Re: RN 104 freezing/not responding/locking up with FW 6.4.0

kroche · ‎2015-11-07

The device has been working for a few hours now but I noticed SMB was turned off on a couple of shares so I went to turn it on using the web interface.

I got a strange messageNot sure if this is good or bad but it seems to have worked.

kroche · ‎2015-11-08

Decided to go ahead and install the new 6.4.1 beta mentioned above. So far it seems to be alot better but is only been an hour.

Kevin

RobTWo · ‎2015-11-08

I have been experiencing this issue since 6.2.4. I have now also tried 6.4.0 and: freezing again!

The solution I know, is downgrading to 6.2.2. I advise everybody to do the same!!!!!

RobTWo · ‎2015-11-08

I encountered the problem that with 6.2.4 downgrading was possible, but with 6.4.0 not.

THANK YOU Netgear!!!

coxo01 · ‎2015-11-08

Froze as soon as i attempted to copy over a 1.5GB MKV File. (on beta 2)

BrianL2 · ‎2015-11-08

Hi coxo01,

If you have contacted support before, I suggest you continue your support case with them to further investigate this issue.

Kind regards,

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

coxo01 · ‎2015-11-08

Hi Brian,

Tried something different now and have not had any problems so far.

I was connecting and transferring files via AFP, switched over to SMB and seems stable for now.

Copied over a few files so far and no crashes (using Beta 2).

Will keep you posted.

Thanks,

coxo01

atreyu_ATR · ‎2015-11-09

I am having the same lock up problem that everyone else seems to be having since upgrading to 6.4.0. To make my box stable I disabled the transmission and usenet clients.

Unfortunately, I don't have the space to copy everything off my nas to downgrade it.

I have since upgraded my firwmware to 6.4.1-T29, and all was going well with transmission running for a few hours however after about 30 minutes of SABNZB running my RN104 froze up again. I've emailed my logs in.

Please help!

RobTWo · ‎2015-11-09

Wouldn't it be easier for Netgear to renumber 6.2.5 to e.g. 6.4.2 and then publish that version as new update? That would solve a lot of problems.

StephenB · ‎2015-11-09

@RobTWo wrote:

Wouldn't it be easier for Netgear to renumber 6.2.5 to e.g. 6.4.2 and then publish that version as new update? That would solve a lot of problems.

Clearly not, given the pain you need to go through to downgrade. It's not about changing the numbering.

What's needed is to fix the problems. I'm seeing a bit of a shift - more new problems being posted seem to be with third-pary apps - particularly transmission.

In any event, I have seen improvements in 6.4.1 beta (though there still is a way to go).

atreyu_ATR · ‎2015-11-09

Any help for me StephenB?

StephenB · ‎2015-11-09

@atreyu_ATR wrote:

Any help for me StephenB?

I am thinking you should disable SABNZB and transmission for now, and see if the lockups stop. If they do, then try enabling them one at a time, and see if you can isolate the problem to one of those two apps.

atreyu_ATR · ‎2015-11-09

I have since upgraded to 6.4.1-T29 in the hope for more stability. When trasmission and SABNZB aren't running it seems to be stable. Last night i left it running with just transmission and it appeared to be stable, however when I woke up this morning, it had locked up. When im running SABNZB it can lock up within 30 minutes. It appears to be either.

Are there any newer beta's that I can try? or anything new on the horizon?

jsmc · ‎2015-11-15

Hi! Readynas 102, 2x 3 tb. WD RED, firmware 6.4.0 here,

I can transfer files and use the NAS normally, my issues comes with the shutdown program, if transmission app is enable and downloading when the time for shutdown comes the unit turns off hard drives, but doesn't shutdown itself and the power led stays blinking until i pull the power plug, but if the app is running and there are no downloads active the unit turn off OK. This it's not related to 6.4 i'm not sure since when, but could be 2 or 3 versions before, disk spin down is disable and my logs don't show anything related.

NetworkMechanic · ‎2015-12-08

Anyone still having problems even with the new update 6.4.1?

I am. I don't know what to do. It's so unreliable. I'm afraid to keep storing my photos on there.

atreyu_ATR · ‎2015-12-08

Ive been going through tech support. and what they told me was the problem was related to NODE SIZE issue. The problem stems from my RAID been created back with an old firmware version 6.1.5.

According to them the only way to fix it was to wipe the entire volume and recreate it with the latest firmware. I've just finished doing that and im currently copying everything back on my NAS. And I have had any lock ups since.

StephenB · ‎2015-12-09

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

Netgear did recommend a factory reset back then to get best performance. But it was a suggestion - obviously they didn't expect lockups later on.

StephenB · ‎2015-12-09

@NetworkMechanic wrote:

Anyone still having problems even with the new update 6.4.1?

I am. I don't know what to do. It's so unreliable. I'm afraid to keep storing my photos on there.

If you don't have a backup, I'd suggest trying to make one.

A factory reset is one thing to try, there is evidence from a couple of posters that it can help. Someone just posted that they had a RAID volume created back on 6.1.5 firmware, and that a factory reset solved it (Netgear did make some adjustments to their BTRFS filesystem configuration back then).

atreyu_ATR · ‎2015-12-09

Tech support believed the problem was due to the 'node size'. and the factory reset would fix this. I've messaged them back and asked them to confirm that now i have formated that the 'node size' issue is now fixed. They have asked me to send logs (which I just did)

azerva · ‎2016-01-03

Hi everyone,

I'm having very similar issues on my RN 104 using 6.4.1. I have no addons running on my box. I get complete freezes with no option but to pull the plug. After reboot, the entire volume resyncs. This is a very serious issue in my mind, as resyncs put a lot of strain on the disks, and having this happen every few days basically means the drives are running 24/7.

I don't know about everybody here, but having Netgear asking us to just have another 8 TB lying around in disk space to be able to perform a factory reset is an outrage to me. Has anyone had any other solutions for fixing this other than wiping the entire volume?

StephenB · ‎2016-01-03

@azerva wrote:

Hi everyone,

I don't know about everybody here, but having Netgear asking us to just have another 8 TB lying around in disk space to be able to perform a factory reset is an outrage to me.

I don't work for Netgear, and certainly don't want to spend my life doing factory resets. But I don't find the "I don't have the 8 TB lying around" line very compelling.

As far as I'm concerned, if you care about your data you need to back it up. If you don't do that, then you will eventually lose your data. You shouldn't trust your data to a single device, and RAID isn't enough to keep your data safe.

Two 4TB USB drives can be found for ~$300 US total. That is much cheaper (and more certain) than data recovery.

azerva · ‎2016-01-03

Hi Stephen,

thanks for your reply. The point is not wether my data is worth x amount of money or not. The point is that if I spend the money on the drives + the additional money on a RAID capable NAS, I expect to get some use out of it. If having a Netgear means I just need to buy the double amount of storage, I can forget RAID and just invest the money I spent on the NAS in other backup drives and just make copies of my data like I did before the NAS.

The point of a RAID-capable NAS is to provide a certain degree of safety (1 drive outage). I am happy with this level of risk. The fact that the product is unreliable and forces me to buy more drives is the issue. I guess what I want to say most is that I feel that the ReadyNAS community - however great it is - very quickly ends up saying that one should just backup everything because "you never know".

That being said, this is pretty offtopic. My $300 NAS is resyncing for the 3rd time in the past month 🙂

Cheers

Alex

StephenB · ‎2016-01-03

@azerva wrote:
The point of a RAID-capable NAS is to provide a certain degree of safety (1 drive outage). ... I can forget RAID and just invest the money I spent on the NAS in other backup drives and just make copies of my data like I did before the NAS.

My view is that the point of RAID is to keep your data available during routine storage expansion and disk replacement. For businesses that is extremely important. For home users it is usually more a convenience feature.

Independent of RAID, the NAS allows me to consolidate my data, so it is not scattered across the various PCs and mobile devices we have in the house.

While RAID does provides some level of safety, I think you actually are better off with a second independent copy of your data instead of RAID. A second copy often is more cost effective than and I think it is safer.

@azerva wrote:

the ReadyNAS community - however great it is - very quickly ends up saying that one should just backup everything because "you never know".

My own views on backup were formed long before I had a ReadyNAS (and I learned through direct experience that even single backups were not enough).

I push backup here because I still see far too many posts from people who have lost their data because they assumed RAID was enough. And its not about whether ReadyNAS is reliable enough.

I've found that no single device (RAID or not) is reliable enough. I've had single disks fail, magnetic tapes fail, DVD/CD media and USB disks that weren't readable when I tried to restore data, and RAID array failures. And sometimes I've deleted data by mistake.

So many years ago I started keeping three copies of everything I care about. So far that's been enough.

@azerva wrote:

That being said, this is pretty offtopic. My $300 NAS is resyncing for the 3rd time in the past month 🙂

I agree that the recent firmware releases created way too many issues for ReadyNAS owners.

kroche · ‎2016-01-08

I have finally been able to back up my RN104 RAID after a lot of difficulty. In the end I realised that the 6GB disk I bought was slightly less than 6GB (5.5GB) and the built in backup software does not seem to know it has filled the external drive. Once it is full it dies. So I backed it up using a PC on the same network. The whole process has now taken 4 weeks or so.

I must admit I have been very unimpressed by all this. Before this disaster I was about to buy another Netgear NAS drive and I have changed my mind about that.

Can someone confirm that the fix is still to do a factory reset and copy all the data back to the NAS please?

Kevin

atreyu_ATR · ‎2016-01-08

Yes since I did my factory reset, I asked their tech support to remote back in and confirm that the node size issue was resolved. They said it had. I haven't had a lock up since.

Make sure you upgrade to the latest firmware THEN do the factory reset.