what to do after Initialize? how to mount old hdd

[Nazar78]

If you were to select single drive then I think the mount should show up in ADM file explorer automatically without mounting. You can try test though with the 2nd hdd: mount /dev/sdb4 /share/sdb4. Create this blank /share/sdb4 first in the ADM Portal->Access Control->Shared Folders so you can easily see it if the mount is successful.

Another method without Linux machine is to create a bootable Live USB and boot your NAS from it but I still don't know what is your NAS model if it supports it.

[angel2]

thanks, do you think I will be able to recover or keep using my files by these methods?
it was 5disks, hdd1 with old adm, hdd2,hdd3,hdd4 was empty, hdd5, all around 10tb size and 90% full.
so there was something with adm, I decided to take out all hdd, put hdd4 empty one into hdd1 slot, and when I powered on, it asked do I want to initialize, and hdmi out was showing no connection, so I clicked yes and as I saw it was fresh install of newest adm 3.5 and everything was working, except, when I put in some hdd, I couldnt access its files.

now after all explanations atleast I understand, that my mount volumes and etc. were on my hdd1 with old adm.

so now I can only hope I can fix this somehow, also wanted to say that on old hdd1 with old not working adm, was some important files also that I forgot to backup, for example VirtualBox VMs, will I be able to recover them if I do Linux Method or your method?

man your last method sounds the best, I can just try to boot up ubuntu live stick, where can I check myself if my asustor can support it? there are some usb ports, Im downloading ubuntu and preparing usb as we speak

[Nazar78]

Whether it will work or not I don't know. Till now you still have not told us your NAS model. Asustor also never seems to document booting from USB but instead published recovery method via external Linux machine. If you're really unsure it's best to get advise from Asustor support.

[angel2]

I dont want to say for privacy reasons.
This could happen to any 3.5adm asustor nas.
Technical support is only offering to do it for me with ezconnect or AnyDesk.
Instead of trying to fix adm I inserted empty hdd into slot 1 and did initialize.
If I have no backups or snapshots I cant somehow use my old adm which is still on a removed hdd?
Can someone confirm that if you have two asustors exactly the same even then you couldnt swap some hdd with just files between them?
I have a desktop pc, before I undcrew it to see maybe it can support Ironwolf Pro hdd wothout any adapters or small chance?

[Nazar78]

Should be able to swap with no issue but not when one of the disks has been reinitialized. We need the details to help else not even support can assist. Hence you'll need to analyze the remaining disks on your own.

[angel2]

what information more can I say?
asustor model with 100tb support, model Asustor AS6210T
old setup was like this:
1st hdd wd red 10tb, all other hdd Ironwolf Pro 10 or 12 tb

[Nazar78]

From your previous replies, I have doubts giving you further advises and commands blindly without knowing the setup we're dealing with else it would end up bad for you. You were saying raid 0 or 1 you can't remember but then you initialized only one hdd. Then now we got to know you have a 10 bay nas with 5 10-12tb hdds but without any redundancies? Have you even tried the simple mount directions I posted previously? If that didn't work, put back all the old hdds starting with the old adm into bay 2 and so on, type enter "parted" then in it type enter "print all" and show us the results. Type enter "i" to ignore errors if any.

[angel2]

thanks Nazar for your help.
I was able to install linux to usb stick and then boot it with asustor.
Now I am in Linux and when I try “ mdadm -Asf && vgchange -ay”
it replies that it hasnt detected any arrays.
But fdisk -l shows 9TB volume + 2GB + 2GB volumes
I could access 9TB volume by doing mkdir mnt/tmp and then mount dev/sda126 mnt/tmp
but it shows only users Home folders.
How can I find my VirtualBox VMs and how to access ADM partition is the question now.

edit: I did it thanks so much who helped!
the answer was to press CTRL+H in ubuntu to see hidden files, then go to .root folder and there I can see VirtualBox VMs folder so I can backup.
also without these 3 commands it didnt work:
“mdadm —examine /dev/sd*”
“mdadm -A -R /dev/md9/ /dev/sd*”
“mount | grep ^/dev/md9”

now I have 3 new questions.
1. what else can I backup from my old ADM besides virtualbox?
2. will I be able to mount easily my old hdd’s with just files in them on new adm?
3. does linux method support only 1 hdd at the time? I dont see another inserted nas hdd, neither in program Disks, neither in terminal commands like parted, fdisk, df and so on. How can I make ubuntu recognize one more hdd besides my “old adm hdd1”? thanks

[Nazar78]

1. Depends what you had installed nobody knows this except you. You might look into the homes, shares and hidden plugins for apps. Just explore.

2. It'll work the same as the way you did in usb boot

3. If your disks are still usable, a simple mdadm --scan --assemble then mounting each array to a separate mounting point will work.

[angel2]

thanks Nazar78
last question for closing is:
maybe you know how to make hot-swap hdd work in usb ubuntu linux?
that would be amazing, I could just keep using this linux, also somehow to auto-boot usb and not hdd1 when turning on asustor.
found some topics about it but it involves some serious commands which I dont want to enter to not mess anything up.
it seems to recognize and auto mount asustor hdds only after reboot.
I kind of like this linux method, tried several linux distros, I can easily use hdmi-out and just use Ubuntu as on normal pc and I see my 3 asustor hdds so far, with all my files working.
can I boot windows usb stick like this also?
Ill have second thoughts before coming back to ADM, eventually I will.