A failed disk, then a power cut midway through the rebuild, left the volume unable to mount. We reconstructed it from disk images.
An architecture practice’s Synology NAS lost a disk, and the power then failed mid-rebuild — at which point the volume collapsed and refused to mount. Everything the studio worked from sat on it: live drawings, models, archives. A Synology volume is a layered stack — SHR on top of Linux RAID with btrfs above — and a rebuild cut short by a power failure is a notorious way to bring the lot down: the part-finished rebuild leaves the array misaligned, and the sudden power loss seals it.
With any failed NAS the first rule is to leave the original disks alone — trying to mend a degraded array in place is the quickest way to lose everything. So we removed each disk and assessed it on its own. One had truly failed and was struggling; the rest were sound but held the array that the halted rebuild had left inconsistent.
Each disk was cloned on its own, the failed one on a DeepSpar to squeeze out all it would give, the PC3000 handling firmware faults. Only once a complete set of copies was in hand did we rebuild — entirely in software, never on the unit itself — assembling the Synology stack back up a layer at a time: the SHR configuration first, then the Linux RAID and LVM below it in the correct order, and finally the btrfs file system on top, from which the data came out. The originals were left untouched throughout.
From the reconstructed volume we checked that the studio’s drawings, models and archives all opened properly, then handed the whole set back on fresh media.
The firm had its full project store returned, delivered on fresh media within seven working days. The hard-won lesson here is that a NAS is not a backup on its own: a RAID protects you against a single dead disk, but a botched rebuild, a power cut or a controller fault can take out the entire array — which is why anything that matters needs a separate copy too.
DeepSpar DDI · PC3000 — every member imaged, then the SHR/Linux RAID/LVM/btrfs stack rebuilt from the clones, away from the hardware. The disks are read only, never written to.
Get the device to us for a free diagnostic and a quick note on what went wrong — an engineer looks it over and puts your exact quote in writing before anything is started.
The route to your data starts with the device reaching us. Box it up securely, tuck your contact details inside, and send it across — after the free diagnostic, we put your exact price in writing before a single step is taken.
Sending it by post? Go with a tracked, insured service. Prefer to bring it round? Our door is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just pack the device as described above beforehand.
Prefer to get a sense of things first? Complete the form with a bit more about the fault and an engineer will look it over and send back a tailored quote.
We’ll get back to you soon. Anything pressing, call 01483 901310.
Yes. A power cut mid-rebuild is a textbook trigger for an SHR volume crash, but the data is usually recoverable: we image each disk read-only and rebuild the SHR, Linux RAID and btrfs layers off the unit, so the originals are never exposed to more risk.
£500 plus VAT upward, no fix, no fee on most work, with a fixed written quote up front.
No — re-running a rebuild on a crashed, degraded volume is exactly when most data is lost. Shut the unit down, take out the disks marked in order, and send them over.
Kick off with an instant online quote, or ring us and talk it through first. Either way you’ll know a clear, fixed price before any work starts.