Help I need to unerase files on Lacie NAS drive!

[epic1400cs]

Hi, this is my first message here and hope someone could help me sorting this out. As I am not dedicated network admin, I may not be well articulate as you guys and would appreciate your patience.

My main question is is there any Utility program, such as Norton or Disk Warrior, for XFS formatted NAS drive?
I can run those on Mac OSX or XP - I prefer OSX but if needed XP is ok.

What happened is as below if it helps.
I am looking after about 20 Macs and all the user files are saved on this Lacie NAS drive.
We don't run any server program but sharing the machine and save files in their own folders on NAS.
Before we were using Terastation but after having power failure that disturbed it badly, I have immigrated all the files to Lacie as temporary solution.

As there has been no back up for Lacie, I was trying to add identical Lacie via USB2.0 as back up drive and setting it up via web browser Safari.
I tried to create share on the newly added Lacie but by mistake the share was created on the first one.
When I tried to delete the unwanted share, by (big) mistake I select the share where all the files are - nightmare.

I hope if someone could give me suggestion or, if you know any other reference I should look for, much much appreciated.
By the way, I don't have any knowledge about UNIX or Linux....

[richard_s]

Have you tried PhotoRec and TestDisk. These are the 2 main programs I use for file recovery. They are cross platform, there is a Mac version available and they are free.

[epic1400cs]

Great, thanks!
I will try it out today!

[epic1400cs]

I have been reading the documentation for the TestDisk and PhotoRec.
Both seems to be very useful tool.
I have a question - in my scenario, should I try the TestDisk to recover the deleted share first?
It is to do with efficiency - hopefully I want the whole share to be back as it was(such as folder and file location) when the trouble happened as I seems to have thousands files.
Of course, if it is not possible only the option is to recover individual files and try sorting out one by one.

I came across this one called UFS Explorer Professional Recovery.
How To Get Terastation Xfs Endian | UFS Explorer Professional Recovery reviews and free downloads
It needs XP to run but have GUI (as I am not very familier with terminal )
Have you heard any good thing about it?

[richard_s]

You could try TestDisk first but I think in your situation you may be better off recovering the files with PhotoRec.

[epic1400cs]

Thanks for your advice!

I have a question if you don't mind.
I thought when we delete files what the operating system does is to change the status of the individual files as invisible - am I correct? (providing no any data has been written on the disk)
I just wonder if it is possible to make those all deleted files into visible - sorry if I am talking complete nonsense!

[Midget]

XFS is a right a**e to recover from. You are lucky that the NAS is working.

WinHex is your friend for recovering from these

[Midget]

DP: they are flagged as "can be overwritten" so if you have used the drive since you will have corruption.

and I've used UFSExplorer before, wasn't a huge fan but it has its uses.

Also make sure you don't do anything stupid like recovering the files directly back to the NAS. you have to recover them to a different drive

[epic1400cs]

Thanks Midget for your input!

I have tried TestDisk and PhotoRec as well as UFS today at work but none of them could see the NAS drive - do I have to take apart the Lacie NAS box and install the SATA HDD to either Mac or PC directly? Sorry if this is basic of basic

When I tried these utilities with other drives (firewire and USB ext drive) as a test on Sunday at home, they worked brilliantly, though!

Yes, I will recover the data to different drive so that I will not be fired! (may be I am already!)

[enjay]

If you don't manage it with those utilitise, I've found BadCopy to be a life-saver on several occasions. Plus, they offer a money-back if you buy the software and it can't recover your files (at least, they did when I bought it).

You might be able to do it without taking the drives out of the NAS too, since (I think) it can work on mapped drives - never tried though.

[epic1400cs]

Nick, thank you very much for head up!

I will try the trial version if it can read the NAS tomorrow.

[epic1400cs]

Another novice question.
Does anybody knows terminal command to change directory to access NAS drive?
I am on OSX terminal if that makes any difference.

If thats possible then I don't have to take apart the Lacie NAS box, I thought.

I would appreciate your patience....

[Midget]

dont bother taking it apart, it wont work. it has to be recovered from the NAS

[epic1400cs]

Thanks Midget.
In that case, shall I type in

cd ~/192.168.XXX.XXX(NAS IP address) or something to access NAS drive?

I would deeply appreciate your advice.

[epic1400cs]

No joy.
BadCopy has nice interface and I like it but it can't see the NAS drive (or network)
WinHex seems to be great but even I don't have idea where to start - a bit too complex.

Seems like the trouble (at least to me) is that these utility program were designed to work with local drives?

Should I try taking apart and install directly onto Mac or PC?
If not why not?