QNAP offers Network-Attached Storage (NAS) devices for both home and enterprise users that can be configured as a large single storage volume connected to a local network or as a RAID setup. QNAP also provides various advanced utilities, such as immutable storage, snapshots, Network Recycle Bin, etc., to protect the data in different data loss scenarios.
In case you have accidentally deleted some files or an entire volume or partition, then you can use such utilities to recover the deleted data. Below, we will discuss how to recover deleted files from QNAP NAS device using these utilities and a specialized NAS data recovery software.
Methods to Recover Deleted Files from QNAP NAS
If you have accidentally deleted some important files from your QNAP NAS device, follow the methods explained below.
Method 1: Recover Deleted Files using Network Recycle Bin
If you have enabled the Network Recycle Bin on your QNAP NAS, you can use it to recover deleted files. The Network Recycle Bin contains files deleted from QNAP NAS via File Station, Samba, and FTP. It retains the deleted files and folders for 180 days. If you have enabled this utility, follow the steps below to recover the deleted files from your QNAP NAS device:
- Log in to your QNAP NAS dashboard.
- Open File Station.
- Click on Recycle Bin.
- Locate the file/folder that you wish to restore and select it.
- Right-click on it and select Recover. Alternatively, click on the wrench icon on the toolbar and select Restore.
- It will open the Recover window. Choose the desired option (Yes or No), if you want to overwrite the existing file/folder while restoring.
Method 2: Use Snapshots to Recover Deleted Files and Folders
To recover the deleted files from your QNAP NAS, you can use Snapshots – a powerful feature that comes with every QNAP NAS device. This feature allows you to create snapshots of volumes/partitions, take block-based snapshots of modified data, and create regular snapshots using versioning. You can use the snapshots to perform QNAP data recovery and restore entire partition/LUN, specific files or folders, etc.
Method 3: Use a NAS Data Recovery Software
To simplify the process of recovering files from your QNAP NAS device, you can use Stellar Toolkit for Data Recovery. It is an advanced NAS data recovery software that helps you recover data lost from NAS devices in various situations, like accidental deletion, volume formatting, member drive failure, etc. Apart from QNAP, it can recover data from NAS devices of brands, such as Synology and ASUSTOR.
This software also supports data recovery from RAID-based QNAP NAS devices. However, this process is dependent upon the type of RAID configuration and the number of drive failure. Additionally, this data recovery software can help you recover lost data from popular virtual machine image files, like VMDK, VHD, VDI, VHDX, etc..
Here are the steps to use Stellar Toolkit for Data Recovery to recover data from your QNAP NAS device:
- Disconnect the member drives from the drive enclosure and connect them to a Windows PC.
- Download and install Stellar Toolkit for Data Recovery from its official website on the same computer. Then, launch the software.
- You will see the Select What to Recover screen. Select what type of data you want to recover from the NAS drive. By default, the All Data option is selected. Click Next to proceed.
- On the Recover From screen, choose the displayed QNAP NAS drive under the Connected Drives section. Click Scan.
- The software will scan the connected NAS drives. After the scanning is complete, the software will list all the recoverable files. You can click on a file to see its preview.
- Choose the files that you want to recover. Click on Recover to save the recoverable files.
- Click on Browse to select the folder/path to save the selected files. This can be an external storage drive or a different volume on the computer. After selecting the location, click on Start Saving to save the recovered files.
Once the software has successfully saved the files, go to the save location and check them.
Tips to Avoid Data Loss from NAS Devices
Here are some tips that you can follow to avoid data loss from your QNAP NAS device:
- Follow the 3-2-1 backup strategy to create multiple backups of important files.
- Create a full backup of your NAS data on another NAS device using the QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync application.
- Create regular snapshots of important data and volumes/LUN.
- Ensure that the Network Recycle Bin is enabled.
- Monitor the health of member drives regularly.
Conclusion
QNAP NAS comes with several features, like Snapshots, Network Recycle Bin, etc., that help in recovering data in case of accidental deletion, volume formatting, etc. If these feature are not enabled in your QNAP NAS, then you can use Stellar Toolkit for Data Recovery. It is a simple-to-use NAS data recovery software that can help you recover deleted/lost data from your QNAP NAS device.
