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PANIC - PANIC - All my pooled files have vanished!

edited February 2012 in DrivePool
With the exception of a pooled folder of pictures (JPG), every other pooled folder has lost all its file content!  

The folder structure still remains, but all files within the structure have vanished!  These are essential files (mainly PDF and archival MP4s), but only accessed every few weeks.
I have been upgrading DrivePool as the new versions come out - currently on 1.0.5677.

I would appreciate any suggestions as to how to recover these files - looking at shadow volume copies over the last few days, there are no backups there either.  Doing a server search for PDF files only brings back those in non-pooled drives.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received...

Comments

  • Resident Guru
    As you mention shadow volume copies, I take it the files are also missing from the physical disks?

    Do the physical disks, that appear empty, still report free space as if the files were still there?

    Can you boot from a "Live" CD and check the physical disks?

    Please also contact Alex via http://stablebit.com/contact and report the problem.
  • turn on show hidden files, this may help you out :)
  • Using a recovery program (recuva), I can recover those files which have not had clusters overwritten from the discs.  Apart from those few files, all my files have gone!
    I am now uninstalling DrivePool as being totally not fit for purpose.
  • edited February 2012 Member
    I have to agree with Shane I would have contacted Alex before doing anything as far as I am aware drive pool in incapable of deletaing files let alone entire drives having used drivepool since m1 I have say I have never lost any data

    I have had a few of the upgrade issues like dropping shares loss of permissions but apart from those all has been fine.

    I have to say drivepool is very fit for purpose and agreat program I for one have had my fair share of raid problems and rebuilding arrays is no easy task. I welcome drivepool's native ability to store data under ntfs for easy accesses should the unthinkable happen.

    But also as a rule of thumb anything you don't want to lose should be backed up drivepool does offer a duplication service should a drive fail but nothing is safer than a few backups. I for one store my most precious data on cd, backup drives , and online
  • Resident Guru
    Yogimax, *please* contact Alex and submit your DrivePool logs. The only reason the program is available is because we're testing it - it's important that we find out whether/how DrivePool deleted your files, because that's the exact opposite of what it's meant to do.
  • I tried to contact Alex, but the website crashed when I hit send!

    I think I have identified what has been happening...

    I have a couple of programs which download TV episodes, convert them to MP4 (for Android compatability) then move them to the relevant folders on my server for Plex to pick them up and stream them.  When I looked at the deleted files using recuva, they were all marked as having been overwritten by these new files. 

    It would appear to me that somehow DrivePool is not showing the duplicated files to the normal WHS file system, which is then allowed to overwrite clusters as if they are empty space.  DrivePool then appears to see this as "deletion" of the files and then duplicates this to the mirrored files.

  • Couple of thoughts:
    Firstly, I don't think your deduction of what's happening is quite right. DrivePool provides an additional virtual filesystem layer over the top of the NTFS volumes on the physical drives. Alex has explained that the DrivePool code never bypasses the underlying NTFS APIs to access the physical drives directly (and it would take a very conscious decision to do so). This is driven by one of the fundamental principles behind the software, that all pool files are stored as real files on the underlying NTFS volumes so that they are recoverable without the DrivePool software. To me the most likely options are:
    1. There is a defect in DrivePool which is causing it to delete/corrupted/move files incorrectly.
    2. Some process on your system external to DrivePool has deleted/corrupted/moved the files, either via the pool drive, via the underlying filesystems (the PoolPart folders) or at the physical drive level.

    Secondly, I wouldn't consider Shadow Volume Copies to be backups, as they could be corrupted or lost along with the original files in some situations. As has been covered on other posts and in various warnings on the site, DrivePool is in BETA, so you need to ensure you have proper backups (i.e. logically independent of the source files, on an external drive or system) if you are using your server for anything important.

    Anyway, good luck with recovering your data, and please do persist in submitting your logs, as if it is a problem with DrivePool then it's clearly critical that this gets resolved.

  • I do have backups of all my data which is in DrivePool, but it is offsite :-) so not immediately available.  However, this morning I found that the last remaining folder with files in it had also diminished in size and DrivePool was showing duplication errors.  I had to go to work, so haven't had a chance to investigate yet...
  • Covecube
    @Yogimax If you need help from me go to http://stablebit.com/contact and we'll get it sorted out.

    Most likely the folder structure has changed for some reason and you are only seeing a partial listing of files (my guess).

    I'll be glad to help you fix this.
  • After a 3 hour remote desktop session with Alex this evening, we still don't know what has happened.  

    The only certain thing is that all but 4 files on my pooled folders have been progressively deleted, whilst ordinary folders appear (thus far) to be untouched!
    I know I am an isolated case, but as has been stated before - this is a Beta product so glitches are probably to be expected!
    I intend to uninstall DrivePool next week (unless Alex has a brainwave) but as ever, this is just my experience.


    Your mileage may vary 
    B-)
  • edited February 2012 Member
    We once got a virus at work that deleted all files it could access on all network shares it could find. Very funny, not! Have you done a thorough virus scan? Just asking :)

    My kid's friend was over at our house ealier and when he stated "I don't use antivirus, I collect viruses" his PC has been block on our router and banned from the house as well. 
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