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Forum Discussion
RN424 swap out all 4 disks together - factory reset procedure
Per earlier posts, RN424 has 4x4TB Barracuda SMR disks, about 80% full.. Contents are fully backed up via two other NAS units (RN528X and RN212).
Plan is to remove all 4 disks for archiving, replace with (up to) 4 new 18TB disks. Am aware I could start with 2 or 3 disks and add the other(s) later as needed.
Questions about factory reset procedure:
- Assume: Gracefully power down RN424, remove 4x4TB SMR disks
- Assume: Install (up to) 4x18TB CMR disks, power ON
- What happens? Does system boot same as a brand new unit? Or does it retain prior system info (via EEPROM or other NV)?
- If system boots as new, is a factory reset (FR) needed anyway? Why?
- How is factory reset performed in this scenario? Through the web GUI (system/settings), or is the rear panel reset button needed?
- In this scenario, on first power-up do I initially login with admin/password and then immediately perform a FR?
Please walk me through the procedure step by step, with new disks inserted.
7 Replies
jimk1963 wrote:
- Assume: Gracefully power down RN424, remove 4x4TB SMR disks
- Assume: Install (up to) 4x18TB CMR disks, power ON
If the 18 TB drives are unformatted, then the system will automatically do a fresh factory install when you power it on, after doing a self test on the drives (which takes about 2 minutes or so).
If the disks are formatted, then you will need to use the boot menu to force the factory default. OS-6 NAS won't automatically re-format drives that are already formatted. There is a 10 minute delay that starts after the disk self-test - you can shorten that by pressing ok on the front panel when the delay period begins. See page 97 here:
The final result is the same either way. Disks are formatted, software is installed in the OS partition, and the system begins syncing the XRAID data volume. All the settings are on the disks, so nothing is preserved from the previous configuration.
jimk1963 wrote:
- How is factory reset performed in this scenario? Through the web GUI (system/settings), or is the rear panel reset button needed?
In this case, if you need the reset procedure you'll need to use the boot menu.
You won't be able to use the Web GUI until after the NAS boot process installs linux and the ReadyNAS application software on the disks.
You can save the configuration file from the old volume and then restore it to the new after it's created, assuming you use the same volume name. If you have any apps installed, you should re-install them before restoring the configuration. Of course, especially if you were using ReadyCloud, then you may want to take this opportunity to start from scratch.
RN424, Installed 4 new 18TB drives:
- LCD display displayed "Booting" followed by "Factory Reset...", then "Configuring Network", then it completed booting
- LCD shows "Resync data 0.4%" and it's crawling along
On login (admin/password), the wizard automatically appeared and walked me through initial setup. Perfect.
In the System/Volumes tab, I can see the resyncing taking place, says it will take another 24 hours??
There's no data copied onto these drives yet, so what is the NAS "resyncing"? Nomenclature is confusing.
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