ReadyNAS 314 stuck on "Booting...[]"

We don't wipe them by default because we want to avoid where possible wiping data against user's wishes.

Though in most cases the boot menu should still be accessible with disks installed. Have to press and hold the reset button then turn the NAS on whilst continuing to press the reset button.

Of course when that doesn't work getting to the boot menu stage and then inserting disks can be a good way to go.

If all the disks were not formatted and had no partitions on them then the NAS would have done a factory default automatically on first boot.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. The HDD were XFAT-formatted, so that might have been why I couldn't access the boot menu with them installed.

I had to remove them, access the boot menu, then reinstall them and continue with the factory default. Everything's resyncing as I write this.

If the disks have partitions on them then it won't wipe them by default. Shouldn't need to remove the disks to access the boot menu (unless there is e.g. a bad disk, perhaps) and disks need to be installed to be able to do a factory default. A factory default without disks won't achieve anything.

Looks like I'm okay. I had to take all the HDDs out and access the boot menu, then proceed with a "Factory Default." I was under the mistaken impression that it did a factory default on first boot.