A dead NAS is a weird kind of panic. The box is cheap enough that nobody insures it, but the photos and tax records inside are the sort of thing you would pay almost anything to get back.
So the real question is never just "how much to fix it." It is "how much to fix it, versus how much to walk away and start over, and where do my files sit in that math."
I have repaired, recovered, and replaced enough of these units to have a rough price map in my head. Let me lay it out so you can make the call in an afternoon instead of a month.
First, separate the box from the data
This is the mistake I see constantly. People treat a failed NAS as one repair job, when it is actually two very different problems stacked on top of each other.
One problem is the hardware: the enclosure, the power supply, the mainboard, the fans. The other is the drives and the data on them. A failure in the first group is usually cheap. A failure in the second group is where the scary numbers live.
A Synology DS220+ that will not power on but has two perfectly healthy drives inside is a $40 problem. The same model with a drive that clicks and a corrupted volume can be a $900 problem. Same symptom on the front (no access to files), wildly different cost.
Power supply failures: the cheapest fix there is
The most common death I see is not a drive at all. It is the power supply, especially on the small desktop units that use an external brick.
On a two or four bay Synology or QNAP, that brick is a standard 12V or 19V adapter. When the NAS goes completely dark, no lights, no fan, no beep, swap the adapter before you assume the worst. A genuine 60W or 90W replacement runs $25 to $45, and a generic one is often under $20.
Internal power supplies, the kind in larger tower units like a Synology DS1821+ or a self-built box, are a bit more. A Flex ATX or SFX unit is $40 to $90, plus fifteen minutes with a screwdriver.
The first time I hit this, I spent a week convinced the whole unit was toast. The fix was a $32 adapter from the manufacturer. Always rule out power first.
How to test it cheaply
- Borrow a known-good adapter with the exact same voltage and matching barrel connector.
- Check the label on the old brick: the output volts and amps must match or exceed.
- If a spare brick brings it to life, order the correct replacement and stop there.
Mainboard and component faults: the awkward middle
This is the tier where repair starts losing to replacement. When the board itself fails, a bad capacitor, a fried NIC, a dead RAM slot, you are into either soldering-level work or a full board swap.
Board-level micro repair from a specialist shop typically runs $120 to $300 depending on the fault. That can make sense for an eight-bay unit that cost $900 new. It rarely makes sense for a two-bay that cost $200.
A common real error here is the classic Intel Atom C2000 clock signal bug that bricked a wave of older Synology and QNAP units around 2017 to 2019. Affected boards fail permanently and show as a unit that simply will not POST. Some owners fixed it with a $5 resistor mod, but for most people that is a replace, not a repair.
Data recovery: where the budget really goes
Here is the part nobody wants to hear. If the failure is a dead drive with no backup, recovery is the single most expensive line item, and it dwarfs everything else.
Software recovery, where the drive still spins and reads but the volume is corrupt, is the cheap end. A tool like R-Studio or UFS Explorer costs $60 to $200, and if you are comfortable pulling the drives and attaching them to a PC, you might do it yourself for the price of the license.
Professional recovery is a different world. A logically failed single drive is often $300 to $700. A drive that needs a cleanroom, meaning clicking heads or a seized motor, runs $700 to $2,000. A failed RAID 5 or SHR array where two drives went at once can hit $1,500 to $3,000+, because the lab has to rebuild the array logic as well as read each disk.
Backblaze has a good plain-language explainer on why professional drive recovery costs what it does, and it lines up with the quotes I have seen.
Rough recovery price ladder
| Situation | Typical cost | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
| Corrupt volume, drive reads fine | $60 to $200 | You, with software |
| Single logical drive failure | $300 to $700 | Recovery lab |
| Physical damage, cleanroom needed | $700 to $2,000 | Recovery lab |
| Multi-drive RAID/SHR failure | $1,500 to $3,000+ | Specialist RAID lab |
The cost of just buying new
Sometimes the honest answer is to stop repairing. If your data is backed up elsewhere, or the drives are fine and only the enclosure died, replacement is often the smart money.
A current two-bay like a Synology DS224+ or QNAP TS-233 is $200 to $350 for the empty unit. A four-bay is $400 to $600. The good news: if your old drives are healthy, you usually keep them.
Moving drives between units of the same brand and OS often preserves the data. Synology calls this migration and documents which models support it; their official migration guide is worth reading before you move a single disk. QNAP has a similar path. Jumping brands, though, means a wipe and a fresh copy from backup.
Putting the numbers together
Add up the likely repair path and compare it to a clean replacement. The pattern that emerges is pretty consistent.
- Dead brick, healthy drives: $25 to $45. Always fix.
- Internal PSU, mid-size tower: $40 to $90. Usually fix.
- Board fault on a small unit: repair often costs more than a new box. Replace and migrate the drives.
- Dead drive, good backup: replace the drive for $80 to $200 and restore. Skip recovery entirely.
- Dead drive, no backup: recovery is $300 to $3,000. Decide what the data is truly worth.
That last line is the one that should sting a little, because it is avoidable. A NAS with RAID is not a backup, it is redundancy, and redundancy does not survive fire, theft, ransomware, or two drives failing in the same week.
What I would actually do in your shoes
Rule out power for under $50. If that fails, get one repair quote and one recovery quote, in writing, before you spend anything real.
Then set the drives aside and price a replacement unit with your existing disks migrated in. Nine times out of ten the decision makes itself once those three numbers are on the same page.
And once you are back up and running, put in place the offsite backup you did not have. The cheapest data recovery is the one you never need to pay for, and a cloud backup plan costs less per year than a single hour in a cleanroom.
Frequently asked questions
Is it worth repairing a NAS or should I just replace it?
For a power supply or fan failure, repair almost always wins, since parts are $25 to $90. For a mainboard fault on a small two-bay unit, a repair quote often matches the price of a new box, so replacing and migrating your drives is smarter. Get a written quote first and compare it to current retail.
How much does NAS data recovery cost?
If the drive still reads and only the volume is corrupt, software recovery costs $60 to $200. A physically failed single drive at a lab is typically $300 to $700, or up to $2,000 if a cleanroom is needed. A multi-drive RAID or SHR failure can reach $3,000 or more.
Can I move my drives to a new NAS and keep the data?
Usually yes, if you stay on the same brand and a supported model. Synology calls this migration and QNAP has an equivalent process that preserves your volume. Switching brands means wiping the drives and restoring from a backup instead.
My NAS has no lights at all. What is the cheapest thing to check?
Start with the power adapter. On desktop units it is an external brick with a voltage and amp rating on the label. Borrow a matching known-good adapter, and if the unit powers on, order the correct replacement for $25 to $45 and you are done.
Does having RAID mean I do not need a backup?
No. RAID protects against a single drive dying while the unit keeps running, but it does not protect against fire, theft, ransomware, accidental deletion, or two drives failing together. You still need a separate offsite or cloud backup, which is far cheaper than data recovery.
