 Hello everybody! Watch this video to find out how to recover data from a RAID system based on a Cisco NAS device model MSS3000, which is no longer working properly. How to create a RAID system, add a shell folder, configure network connection to the storage and get access to it. A network attached storage, or NAS for short, is a data storage server connected to a network that allows its users to access the information stored in such a server. A NAS could be a good solution if you want to protect your data from loss or damage, as it is based on the RAID technology. Although RAID provides a pretty reliable way to store and access your files, there are factors that no technology can exclude. An NAS is a mechanical device, after all, and it may break down one day, causing you to lose your data because you don't have access to the disk array inside the storage system. Also, just as any other device and NAS systems have a certain operating life, it means that after a few years in active use, all storage devices tend to fail sooner or later. On average, you may expect them to remain in service for about 5 years. Here is the list of most common things that make NAS devices break down. It usually happens after a power failure, voltage surges, overheating, accidental formatting, reinstalling an operating system, damaging the file system, or as a result of mechanical issues affecting the hard disks or the RAID controller. Very often, data can be lost from NAS devices when users decide to update their firmware. In the end, you will need a specialized data recovery tool to rebuild the RAID and restore access to your files. Some manufacturers offer dedicated software tools to help you restore a parability of the hard disks. However, the problem is that the main function of such tools is often limited to merely formatting those disks. When you do that, you just lose all the information they used to contain and it's going to be very difficult to restore it. In this video, I'll show you how to work with a completely different data recovery tool, how to rebuild a RAID with the available hard disks but without the network-attached storage itself, what you will need for that and how to finally access the information on the hard disks that used to be a part of that NAS system. For starters, let's explore how to create a RAID system with this Cisco network storage device. Open any browser on a computer connected to the network that includes your NAS and type the IP address of the server. In this model, the address is displayed on the special screen. Login as in the administrator. Expand the storage tab and find the RAID option. If you need to rebuild the existing RAID, click Edit. You have the option to expand it by adding the Force Disk. Click Add to increase the storage size. After that, its status will change to Spare. To remove the RAID, click Delete next to the array and click OK to confirm the action. As a result, the RAID will be removed and all the information on its hard disks will be erased. To create a new disk array, select the hard disks that your future RAID should consist of. Choose the level from the drop-down list and then click Add. You will see a warning on the screen saying it will already erase all the data on the selected disks. Click OK to continue. After that, the system will start creating and re-syncing the disk array. It is a very long process, but luckily for us, it can run in the background, so we can proceed with further configuration. While the re-syncing process is running, you can create a new shared folder and configure network access. Find the Volumes option, select an array from the drop-down list, assign a name to it and specify its size. If necessary, you can enable encryption and protect access to the network drive with a password. When all the settings are ready, click Add. Now the new volume is ready, so let's move on to network connection. To configure network access, open the Shares tab and check the Shares option here. In the window that opens, click Create Share. Give the folder name, select Location, set access attributes and choose required network protocols – CIFS, NFS and FTP. Look below to assign privileges to certain users, then click OK. If you did everything right, the folder will appear on the list. If necessary, you can edit the settings or even remove their directory you have just created. When a network storage system breaks down, it's going to be very difficult to access the data which still remains on the hard disks inside the storage devices. As long as Linux is the natural environment for most NAS servers, and hard disks within a RAID-affirmated-in-file system supported by Linux, it is possible to try using Linux in order to get access to the files. However, if you know little about this operating system, we don't recommend trying this method. Single mistaken commands may erase all information on the hard disks for good. On the contrary, the best solution would be to use a specialized tool for recovering data from network-attached storage systems. It is both quicker and more convenient, and it can save you the trouble of having to type lots of various commands. Hetman RAID Recovery supports most popular file systems, RAID technologies and types, and in most cases it will be able to rebuild the damaged RAID automatically. Before you start, make sure you have enough data and power cables to connect all your hard disks. It's better to use a bunch of SATA cables to connect the disk directly to the motherboard of your computer. But if you have only a few free setup ports, you can use USB to SATA adapters when necessary. Also, you will need an additional storage device to copy the retrieved data to. It can be an external hard drive, another network-attached storage, or some other device with sufficient capacity. Take the disks out of the NAS device and connect them to a Windows computer. When the operating system has booted, open Disk Management and check if the added disks are recognized. As you open Disk Management, the operating system may suggest you to initialize or format them. Remember to never agree to either operation, because it can erase the remaining information completely. Instead, move on to download, install and start the data recovery tool. Batman Raid Recovery will identify the disks automatically, read their service information and rebuild the damaged RAID system. In the Programs interface, the RAID volume is shown at the top of the Drive Manager window. By default, this NAS model creates a disk array with the XFS file system. And you can't change it into another file system you prefer. To access the volume contents, you need to scan it first. Right-click on it and choose Open. In the next window, you should choose between the two options – Fast Scan and Full Analysis. Select Fast Scan, click Next and Wait. When this process is over, switch to Search Results by clicking Finish. The directory has not changed, so you won't have any difficulties in finding the proper folder with the files you are looking for. If you know the file name, you can use the Search function. Now the program has found all the files that have been written to the array. You can check their contents with the preview feature. The principle is simple. As long as you can see the contents, this file can be recovered. To bring the files back, select the items you want to recover and click Recovery. Choose the disk where to save them and specify their directory. Then click Recovery and Finish. After that, follow the path you have chosen and check if the recovered files are there. Hetman RAID Recovery offers extra features to improve effectiveness of working with RAID disks that have hardware issues. First let's recreate disk images and then analyze these images instead of the actual hard disks in order to reduce disk usage and prevent them from breaking down at the most inappropriate moment. However, when a disk is damaged or its service information is erased, Hetman RAID Recovery may have difficulty in automating the array rebuild process. If the program failed to rebuild the RAID with the available hard disks but you know its properties, you can perform this operation manually with the help of the RAID constructor. To do it, open the constructor and select the Manual mode option here. In the next window, fill in all the RAID properties you know. The RAID type, block order and size, add the disk it used to include, use the arrows to specify the order and replace the missing disks with empty drives by clicking the plus button. Also, you can specify the offset that helps to locate the beginning of the disk. Sometimes the program may have difficulty in identifying it automatically, so you will have to enter the offset value manually. When you specify all the properties you know, click Add and the array you have built manually will appear in the Drive Manager. After that, start the scan, look for the files you want to recover and hit Recovery. And that is all for now. Hopefully this video was useful. Remember to click the Like button and subscribe to our channel. You comments to ask questions. Thank you for watching. Good luck. While you are watching this video, civilians in Ukraine are dying from attacks in bombardments of the Russian Federation. Putin's insane regime has attacked a peaceful country in the very heart of Europe. Support the Ukrainian army by making a contribution to the font Come Back Alive. 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