A client approached us to recover his HDDs. 2 HDDs were sent over and he told that it is from a QNAP NAS. According to what client stated, he suspected that the NAS was faulty, causing both HDDs to become inaccessible. There were no signs of spinning or vibration. The client urgently needed a folder for an upcoming project from these HDD. He could not remember what RAID stucture used in his NAS.

Diagnosis and Recovery Approach

Our data recovery specialist checks through both HDDs. The HDD failure made it inaccessible. Specialists identified short circuits in drive controllers. At this stage, they were unable to access the data sectors. Therefore, they could not confirm if there is any encryption in the HDDs. (Some NAS and HDDs are come with SED, details are provided below for reference)

The outcome of the Recovery

Our data recovery specialist successfully accessed the data sectors and confirmed it is a RAID 1 stucture. Data recovery was performed on both drives to verify data consistency.

The folder structure is back. The client has an online verification session with us to check all recovered data.

The recovered data was transferred to a new drive and prepared for user collection.

Self-Encrypting Drives (SED)

This case avoided disaster because it is not an SED. The outcome might be different if NAS encrypted it. The chances of recovery will drop further if the NAS applies SED. Without the key for the SED, there is no way to recover the data. Even in cases with a known key, the recovery rate is not 100%.

That is because if the sectors are not fully recovered, there will be missing data pieces that cause the decryption to fail.

Where is the SED's Key?

Often, the encryption keys are bound to storage or drive PCBs. When the PCB is damaged, it can affect the key, which may either be corrupted or missing.

These storage drives management consoles often auto-enable encryption without user awareness. That is why many companies do not back up their key.

Suggestions when NAS Systems Fail

Shut it down, disconnect from electricity, and contact a professional data recovery centre to diagnose your NAS before taking any action if you are unsure. Why? Because any consumer recovery tools might cause irreversible damage to the RAID metadata.

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