including a Drobo is not a backup solution. i have 4 of them for a reason.
Herb...
xcell wrote:
IT’S A DESASTER!
I have entrusted DroboS data (double redundancy protected) I have collected, arranged and put in xxx of hours of work in the last 4 years – Now, the data ist lost! (90% of about 5 TB).
Thank you guys for all your comments and sympathy...
I used the DroboS to store my iTunes lib, another unit - a 2nd gen Drobo - is/was used to backup the rest of my data; I am now trying to revocer the iTunes lib on it.
I have contacted "Retrodata" in this case and what I have found on their website, was not very encouraging in investing in a third Drobo unit: "We are receiving more enquiries relating to failed DROBO storage units than all other NAS devices combined...It is our opinion that if you currently have important data on any Drobo storage device, you ensure you have backups that have been verified."
Should have read this BEFORE buying a DROBO...
End of lamenting - is there any better solution than Drobo out there to handle data in a similar way?; after all, the idea behind it seemed quite genuine.
edit: Mac OSX 10.7.2
Dec 06, 2011 at 07:09 PM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Both the manual that comes with the Drobo S, and Data Robotics website say that you must have backup. So I don't see how it can be a surprise. Or that you should have been reading it on another website before?
Yes of course you should have backups for your Drobo, that has been verified. Just like you should have that for all other NAS devices
xcell wrote:
Thank you guys for all your comments and sympathy...
I used the DroboS to store my iTunes lib, another unit - a 2nd gen Drobo - is/was used to backup the rest of my data; I am now trying to revocer the iTunes lib on it.
I have contacted "Retrodata" in this case and what I have found on their website, was not very encouraging in investing in a third Drobo unit: "We are receiving more enquiries relating to failed DROBO storage units than all other NAS devices combined...It is our opinion that if you currently have important data on any Drobo storage device, you ensure you have backups that have been verified."
Should have read this BEFORE buying a DROBO... End of lamenting - is there any better solution than Drobo out there to handle data in a similar way?; after all, the idea behind it seemed quite genuine.
If you belive there are other NAS solutions that don't need any backup, then you are wrong. I don't belive you have understood the idea behind it when writing this ! The idea behind it is to have at least one backup in another place.
I don't "belive" anything but I know that Drobo failed. If you want to give me some advice on data recovery or other RAID systems I would very much appreciate - else please refrain from repeating the same old backup story. Thank you!
Dec 08, 2011 at 06:28 AM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
xcell wrote:
IT’S A DESASTER!
I have entrusted DroboS data (double redundancy protected) I have collected, arranged and put in xxx of hours of work in the last 4 years – Now, the data ist lost! (90% of about 5 TB).
How this could happen? – I am not sure but the story began when Drobo showed a red light at one of its bays (this light indicates *add a drive here”). I should have been alerted at this time as the bay already had a drive inserted. Nevertheless, I followed the instructions, then the next bay showed a red light, so another drive was inserted. After the “rebuilding” process (all lights greeen) the Drobo was not showing on the Desktop anymore (although mounted).
Drobo “Support” recommended to buy recovery software (of which I tried R-Studio and Data Rescue 3 – about 180.- U$ value) to no success – after over a month of writing emails, investing time and money and occupying my Mac with scaning (7d) and recovering the result was shattering: most of the data was lost!
I have not given up as R-Studio shows the files with their correct name and size, so for me the data still exists. Is there any “expert” out there who could help – at any costs?
OS: OSX 10.7.2...Show more →
Did you upsized the drive you added? The red light only show that the drobo is more than 95% full and need more capacity. There is nothing wrong with it. And no fault either.
So I don't understand your comment "" I should have been alerted at this time as the bay already had a drive inserted.""
Dashboard showed less than 70% used space... plausible to believe that there was something not going right - at 85% the orange light should come up first, anyway.
Upzided (3 TB) the drive - then, another right light - without Drobo starting the "rebuilding" process.
After inserting another 3 TB disk the "rebuilding" process started - then all light showed green and the file systems where damaged as it seems - beyond repair - or do you have a suggestion?.
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