Major update: version 5.18

With skipping of intermediate update 5.17.2 we are announcing release of updated software at version 5.18. In this update, we release support of Btrfs file system. The update is applicable to all UFS Explorer software, including Standard Access.
What is currently implemented:

• "Read" support for Btrfs formatted volumes;
• Support of RAID-enabled Btrfs, including "mirror", "stripe", "raid5", "raid10", "raid6" schemas for both data and metadata with any number of disks.

For next software versions we discovered quite good possibility of deleted files recovery from Btrfs formatted volumes as well as low chances of data recovery after volume format (due to loss of critical information about internal storage layout).

Software update: version 5.17.1

This release is mostly related to found problem fixes. Among them are:

• Fixed issue with recognition of virtual disk size of Hyper-V virtual disks (VHD) with format version 6.x;
• Fixed size of files recovered from XFS and HFS+ file system in certain scenarios (because of incorrect size, the files were padded with zeros to whole cluster boundaries);
• Fixed licensing issue for ExFAT file system in Standard Recovery/Raise Data Recovery software family.

New features only include recognition of SPARK Solaris disklabels and support of disk partitions, created by natively big-endian systems.

Support of Netgear NAS full disk encryption

Starting from version 5.17 UFS Explorer Professional Recovery supports decryption and recovery of Netgear NAS with enabled full-disk encryption. Netgear NAS use classic LUKS encryption with generated passphrase, that is called in terms of Netgear "the key".
Previous UFS Explorer version was unable to decrypt this NAS because of passphrase length that for Netgear is few kilobytes.
Currently virtual RAID from Netgear NAS can be decrypted for recovery using standard "Decrypt using LUKS infomation" function and by specifying known "key" as passphrase.

Major update: version 5.17

After a while, we release next software update. This release is mostly related to upgrade of SGI XFS file system support. Recently Linux developer's community introduced extension to XFS file system to increase its reliability. This included modification of key metadata structures, making older software implementation incompatible with newer file system design.
Starting from version 5.17 our software fully supports CRC-enabled XFS (inode version 3 and folder version 2 (3) metadata).
If you are using the software with CRC-enabled XFS, it is recommended to update your software to latest version.

Among other modifications there are:

• fixed problem causing software crash when operated with path bar in certain scenarios;
• fixed issue with incorrect detection of EXT4 file system size for scan when file system size is over 16TB;
• fixed certain user interface related issues.

Encrypted NAS recovery

We are continuing research of capabilities of protected/encrypted NAS recovery of devices from different vendors. So far we can provide data recovery services for the following types of protected/encrypted storages:

• Buffalo Terastation full disk encryption. When it is required to recover lost/deleted data or access data after hardware/firmware failure, we are able to recover lost encryption key that is required to decrypt the storage with UFS Explorer Professional Recovery or Linux dmcrypt.
• QNAP full disk encryption. The NAS uses vendor-specific procedure to enhance security of LUKS encryption password. Using password and NAS-specific data, we are able to recover encryption key that is required to decrypt the storage with UFS Explorer Professional Recovery.
• Drobo password-protected NAS. For purposes of lost data recovery or recovery after NAS failure, it is possible to bypass password protection and recover data directly from "Beyond RAID".
• Certain LUKS enabled NAS. Many popular NAS use standard (unchanged) LUKS encryption that is compatible with Linux and UFS Explorer Professional Recovery software. To recover data from this kind of NAS you will only need "administrator" (data access) password to be provided.

If you are interested in assistance with protected/encrypted NAS recovery, please, request our services via general contact form.

Data recovery from Drobo NAS/DAS/iSCSI

We are glad to announce support of data recovery services from Drobo storage devices. Our recent researches on "Beyond RAID" technology now allow supporting lost data recovery from most known Drobo models, including NAS devices, DAS configurations, iSCSI configurations. This also includes support of multi-LUN and mixed storages.

 

Cases that can be covered include "bricked" NAS after failed firmware update, different NAS failures during rebuild, partial RAID metadata loss, drive failures etc. Support of "Beyond RAID" redundancy allows recovering data even from incomplete set of drives (if RAID redundancy allows this).

 

Drobo recovery is only available as "remote recovery service" at fixed price 100..250 Euro per RAID component in initial configuration (lower price is applicable for simply "bricked" NAS after firmware or hardware failure).

 

The service can be requested via general contact form. The data recovery service fee is only applicable for successfully completed data recovery and there are no "analysis" or "attempt" fees.

Major update: version 5.16

Starting from version 5.16 the software now preserves file creation and file modification dates from original file system as well as from virtually reconstructed file system after data recovery scan.

These dates also appeared in file system object properties dialog as object attributes.

 

In Professional Recovery software edition there are implemented as standard few additional RAID configurations:

 

RAID 1E - "shifted stripe" configuration

 

 

1. Sample of RAID 1E pattern with "shifted stripe" on 5 disks



 

This configuration has 1 drive of guaranteed redundancy and can be built using 3 disks and more.

 

 

RAID 1E - "running mirror" configuration

 

 

2. Sample of RAID 1E pattern with "running mirror" on 5 disks

 





The configuration has the same properties like RAID 1E "shifted stripe", however has different data allocation strategy. For even number of drives the configuration can be considered as similar to RAID 10 by structure and properties.

 

RAID 6 with compact right-asymmetric parity rotation

 

3. Sample of RAID 6 with compact right-asymmetric rotation on 5 disks

 

This configuration is now supported with both P->Q and Q->P redundancy order and different kinds of indexes assignment for Reed-Solomon code for data recovery with 2 missing drives.

 

Among other useful features there are:

• Support of "capitalization" attribute for 8.3 DOS file names;
• In-place editor for RAID Definition Language (RDL) in UFS Explorer Professional Recovery.

 

This update is considered as recommended for data recovery and forensics specialists