Linux over write

[onesickpuppy]

I had a 4 drive NAS die on me....I bought a Buffalo replacement.

I had my first setup running under JBOD (just a bunch of disks).

When I opened the new unit, the instructions stated it by default was set to JBOD

 

I followed the instructions (all pics, no words)....installed drives in slots, plugged in unit, turned on.

At this point the instructions showed pushing a second button below the power button....I did...lights began flashing as shown in 

instruction sheet......after 5 minutes I got scared.....re read the instructions...no notices or warnings....

 

YEP....it reformatted all four drives in a linux language ready to setup up a array 

 

I haven't done anything to the drives since.

 

I have installed Piriform Recuva in attempts to find my files (actually several thousand pictures).....states it can't recognize the language on the drive.

 

I does want me to reformat....but my gut says that most likely will remove any chances of recovering my files......

 

HELP....!!!!

[DennisD]

Hi onesickpuppy, and welcome to Piriform.

 

I can understand and sympathise with the username. This type of thing sucks. You're not the first and you won't be the last to make a simple but pretty consequential slip up. Try not to beat yourself up.

 

I have never formatted an NTFS drive (and I assume that's what we're talking about here) to Linux so have no idea how that process works, but if the time involved wasn't much more than the 5 minutes you mention then I doubt that a full format of the drive was carried out.

 

One of the other guys who've possibly carried out this type of file format change to a drive may have a definitive answer to the point I'm raising, and that is it may be possible that only the initial boot sectors of the drive have been changed to reflect the new file system, and the data may still be there.

 

Have a read here, and you'll understand why I'm thinking that way ...

 

Solved: Mistakenly changed my main NTFS Partition to EXT4. Data gone?

 

And this is the free software used ...

 

PhotoRec:

 

Photrec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory.

 

PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

 

 

 

Photrec may look like command line and simple, but it is menu driven, very powerful and has extensive help files and guides so is well worth the effort of getting to know.

 

Try this first, but you may also be able to get at your data (if it's still there as mentioned above), by using a "LiveCD".

 

The LiveCD List:

 

An example of how to use a LiveCD here, and a good one at that ...

 

How to use an Ubuntu LiveCD: (How-to Geek)

 

Hope that helps, and you may get some input from one of the other guys if they have experience with this. And of course post back if you need enlightenment on any of the above.

 

We may not have it but we'll try our best.

[login123]

That's a good tutorial, Dennis. 

 

@ onesickpuppy: 

I would be very interested to see how you work it out. 

I have been interested in this approach (using Linux to "fix" windows) for a long time.

I used a live CD successfully a couple of times years ago, but don't remember how.