ReadyNAS 426 Negative Channel Numbers Disk Info Log Disks NOT showing

[Rottenweiler]

Struggling with a secondhand (new to me) ReadyNAS 426. (FW 6.10.9) 

Does ANYone have any insight as to WHY does this chassis want to assign/persists in assigning NEGATIVE disk channel numbers? (See example below).

 

IF I insert six blanked drives (all volumes erased/removed in windows) it will start and show NOTHING on the Volumes tab in the GUI but the Volume size is correct (Six x 2TB drives) See Below.

I have tried Factory Reset. Problem persists.

I have tried USB Recovery of chassis. After it says "Recovery Done" Problem persists.

I have TRIED to scan logs for answers... (That is where the Negative Disc Channel thing shows up as above)

I just re-did the complete "Drive Test" on ALL six of the drives while they were in the RN316, no issues.

I DID manage to "force" it to sort of work (using the only thread similar I could find by a user with a 428 and the same "symptom". (Not showing all the disks)

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/ReadyNAS-not-showing-all-disks/m-p/...

I moved all the discs to a separate RN316, Factory Reset it, let the discs complete sync (15 hours or so) and then once completed, powered it off, MOVED the drives in to the RN426.

I inserted them BOTTOM up (as suggested from the thread above). IE Drive from Slot 1 (physically top in RN316) to Drive slot 6 (bottom slot in RN426) and so on.

THEN all six drives showed up on the GUI. Correct sizes, ALL working well and GUI showing all details.

Thinking I had FIXED it, (or somehow reset the log/journal/setting assigning the negative disc channel numbers) I thought I would Factory Reset the 426... NOPE, bad idea.

It immediately goes back to NO drives being seen in the GUI (totally blank on the volumes page) no details available when hovering the mouse over the drive slots.

So i am NOW re-doing the stupid 316 to 426 experiment again (i suspect it will/should work again like last time) but i am STUMPED as to how/why the 426 Chassis is assigning NEGATIVE drive channel numbers which appears to confuse the GUI and is NOT fixed or reset by either Factory Reset OR by USB Recovery...

Was there ever a BIOS update or does anyone have any insight or further information?

I suppose I will try to get it working again using the trick above, but it is very annoying I would love someone smarter than I to help...

It is almost as if the chassis has some persistent BAD info/details/memory which is NOT being cleared somehow? Chassis failure? Flash failure/bad? USB daughter card? (No idea if that is at all related)

Hope that all makes sense, thanks.

I can SSH to unit fine but I am not sure where to go or which files to remove/delete/clear to "reset" the chassis fully.

I would love to wget and force a firmware update over SSH to see if that helps

[Sandshark]

Did this start when you updated the OS?  ReadyNAS know where to find the drives (and other configuration items) based on the model number, which is in the DMI on OS6 Intel systems.  Your NAS is showing up as the correct model, so that isn't the problem.  So, that leaves something wrong in the database (or whatever) the OS uses to look up the configuration for that model.  If a USB recovery and factory default don't correct it, I can only assume that Netgear screwed something up in that database at some point in the update process.  Based on what you are seeing, most users probably wouldn't notice until they had to do a factory default; which could explain why this has been reported by only one other forum user.

[Rottenweiler]

Probably, but not 100% sure? After I got the unit, I added drives, it started up. All "seemed" normal.

If it was on a much older OS I would have updated to 6.10.9 rebooted and then factory defaulted. (just by my usual startup steps)

(I will try and go back to the video and pics I took while receiving and setting up to find out for certain).

Do you see/can you think of any way forward IF it is in the model database? I would guess any support is not going to be coming from Netgear at this point... sadly.

I just assumed (incorrectly) that doing a Factory Reset would put ALL of the configs and files back to zero and it would just work. (Didn't).

It's such a weird issue... thank you for any thoughts or ideas. I appreciate your help very much.

Thanks, Patrick

[Rottenweiler]

Were there ever any BIOS updates for the 426/428 chassis do you know?

[Sandshark]

Netgear has not publicly released BIOS updates for any OS6 based unit.  There definitely were a couple for the 516, but they were only installed by Netgear when assisting with some other issue.  The reason I was given that they were not made public is that other changes in the configuration also needed to be changed, and what those changes are depends on where you came from as well as where you are going.

So, an update might exist, but none has ever been announced nor made available.  The only way I can think of finding out if one exists would be to have a lot of users check their version and compare.  Unfortunately, not likely to happen with enough users contributing to be sure there's not one available if all the reported ones are the same.

[Rottenweiler]

Yeah, sadly i think it is unlikely. No idea how many 426 ever went out in to the wide world.

Thank you for your kindness and insights. I appreciate all you offer here... over and over

[Rottenweiler]

Still struggling with the RN426.

If/when I power down, even AFTER I have the unit working and showing ALL six disks as expected, it will default back to the negative channels numbers thing (as above) which cause the GUI to NOT show any disks. 

It is painful...

Would love ANY ideas you have out there...

Thank you in advance.

Patrick