2big NAS · 5big NAS Pro · CloudBox · Network Space · d2 Network
LaCie NAS data recovery. Designed in Paris, built on mdadm.
LaCie's network units, the 2big NAS, the 5big NAS Pro, the CloudBox and the Network Space family, ran LaCie's own Linux and later Seagate's NAS OS once Seagate took control of LaCie in 2012, and every one of them keeps its data on ext4 or ext3 over Linux RAID. They are discontinued now, arriving with dead power supplies, a member lost from a mirror or a RAID 5, or after a reset that reinitialised the volume. A single-drive Network Space or CloudBox is £300 + VAT; a 2big NAS is £500 + VAT upwards; a 5big starts at £1,250 + VAT, in writing after the free look. Do not run LaCie's reset, and do not let a new unit initialise the drives.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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Models we see, family by family.
Which kind of unit is it →| Family | Models | Bays, OS, file system and layout |
|---|---|---|
| Single | Network Space, Network Space 2, CloudBox, d2 Network 2 | 1 drive · ext3 or ext4 |
| Two-bay | 2big NAS, Network Space MAX | RAID 0 or 1 · ext4 |
| Five-bay | 5big Network 2, 5big NAS Pro | RAID 5 or 10 · ext4 · NAS OS |
What tends to go wrong on a LaCie NAS.
LaCie NAS symptoms, and how long each gives you.
Not listed? Describe it on the form →What the message means on a LaCie NAS.
Describe yours to us →| What you see | The usual reason | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| Unit dead; drives spin | PSU or board | Drives imaged; set assembled from the metadata |
| Volume missing after a reboot | A member dropped, or the file system damaged | Imaged; assembled; repaired on the image |
| No manufacturer software any more | The brand has gone | Not needed; the layers are standard Linux |
| Drives read as unformatted in a PC | ext3, ext4 or XFS on mdadm | Mounted from the images |
From the box arriving to your files going back.
Work we have closed →Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free
A case number goes on the parcel and a number on every drive the day it is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually happened before anything spins. The unit is examined on its own; each drive is assessed on our own equipment, never in a NAS that will try to rebuild. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.
The unit, and the drives, apart
The box and the disks are two different jobs. The unit is tested separately, because a dead power supply, a failed board or a bricked boot flash leaves the drives untouched more often than not. Each drive is then read on the bench: the ones that answer at full speed, and the weak or failed ones in clean air where they need head work. On units that hold an encryption key or a layout of their own, the unit is part of the data and is kept with it.
Every member imaged, once
Nothing is worked on live and nothing is rebuilt on the originals. Every drive in the set is imaged sector by sector, the weak ones head by head with the bad areas last, and the SSD cache with them where there is one. From then on the originals are not touched again.
The set put back together, from the images
Order, chunk size, parity rotation and the reshape point are read from the drives' own metadata and the array is reassembled in software: mdadm and LVM under SHR, X-RAID and QTS pools; a ZFS pool imported read-only; Drobo's BeyondRAID zones reconstructed. The file system, Btrfs, ext4, XFS or ZFS, is repaired on the virtual volume, and encrypted volumes are unlocked there with the key you supply. Never on the originals.
You see the file list before you pay
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
From the bench
- The brand has gone; the layout has not. These units are mdadm and an ext or XFS file system, read from images without the maker.
- Years off is not years safe for the drives inside, which stick and seize like any others. Let the bench bring them up once.
- Do not buy a used unit of the same model to try the drives in. It offers to initialise them, and some do without asking.
What helps, and what harms.
Do this much first
- Power down and label the bays
- Send every drive and the unit
- Tell us the model and what it last did
- Say what you hope is on it
What sets us back
- Trying the drives in another unit
- Initialising drives a PC shows as unformatted
- Powering it repeatedly to see
- Opening the drives
Questions answered before you commit.
Who made the drives inside my LaCie NAS?
Seagate, in nearly every unit since 2012. They are recovered as drives, and the set as mdadm.
The 5big controller is dead. Are the drives readable?
Yes. The RAID 5 is mdadm on the drives, assembled from images without the unit.
What does it cost?
£300 + VAT for a single-drive unit; a 2big is £500 + VAT upwards; a 5big from £1,250 + VAT.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
Nothing gets worse while it is powered down.
Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the unit off and the drives in their bays.