QNAP Data Recovery

Gillware Data Recovery sees numerous QNAP NAS drives in our data lab, ranging from the 1-8 disk consumer-grade solutions (the type you might find in a home user’s office setup) all the way up to rack-mounted, all-flash enterprise QNAP NAS devices.

Gillware’s QNAP Data Recovery Services have been managing QNAP data recovery cases for well over 10 years. Our Data Recovery Experts have thousands of hours spent in the lab working on our QNAP recovery process.

While QNAP devices are typically very reliable, like all storage devices, you will need to replace the hard drives as they wear out over time. However, the actual QNAP system enclosures are normally very stable.

That being said, as with any storage device, problems do occur and there are multiple reasons why Gillware Data Recovery Services are sent a QNAP device for a data recovery solution. Most QNAP devices are protected by a RAID volume, so when data loss does occur, it is normally quite a serious problem.

As with all NAS and SAN Systems, our engineers regularly handle cases to recover files, recover corrupt existing data, fix accidental file deletion of personal files, perform partition recovery, or help with recovering data / lost files from a failure of multiple disks.

Gillware Data Recovery sees numerous QNAP NAS drives in our data lab, ranging from the 1-8 disk consumer-grade solutions (the type you might find in a home user’s office setup) all the way up to rack-mounted, all-flash enterprise QNAP NAS devices.

Gillware’s QNAP Data Recovery Services have been managing QNAP data recovery cases for well over 10 years. Our Data Recovery Experts have thousands of hours spent in the lab working on our QNAP recovery process.

While QNAP devices are typically very reliable, like all storage devices, you will need to replace the hard drives as they wear out over time. However, the actual QNAP system enclosures are normally very stable.

That being said, as with any storage device, problems do occur and there are multiple reasons why Gillware Data Recovery Services are sent a QNAP device for a data recovery solution. Most QNAP devices are protected by a RAID volume, so when data loss does occur, it is normally quite a serious problem.

As with all NAS and SAN Systems, our engineers regularly handle cases to recover files, recover corrupt existing data, fix accidental file deletion of personal files, perform partition recovery, or help with recovering data / lost files from a failure of multiple disks.

QNAP LED Display System Status & Devices

The following LED behavior can indicate a problem with your QNAP device that will require data recovery:

System Status LED

• Solid red – while this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have an error with a drive, the LED can be solid red in the following circumstances:
• An error occurs when accessing (read/write) the disk data
• A bad sector is detected on the hard disk drive
• The NAS is in degraded read-only mode (2 member hard drives fail in a RAID 5 or RAID 6 configuration, the disk data can still be read)
• Flashes red every 0.5 sec – the NAS is in degraded mode (one member hard drive fails in RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 6 configuration)

HDD LED

• Solid red – a hard drive read/write error occurs

eSATA LED

• Flashes orange – no eSATA device can be detected

QNAP Model Numbers – Enterprise

• ES2486dc
• ES1686dc
• TS-h2490FU
• TS-h3088XU-RP
• TS-h1886XU-RP
• TS-1886XU-RP
• TS-h886
• TS-h686
• TVS-h1688X
• TVS-h1288X
• TS-h2483XU-RP
• TS-h1683XU-RP
• TS-h1283XU-RP
• TS-2483XU-RP
• TS-1683XU-RP
• TS-1283XU-RP
• TS-983XU-RP
• TS-983XU
• TS-883XU-RP
• TS-883XU

QNAP Model Numbers – SMB

• TVS-872XT
• TVS-672XT
• TVS-472XT
• TS-453BT3
• TS-h2477XU-RP
• TS-h1677XU-RP
• TS-h1277XU-RP
• TS-h977XU-RP
• TS-977XU-RP
• TS-877XU-RP
• TVS-672X
• TS-1673AU-RP
• TS-1273AU-RP
• TS-873AU-RP
• TS-873AU
• TS-h973AX
• TVS-873e
• TVS-673e
• TVS-473e
• TS-873A
• TS-673A
• TS-473A
• TS-453D
• TS-253D
• TS-1253DU-RP
• TS-853DU-RP
• TS-453DU-RP
• TS-453DU
• TBS-453DX
• TS-1232PXU-RP
• TS-832PXU-RP
• TS-832PXU
• TS-432PXU-RP
• TS-432PXU
• TS-431X3
• TS-451DeU
• TS-932PX
• TS-832PX
• TS-431KX
• TS-431XeU

QNAP Model Numbers – Home

• TS-451D2
• TS-251D
• HS-453DX
• TS-431P3
• TS-231P3
• TS-431K
• TS-231K
• TS-131K
• TS-230

How Can I Recover Data from My NAS?

In all circumstances, the only certain way to avoid permanent data loss is to speak to a reputable data recovery company like Gillware. We’ve seen multiple QNAP systems in for data recovery at our Madison, Wisconsin data recovery lab, and most suffer from some form of a RAID array failure or some kind of data loss.

Recovering data from RAID systems is challenging, and the same goes for QNAP NAS drives. To briefly recap, RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is a way to string individual hard drives together so that they behave like a much bigger single hard drive. There are numerous RAID Types, the most common RAID configurations we see are RAID-5 and RAID-6.

Two of the most challenging RAID Recovery cases successfully resolved by Gillware were from data stored on RAID-5 and RAID-6 QNAP models.

Other common problems we see with QNAP NAS data devices are logical faults affecting the integrity of the QNAP Data file system; common symptoms include lost data or missing files when connected to a Windows Computer.

Physical problems can also cause data loss; these problems range from damaged SATA ports on the enclosure to physical damage to the hard disk, perhaps caused by dropping the QNAP NAS or from some kind of catastrophic failures like fire or flood.

You might be tempted to attempt to recover data at home by downloading some Google-recommended QNAP data recovery software. Gillware discourages searching for QNAP data recovery software online, most data recovery software will not work, and those that do work may not get back the complete list of your files.

So proceed with extreme caution if you are looking at data recovery software; you need to decide if you can accept having lost files, deleted files, or potentially being unable to recover data at all.

Can Wiped Data Be Recovered?

Absolutely yes; there are several options available to you. Most QNAP NAS devices come with a tool called the QNAP Network Recycle Bin. It can be located on the NAS Control Panel > Network & File Services > Network Recycle Bin.

Be mindful when using the recycle bin feature that it is often disabled by sysadmins when they set up a new system. The recycle bin consumes lots of free space, and it’s not uncommon to be disabled by default.

A QNAP NAS Drive can be configured to replicate to another QNAP or backup solution. You can check the remote replication utilities on the QNAP Control panel to see if your setup has this configured.

Snapshots are also a great way to recover important data and important files, so checking whether this feature is enabled can help you recover data and deleted files.

Data Recovery from QNAP External Storage Devices

If you are still having issues attempting to recover data files, don’t panic; Gillware has a great record of getting deleted files back from your data storage. Our experts will offer the best solution to get back all the data you need.

You can open up a Data Recovery Case directly from the Gillware Website, or you can talk directly to our team of experts on 877-624-7206. Do it today, we offer a completely risk-free service, free shipping, and a free estimate.

After speaking to the team, we will provide a shipping label to send us your QNAP data drive. We may need the entire enclosure or just the disks. Our experts will talk you through this during our initial conversations to see what is relevant to your specific needs.

Upon arrival, the QNAP Drive is cataloged and sent to our Data Recovery Experts who will work out the cause of the fault, provide an estimate of how much data is recoverable, and estimate how long it will take us to do it. Our customer then has the final say if they want to proceed with the QNAP Data Recovery.

QNAP Logical Faults

The QNAP Data Device then starts its journey around the lab, each stage of the recovery process can be followed via the Gillware Client Login. If a logical fix is needed, it’s typically caused by corruption of the file system or some kind of file-level error.

This is where we use Hombre, our proprietary, operating system agnostic professional support QNAP data recovery software. Hombre is exclusive to Gillware, created and updated by the Gillware data science team. Hombre is a game-changer, and you will not find it at other companies!

Hombre data recovery software attempts to image the disk and will automatically work out what logical errors have occurred and fix them accordingly. Fixes can take 1 hour or 1 day depending on the logical fault and how much data Hombre needs to recreate. You can see Hombre QNAP Data recovery software in action over on our YouTube channel.

QNAP RAID Recovery

As mentioned earlier, RAID recovery from QNAP devices is not uncommon. These fixes are always incredibly difficult, even for professionals. RAID recovery on NAS Drives requires rebuilding the RAID Array, an encrypted, logical data array that instructs the RAID Controller on how to access each data block. This requires a logical fix, a RAID array fix, and often a physical fix too.

QNAP Physical Fault

If your QNAP drive has a physical defect, our data recovery experts will need to open up the external drive to investigate. Physical fault symptoms might be clicking, buzzing, or some form of audible alarm coming from the hard disk.

The investigation must be conducted in a clean room environment, a sterile workbench that is free from the particles that can damage sensitive hard drive components. Some of the common physical faults we see are failed drive motors, damaged PCB, scratched or damaged disk platters, and even an entire head stack crash.

Gillware has all the tools required to fix physical problems; we have even built some of our own tools including a burnishing tool that repairs deep scratches on disk platters. Any part that needs to be swapped out can be done so using our extensive spare parts library.

Most physical recoveries will need a logical fix, too, for a successful QNAP data recovery. The physical fix resolves the hardware issue, and the logical fix then rebuilds the data once the hardware is in a good state.

What Happens to My Recovered Data?

Once Gillware has your recovered files from the QNAP Drive, we can upload the data to your customer account on the Gillware Client portal. The client portal is perfect for modestly sized data sets, and any data stored is deleted after an agreed time frame, so your data does not stay on our remote servers forever.

We can also transfer the data onto an external hard disk and courier the data directly to you for a small charge.

How Much Does Data Recovery Cost?

Gillware has built its business on providing excellent service at an affordable cost to the customer. You’ll get great service from a team of highly skilled experts; we do everything we can to keep our costs down to pass savings onto the customer.

Our teams have put together the following content on our social networks to help explain the costs to our customers.

Click here for General Cost Information