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Netgear ReadyNas Pro 6 corrupt firmware
First Netgear NAS user. I bought a defect Netgear ReadyNAS Pro 6. The previous owner said something went wrong during a firmware update and the NAS had some sort of corrupt firmware. It was 40Euro an...
This post How-to-update-BIOS-w-OS6-x-installed tells how to update the BIOS from OS6. While that part isn't applicable to you, it includes information on extracting the BIOS from the OS4.2.x package Netgear has provided and points to that package.
Assuming you have the right VGA cable (and I think there is only one common configuration), not seeing anything on the monitor means a serious problem. The NAS will say "ReadyNAS" if 5V is good -- it takes nothing more.
First thing to do is to be sure the previous owner didn't do some troubleshooting and leave something disconnected.
A common issue as those NASes get older is the power supply. RAM could be another, but is less common; and it would likely get to some point in the BIOS boot process unless there is no RAM at all. If you have a spare ATX power supply (or can "borrow" one from a PC), it's fairly easy to hook one up externally and see if that's the problem. Compatible supplies are available.
As for re-using the case, best of luck finding a motheboard that fits. Every conversion of a ReadyNAS to an open source NAS I have seen has retained the motherboard.
Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I have some reasons to believe the previous owner was quite smart and did not left many rocks unturned in trying to repair it. When I picked up the nas I saw he had at least 4 or 5 other ReadyNas in operation at the site (altough it seemed to me 2 slot models, perhaps ARM, not Intel based). It is quite likely that the internal EEPROM (containing the motherboard bios) is corrupted so I either find a way to reprogram it "in circuit" using my JTAG rig or desolder and replace it with another pre-programmed in my standalone eeprom programmer. Anyone knows a location where this BIOS might be available ?
Of course the existing board have a connector on the under-side for the drives backplane and there will be no other board having that but if I do not use the drives backplane and connect the drives using individual SATA cables to a mini-ITX motherboard with 6 SATA ports (such as Supermicro X9SCV-Q) perhaps also desoldering some connectors (HDMI and VGA) and replacing other (LAN ports) with headers, it might fit since 17x17cm is about the same size as the existing motherboard). But I am not there yet.
This post How-to-update-BIOS-w-OS6-x-installed tells how to update the BIOS from OS6. While that part isn't applicable to you, it includes information on extracting the BIOS from the OS4.2.x package Netgear has provided and points to that package.
- This forum absolutely and totally rocks ! I took the motherboard out and found the Winbond SPI flash was actually socketed. I took it out, put it in my programmer and read it. When I checked the image it was bit by bit an image from RN_Ultra6_061010.ROM. This was of course the wrong image, this being a Pro 6 it needed RN_NV6_072610.ROM I programmed it with the correct one and the nas came to life (on the VGA). I see is also booting a linux image (probably from the 128MB flash, but I did not investigate yet if it shows in the discovery tool. Thank you again to everyone and especially to SandShark who pointed me to exactly the right posts. If you have suggestions on what should I do next - recover it as ReadyNAS Pro 6 or convert it to Nas4Free (this is for home use) I'd be grateful to hear opinions. In any case I'll try to replace the E2160 with an E7600 and the 1GB DDR2 with 2x2GB DDR2.
I have converted all of my legacy systems to OS6. It's not officially supported, but it works and instructions for doing so are here in the forum. But I've been a ReadyNAS user since the Infrant days, so am quite accustomed to the ReadyNAS look and feel (even with the changes on OS6). And I like it that somebody other than me is doing the work of keeping the OS up to date. With OS4.2.x being based on such an old Debian distro, I certainly recommend against just getting started with that. OS6 or an open source solution would be better.
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