Recover data from hard drives removed from unRAID server under Windows with FTKI

I occasionally see people asking how under Windows, to access/recover data from hard drives that have been removed from unRAID server.

Some solutions are better than others, but one that not only works and is free, but also works for a large number of other file systems under Linux, Mac (HFS, HFS+) Novell, Windows, and other OSes.

FTK Imager from Access Data.

This is one of the leading products used in the forensics industry for accessing/imaging/copying hard drives, and is available free of charge.  (The full FTK analysis package costs several thousand $, but the imager is free).

While usually used to make images of drives, it will also let you browse and copy (export) files to another location.  And it does so safely in a read-only manner so you (or Windoze) can't accidentally fubar the drive.

Use this link, select FTK Imager and follow instructions.

  http://www.accessdata.com/support/product-downloads

Great tip, thanks!

Thanks.

A worthwhile addition to the "toolbox".

User Guide here [link]

"Crime is big business -- even for a few good guys."

Good find -- definitely a nice addition to the "toolbox" of handy utilities.

Thank you for providing this link! It works perfectly! More importantly, the program keeps the folder and file structure upon restore.

Thank you for providing this link! It works perfectly! More importantly, the program keeps the folder and file structure upon restore.

Just a note, this thread is over three years old, so I'm not entirely clear whether this is working with XFS and BTRFS, the two newer file systems we're using on Unraid nowadays, or whether it's just compatible with ReiserFS...

Thank you for providing this link! It works perfectly! More importantly, the program keeps the folder and file structure upon restore.

 

Just a note, this thread is over three years old, so I'm not entirely clear whether this is working with XFS and BTRFS, the two newer file systems we're using on Unraid nowadays, or whether it's just compatible with ReiserFS...

I just downloaded the latest version: See attachment for supported file systems

Probably not worthwhile to continue recommending this then as a "catch all" read Unraid disks on Windows solution.....

I still use FTKI for ReiserFS, and my array is still ReiserFS.

For BtrFS / XFS, I use File Scavenger 

http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm

Supports NTFS, FAT 32/16/12, exFAT, ReFS, ext3, ext4, Btrfs, HFS+, HFSX, UFS1, UFS2, XFS, ZFS and RAIDZ, VMFS, VMDK, VHD and VHDX.

ZAR and ReclaiMe are also good, but is usually much slower.