How to Recover Data from a Broken or Crashed Synology RAID Set With BLRTools — In Detail

Summary: A Synology RAID that is degraded, broken, or crashed is a highly concerning situation that has the potential to result in irreversible data loss. However, by taking immediate action, you can restore or repair a corrupted RAID and regain access to your data. This guide will teach you how to safely fix and recover lost data from a broken or crashed Synology RAID NAS using BLR NAS data recovery.

A Synology RAID set or Network Attached Storage (NAS) may degrade, fail, crash, break, or corrupt anytime due to mechanical, physical, and logical disk errors caused by virus or malware infection, corrupt system files, sudden power loss, damaged device drivers, force shutdown, improper handling or storage, bad sectors, etc.

Synology RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 6 can resist one to two disk failures; however, logical errors and system crashes can cause corruption and many disk failures.

When a Synology RAID set breaks or crashes, you are generally left with only one option, i.e., Synology RAID data recovery.

When it comes to Synology RAID recovery, there are only a limited number of choices available:

1. Mdadm in Ubuntu
2. BLR NAS data recovery tool.

But before you proceed with the Synology RAID data recovery steps, here are some notable pros and cons of each option:

1. Mdadm for Ubuntu

Pros

• Free

Cons

• It is complicated for users without knowledge of Linux or who are not comfortable with the command line.
• Synology’s FAQ doesn’t cover all possible scenarios.
• Requires a RAID hardware controller.

2. Synology RAID Data Recovery Software

Pros

• Highly intuitive and user-friendly Synology RAID data recovery for Windows
• The free demo version allows you to reconstruct and scan broken or crashed Synology RAID for data recovery.
• It requires minimal effort and is ideal for newbies as well as professionals and power users.
• Does not require a hardware RAID controller.
• Repairs crashed RAID even without parameters.
• Includes video and photo repair modules and a disk monitor utility for secure data recovery from wrecked drives. Synology: RAID 0, 5, and 6 arrays
• Facilitates disk cloning and comes in handy when RAID drives are failing due to SMART or other logical errors.

Cons

• BLR NAS data recovery costs free and has limited features. There are no options to recover.

After learning about all three ways to recover data from a broken or damaged Synology RAID system, follow these steps to restore your files.

Recovery from Broken or Crashed Synology NAS with RAID 0, 5, or 6 Array

Since the Ubuntu way is complicated, we will detail the BLR Tools way to recover data from a broken or crashed Synology RAID. It’s much easier and safer as the software handles all the complicated tasks in the back-end. Get the software now!

Step 1: Disconnect RAID drives.

• Remove all drives from the broken or crashed Synology RAID set and connect them to a working Windows PC via SATA connectors.
• Alternatively, you may use SATA-to-USB converter cables or enclosures to connect Synology RAID drives to a Windows PC or laptop.

Step 2: Inspect RAID Drives’ Health and S.M.A.R.T. Status

• Download, install, and launch BLR NAS data recovery software, then click the Waffle icon at the top right and choose ‘Monitor Drive.’

Note: WebbyAcad Tool another SMART disk software is another option. But Drive Monitor displays more detailed information about the disk’s health, performance, and SMART status, besides an option to clone the disk.

• Check the health of the hard drive. If the utility displays a SMART warning or any health- or performance-related warning signs, immediately clone the disk.

It is crucial to perform disk cloning to avoid any potential drive failure and permanent data loss that may result from extensive data recovery scans and actions.

Step 3: Clone Disk [Optional]

NOTE: It’s optional but suggested to clone failing RAID drives for safe data recovery.

• Connect a new or healthy hard drive with a volume size equal to or larger than the affected RAID drive.
• Click ‘Clone Disk’ and choose the source (affected drive) and target disk (new or healthy drive) from the respective drop-downs.
• Click ‘Clone’ and click ‘Start’ to accept and begin the cloning process.
• Wait for the cloning process to finish. Repeat the steps for other degraded RAID drives.

To easily recover data from connected RAID devices, replace the deteriorated RAID drive with a newly cloned hard drive and continue.

Step 4: Reconstruct a Broken or Crashed Synology RAID Array

To reconstruct a Synology RAID 0, RAID 5, or RAID 6 set, close the ‘Drive Monitor’ utility (if running) and launch the BLR NAS data recovery tool.

• Select the file types to recover and click ‘Next.’

TIP: You can add a custom or uncommon file format to the supported file list for data recovery. The Settings ‘Add Header’ option lets you add infinite file types and recover almost any file type.

• Select Synology Disk and click Scan under Connected Drives.
• The scanning process will start.
• After scanning, the software will show you the results on the screen.
• Select the files. Preview the files you want to retrieve.
• Click Recover to proceed.
• After the scan, if the desired files are not found in the scan results, click the ‘Click Here’ link at the bottom to begin the ‘Deep’ scan.
• Now, select Browse to choose a storage location. (Choose a different drive volume or an external media drive.)
• Finally, select Start-Saving to save the recovered files.
• The files will be saved at the chosen location.
• Finally, click the ‘Start Saving’ button. The selected recovered files and folders will be saved at your desired location.

In Conclusion

Synology Any kind of disk error, whether it’s logical, mechanical, or physical, can make RAID arrays in NAS systems fail or stop. Most of the time, these things happen because of logical errors, such as file system errors, virus or malware attacks, sudden shutdowns, or problems with device drivers.

To resync the RAID array for data recovery, you can utilize mdadm commands. However, mdadm is compatible with Ubuntu. If you’re not well-versed in the Ubuntu or Linux command line, you can make use of the BLR data recovery tool for Windows, a robust software for NAS data recovery.

The second approach is significantly more straightforward and doesn’t necessitate any specific expertise. If you have experience with Windows, the BLR NAS data recovery tool can be used to retrieve data from a malfunctioning, crashed, deteriorated, or damaged Synology RAID 0, RAID 5, and RAID 6 configuration.