DAS RAID died, how to recover

watboy

Reputable
May 25, 2014
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4,510
I run a Smartstor DS4600 DAS in a RAID 5 configuration and 4x2TB drives. The other day I came home and It was dead. The lights weren't on, the fan wasn't spinning. I plugged and unplugged and all the other ways to get it to come back to life. But it appears dead, though I do not know if the drives are ok yet.

Suggestions on how to recover? If I bought a new DS4600, can I just move the drives over and try that? Drive is full of my amateur photography and videos, would really like to get them back.
 
Solution
Moving to another chassis of the same model or to a controller that is the same model you are currently using should allow you to access the stored files. BTW, is the current device still under warranty?

watboy

Reputable
May 25, 2014
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4,510


Unfortunately, its about a year out of warranty now. So in theory, I could just replace the chassis, swap the drives (make sure they are in same order), and should be good assuming the drives are still ok? I vaguely remember some software settings years ago when I set this up. Though lesson learned, I went this route since I had a drive failure that was annoying. I knew this setup would only provide protection for drive failures, I just thought the enclosure failure wouldn't happen to me.
 

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
[strike]Understood. Does this unit have an external power supply? If so, is it getting warm when connected? If so, that indicates it is working. If not (cool to the touch), it may just be a power issue.[/strike]

Disregard, I see it has internal power. The good thing is that a replacement is fairly cheap. Here is one at Newegg for $319 and B&H for $288 (make sure to check on price after any taxes and shipping):

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=802824&gclid=CMnui_Hmx74CFahaMgodojsAZA&Q=&is=REG&A=details

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1N81BG1235&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-_-pla-_-E-Book+Accessories-_-9SIA1N81BG1235&ef_id=U4JC9gAABeEgwJb0:20140525192644:s
 

watboy

Reputable
May 25, 2014
4
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4,510
I got all excited thinking it may just be a dead external power supply. But alas, as you've noted its an internal power supply. I've ordered a new enclosure, hoping it works.

thanks


 

watboy

Reputable
May 25, 2014
4
0
4,510


It worked! I'm in Thailand, and customs didn't like the sounds of a "RAID", so it took days to clear. But moved the drives over and its working fine.

Though now its time for me to think about a proper backup. Thinking about my needs, I need a way to archive the data on a monthly basis. No need to have daily backups I can roll back to. Haven't found any cost effective tape drives. Store to external hard disks? Another RAID? It is time for me to upgrade the computer. Its a 2009 iMac with i5 that is doing far more than originally intended. Thinking of a MacPro with thunderbolt RAID as primary storage, but still not sure on best way to archive 8TB or so of data.