 Hello everybody! Watch this video to find out how to recover data from Synology Hybrid RAID of the second level based on the S1621 Plus Synal Storage device. You'll learn how to migrate from Synology Hybrid RAID to Hybrid RAID 2, and what to do if the migration encounters an error and the RAID system crashes or becomes inaccessible. Synology devices offer their own technology, Synology Hybrid RAID, to organize a storage system. Synology Hybrid RAID, or SHR for short, is the technology developed to prevent loss of disk space when hard disks of different capacity are installed into a NAS device. To cut the long storage short, this technology lets you use all or almost all available disk space to organize safe storage for your data with sufficient redundancy. So how does it work? Suppose your Synology NAS has 4 hard disks, 2 1TB disks and 2 2TB disks. In this case, your NAS creates a class grade 5 using 4 pieces of disk space 1TB each. For such class grade 5, some disk space 2 pieces of 1TB each remains unallocated. However, with the Hybrid RAID, these 2 pieces will be integrated into a mirrored RAID 1. After that, the two arrays will be automatically combined into a single storage system. This way, instead of 4TB, which is a class grade 5, your NAS will provide 6TB of disk space with a reliable reserve of 1 disk for data protection, just in case one of your HTDs fails. Talking of reliability, a Hybrid RAID cannot offer 100% protection, but a classic disk array is not perfectizer. Since a hybrid RAID is a combination of two classic RAID systems, the issue of data loss remains relevant just like before. Failure of more drives than your redundancy level can survive, damaged RAID metadata, wrong configuration, NAS breakdown, and so on. Data recovery from a hybrid RAID gets even more complicated, since there are two array levels combining two one storage systems. With the hard disks of similar capacity, a hybrid RAID looks just like a classic one, and its data can be restored with the help of any data recovery tool designed to work with RAID systems. But if it includes disks of different capacity, such hybrid structure combines several RAID levels into one. Some data from such system requires a software tool capable of determining all offsets correctly, rebuilding the whole array, and providing access to its data. Within a few minutes, we'll explore how to recover data from a hybrid RAID of the second level. For better understanding of how a hybrid RAID is built, let's explore the process of creating it on this specific device. During initial configuration of the network at that storage, you will be suggested to create a pool and volume for storing data, click start. In the next step, you need to choose the RAID type, select Hybrid RAID. As you can see, there are two hybrid RAID options – SHR and SHR2. SHR is similar to a classic RAID 5, with one drive for tolerance. SHR2 is similar to RAID 6, with two drives for tolerance. I will choose SHR, because we're going to explore how to migrate from this type to Hybrid RAID 2, SHR2, so click next. Select the disks that the future RAID will consist of, and click next. Specify the capacity, choose the file system, and click apply. After that, you will see a warning that data on these disks will be erased, so click OK to confirm it. It starts the process of building and optimizing the array in the background mode. When it's over, you'll be able to create a shared folder and add some data to your storage system. To migrate from Synology Hybrid RAID to SHR2, you need at least four hard disks. If your current array consists of three disks, add one more, and it's even better to add two. This will speed up the rebuilding process. To rebuild the array, open the DSM menu, Storage Manager. Follow these steps, go to Apportition, Storage, and click on the three dot button to change the RAID type. Choose SHR2, next, and the disks. The system suggests you to choose at least two disks to reduce their building time. If you choose one disk only, the process will be much longer. You will see a window that the data from the newly added drive will be erased, but the data from the disks already included into the array won't be removed. Click OK. It starts disk industrialization and array rebuilding process. As a result, you'll get a Synology Hybrid RAID with two drive fold tolerance. As I said in the beginning of this video, RAID cannot guarantee you 100% protection for your data. Hardware issues, degradation, failures, run configuration of your Synology RAID, all of these are critical situations that may result in data loss. However, if you take the right decision in time, you'll be able to recover data from a damaged RAID system. The specialized RAID data recovery software, Hetman RAID Recovery, will automatically rebuild and demonstrate with the available hard disks, so that you'll be able to retrieve the important data. This utility supports most file systems and all popular RAID types including Synology Hybrid RAID. To start the recovery process, take the drives out of the storage device and connect them directly to the motherboard of a Windows computer. If your motherboard lacks setup ports to connect all the disks or you have a similar problem with power connectors, you can solve the problem by using special expansion cards and adapters, and you can see a few examples on the screen. When taking the hard disks out of the NAS, don't forget to mark them with numbers, so that you will put them back into your NAS in the same order they used to have. Also, you will need some space to save the data, and it should be of the same capacity as the data you are trying to recover. The operating system may suggest initializing or formatting all the hard disks for further use, when they are connected to your computer. Never agree to that. If you do, there is a high risk of losing any remaining information, and it can make the recovery process much more complicated either. As you can see, now the RAID consists of four hard disks of different capacity. The utility had no difficulty in identifying the array's characteristics and file system. It even managed to rebuild the damaged RAID with one hard disk missing. To have your files back, start disk analysis. Right-click on the volume, and choose Open. After that, choose the scan type Fast Scan or Full Analysis. If the NAS is down, but the program manages to rebuild the RAID correctly, a Fast Scan is enough. When the scan is over, open the folder where the lost files were stored. You can use the preview window to see the contents of all files, including videos and documents. Select all the items you want to recover, and click the Recovery button. Choose the directory where you want to save the files, the disk and the folder, and click Recover again. When the recovery process is complete, you will see all the files in the specified folder. If the Fast Scan can't find the necessary data, then go for Full Analysis. To do it, return to the main menu, right-click on the disk and choose Analyze again. Select Full Analysis and specify the file system. You can uncheck the option to search for files by their contents. This will make the scan faster. Now, the last step is to recover the files. To ensure more safety for working with damaged drives, this program has a feature to scan dust disk images instead of actual HDDs. This will reduce the disk load and extend their lifespan. Tools – save disk. Alright, now we have explored the differences between Synology Habit RAID with a classic disk array, with redundancy and revealed the factors that make recovery more complicated. Remember that only correct and timely actions let you recover the lost data. And that is all for now. Hopefully, this video was useful. Remember to click the Like button and subscribe to our channel. Leave comments under this video to ask questions. Thank you for watching and good luck.