RAID cheat sheet

If you know the exact RAID configuration, skip waiting for Autodetection to complete and manually select the RAID parameters instead.

If you know the exact order of the RAID members, select them in the correct sequence: the RAID Autodetection module prioritizes the device order specified by the user.

If you're aware of a specific disk offset for the RAID members, specify the LBA in the Autodetection module's settings (look for the gear icon). This will enable the Autodetection to identify a suitable RAID configuration in cases where it previously failed.

If you are certain the devices belong to a Synology NAS RAID but the RAID configuration isn’t detected right away and Autodetection is still running, consider the following possibilities:

• One or more selected devices may not be part of this RAID array.
• One or more devices could be missing from the array.

To resolve this, stop the Autodetection process and try selecting a different combination of drives that belong to the RAID array.

If the Autodetection module suggests multiple possible RAID configurations, the best match will always appear first.

Additionally, pay attention to the small tags displaying the accuracy percentage next to the RAID partitions — the higher the percentage, the better the match.

For RAID 6, the 'Parity Order' parameter is only relevant when a device is missing.

If you know that a device is missing from your RAID 5 or RAID 6, click ‘Add missing device’ to speed up the Autodetection process.

For RAID 6, you can specify up to two missing devices.

RAID members marked with the ‘Spare’ tag most likely contain only zeroes. It's recommended to remove these devices from the list by dragging them to the bin icon.

If the Autodetection module is unable to find a valid RAID configuration, try adjusting the parameters manually.

To help you evaluate the validity of the applied configuration, TaskForce displays a small evaluate the validity of next to each partition.

If a file system is not currently supported, an Unknown tag may appear next to the corresponding RAID member.

If a RAID member is marked with an Error tag:

• Image that drive first, then attempt to reassemble the RAID using the acquired image.
• For RAID 5 or RAID 6, remove the device with ‘Error’ from the list, then click ‘Add missing device’. TaskForce will use redundancy to rebuild the RAID.
• If it’s RAID 10, remove the faulty from the list. TaskForce will automatically use the mirrored copy to rebuild the array.

RAID capacity can exceed dozens of terabytes, making full physical imaging a time-consuming process.

To speed up access to critical data, start with logical imaging using smart filters to extract only the files of interest. Your can perform a full physical imaging later by clicking the ‘Go to image’ button.

If you’re dealing with a large array and don't have enough drive ports for all RAID members:

1. image some of the drives to image files.
2. Go to RAID > Select source device > Files > Select files and use these image files instead of physical drives.