Recover RAID 1 disk

Hi

I had 2 x 500gb in an external NAS box setup as RAID1 ((NAS = MRT 35HD-QUAD-NAS). However the actual NAS box failed wiping all the raid settings. I have now recovered the NAS box itself but when I put the 2 hard drives back in it doesn't recognise the old raid only asks if I want to create a new raid.

Obviously this is an issue as the whole point of the RAID 1 was so I had a backup of the data.

I have access to ubuntu linux, windows xp and an external usb hard drive dongle so I can attach a drive to the computer to access it.

Basically I desperately need to know how can I access the original data on one of the disks to make a backup of the most important stuff from it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here's some things you've probably already tried, others maybe not, but here goes... do in groups as listed (in order of worsening scenarios)

Try connecting the drive(s) as standalone drive(s) in computer, if OK, copy out files you need.
With files now copied out, Re-install in NAS box and create new raid. See if new raid just happens to show everything just as it was before problem (sometimes that will happen).

If drive is recognized by Windows, but data is not available (Windows claims drive not formatted etc.),
get data recovery program that will read through a re-format or blown partition and copy out what you need.

Go to Disk Management, (right-click "My Computer", click "Manage" click "Disk Management" ) look for drive in right pane. Check to see if healthy, active, or what the error is. Right-click drive for more options including choice to make active. Maybe something here can be set, no promises.

If drive not recognized by Windows, run partitioning program to establish a partition (but don't format)(Windows should now see drive). Get data recovery program that will read through a re-format or blown partition and copy out what you need.

If you *really* must have data back and have the money, get "Data Compass" from Salvation Data. This hardware/software recovery solution will get your data back if it actually still exist on the drive.

Send drive to professional recovery service, pay tons of money, but you'll get your data back.

If it is raid 1, it should be a simple mirror of one another, which means, you can try to recover one drive and still have valid information on the other.

To that end, if you formatted it as ext3 fs, try mounting read only (as someone pointed out) and getting the files off of it. Let me know what the results are, I have the same nas box and went with raid 1 specifically so i can recover it this way if the box fails (who knows what kind of checksums it is doing in raid 5 mode).

http://www.icare-recovery.com/

To restore files from RAID disks, this worth a trial.