Has my ts-212 wiped my hard drives?

[bm2]

Hi, i put 2 drives into my 212 that were in a completely different NAS drive and went through the setup up to the 'disk format' stage where it said i would lose my data, and cancelled the installation. I connected the drives to my computer running ubuntu to get the data off (the drives were in xfs format) but ubuntu couldnt recognise the disks. When qfinder originally initialised the hard drives at the beginning of the installation did it wipe my drives (because there wasn't any warning to say it was going to)?

[Crush]

If your 212 warned you and you cancelled then your drives should be safe. Normally it will only warn you if the NAS recognises that the drives have previously been formatted/used in the NAS. If it doesn't recognise the structure it will treat them as blank and just initialise - but in that case you would not have got any warning (?)

What you say is confusing because at first you say you got a warning, then end up by saying Qfinder initialised (wiped) the drives?

[bm2]

Sorry, when the setup first starts it initialises the drives, but there's no warning about any data loss, but later on (step 5 i think) when selecting the format the drives will be formatted to it warns that initialising the drives will wipe all the data so it gives you the option not to, but what about the previous initialising that has already taken place with no warnings?

[Crush]

OK, the format warning is standard issue - you get that every time you format a drive. It was the first step that 'initialised' the drive - i.e., created the partition structures including system and data areas. That effectively wiped your drive. The NAS simply didn't recognise a structure that was unknown to it. The manual does warn that will happen, it will only recognise it's own structure - for example, if you pull the NAS drive and re-insert it then it knows the drive has been used before and will not immediately initialise.

[bm2]

I see, i'm guessing there is no way of getting the data back then?

[2000wolf]

Maybe TestDisk or a similar tool helps:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

[tr309]

Yes this mega ** me off. Did you find a way to recover the lost data?

[pwilson]

Hi, i put 2 drives into my 212 that were in a completely different NAS drive and went through the setup up to the 'disk format' stage where it said i would lose my data, and cancelled the installation. I connected the drives to my computer running ubuntu to get the data off (the drives were in xfs format) but ubuntu couldnt recognise the disks. When qfinder originally initialised the hard drives at the beginning of the installation did it wipe my drives (because there wasn't any warning to say it was going to)?

QNAP doesn't recognise XFS filesystems either. Copy your data from NAS to NAS using Backup Station. (assuming your undisclosed Make/Model of "other NAS" supports either RSync or FTP).

As for the warning, you'll find it right in the Getting Started section of the fine manual:

You will probably destroy your own data much more slowly if you actually take the time to actually read the fine manual, rather than inserting drives from an undisclosed Make/Model of "other NAS" into your QNAP NAS, for which you apparently have no backup.

The only person/company you should be angry with is yourself. You destroyed your own data. It is not our fault you didn't read the manual. It is not our fault you have contempt for your own data, and didn't have a backup of those drives prior to foolishly inserting them inside your QNAP NAS. Talk to the original NAS manufacturer for advice on recovering your data from a formerly XFS filesystem.

As QNAP does not support XFS filesystem, very few people here will have experience with recovery of XFS filesystems. I rely on my backups here, no I have no experience with filesystem recovery for any filesystem whatsoever, despite over 20 years playing with Linux and Linux-embedded devices such as NAS devices. (You might want to invest in an eSATA/USB3.0 Drive Dock to make it easier to make your Backups going forward. I recommend always having a minimum of 2 "redundant" Backups at all times. Store one of your redundant backups off-site. (I keep my oldest Backup at my parents home across town).

You won't have to worry about "recovery" of filesystems, if you maintain regular Backups of at least your most valuable data. Important data is always backuped up. Unimportant data is not. If you don't have any backups, then the "value" of your data has already been determined by you. This unfortunate circumstance should have never occurred. Backups and actually reading the fine manual, can help prevent this type of disaster scenario from ever occurring.

I sincerely wish you the best in your recovery efforts. Again, please talk to the original NAS manufacturer for advice on recovering your data from that formerly XFS filesystem. Check out Superuser.com article: How can I recover XFS partitions from a formatted HD?