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Forum Discussion
NV+ Disk Issues (support case 16862225)
Hello all,
I have an older NV+ ReadyNAS with (4) 500 GB hard drives. Honestly it has been so long since I set it up that I don't really recall the exact configuration, but I am pretty sure I used X-raid. As larger capacity "backup" drives (for example Western Digital My Passport) have become available I have used my ReadyNAS less and less, but it still contains some info that I would prefer not to lose. The ReadyNAS is tucked away under a desk in an area where there is typically there is some type of noise, whether it be music, the TV, other PC's/laptops. etc., so it is truly out of sight and sound.
Last week during a somewhat quiet time I just happened to be down around ground level when I noticed a "clunking" sound coming from the area of the ReadyNAS, which sure sounded like a failing drive to me. I found that the ReadyNAS was inaccessible and when I checked the display it was stuck on a file system check. I had been unaware of any power issues that would have caused the system to reboot, but it is definitely possible that I missed some type of "blip" when I was not around. I let the system be for a while longer just to see if the FS check progressed but it did not. I then tried powering off the unit and powered it back on, but it again got stuck on the FS check, this time at 0.1%
My assumption at that point was that the "clunking" sound was indeed a bad drive and that was the cause of the system not being able to boot. I then began the process of trying to identify the bad drive. I pulled drive 1 and tried to boot the unit. I was still hearing the occasional clunk and the system got stuck with the FS check at 0.1% again. I powered down the unit again, replaced drive 1, pulled drive 2, and powered the unit up. Same result. Finally with drive 3 pulled the unit successfully powered up, but unfortunately my data was not accessible. I set the system to do another FS check and then rebooted the unit, but my data was still inaccessible when it came back up. I then decided that I probably shouldn't fool around any further with one drive pulled, so I powered down the unit and went about ordering a replacement drive.
My replacement drive arrived today. I put it in the system and booted it up, but to my disappointment my I still can't see my data. The system shows that the RAID drive is offline. I ssh'd into the system to examine the system logs and found that drive 1 (or drive0 as the system identifies it) is showing as "faulty", while the others show as "online". I was thinking (hoping) that maybe I had misidentified the bad drive so I yanked drive 1 and put the new drive in its place and then put drive 3 back in the system, but now I am right back to the FS check stuck at 0.1% (the clunking is also back, so I guess it was just wishful thinking that drive 3 was OK).
Not sure where I stand now or what to try next. I guess it is possible that I lost 2 drives during whatever power event caused the system to reboot; I know it wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. I guess I am just hoping (again maybe wishful thinking) that since the system boots up OK with drive 3 replaced that there is something I can do to correct or recover from this "faulty" drive 1 (0) and at least get it to the point where I can access my data.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
John
I have an older NV+ ReadyNAS with (4) 500 GB hard drives. Honestly it has been so long since I set it up that I don't really recall the exact configuration, but I am pretty sure I used X-raid. As larger capacity "backup" drives (for example Western Digital My Passport) have become available I have used my ReadyNAS less and less, but it still contains some info that I would prefer not to lose. The ReadyNAS is tucked away under a desk in an area where there is typically there is some type of noise, whether it be music, the TV, other PC's/laptops. etc., so it is truly out of sight and sound.
Last week during a somewhat quiet time I just happened to be down around ground level when I noticed a "clunking" sound coming from the area of the ReadyNAS, which sure sounded like a failing drive to me. I found that the ReadyNAS was inaccessible and when I checked the display it was stuck on a file system check. I had been unaware of any power issues that would have caused the system to reboot, but it is definitely possible that I missed some type of "blip" when I was not around. I let the system be for a while longer just to see if the FS check progressed but it did not. I then tried powering off the unit and powered it back on, but it again got stuck on the FS check, this time at 0.1%
My assumption at that point was that the "clunking" sound was indeed a bad drive and that was the cause of the system not being able to boot. I then began the process of trying to identify the bad drive. I pulled drive 1 and tried to boot the unit. I was still hearing the occasional clunk and the system got stuck with the FS check at 0.1% again. I powered down the unit again, replaced drive 1, pulled drive 2, and powered the unit up. Same result. Finally with drive 3 pulled the unit successfully powered up, but unfortunately my data was not accessible. I set the system to do another FS check and then rebooted the unit, but my data was still inaccessible when it came back up. I then decided that I probably shouldn't fool around any further with one drive pulled, so I powered down the unit and went about ordering a replacement drive.
My replacement drive arrived today. I put it in the system and booted it up, but to my disappointment my I still can't see my data. The system shows that the RAID drive is offline. I ssh'd into the system to examine the system logs and found that drive 1 (or drive0 as the system identifies it) is showing as "faulty", while the others show as "online". I was thinking (hoping) that maybe I had misidentified the bad drive so I yanked drive 1 and put the new drive in its place and then put drive 3 back in the system, but now I am right back to the FS check stuck at 0.1% (the clunking is also back, so I guess it was just wishful thinking that drive 3 was OK).
Not sure where I stand now or what to try next. I guess it is possible that I lost 2 drives during whatever power event caused the system to reboot; I know it wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. I guess I am just hoping (again maybe wishful thinking) that since the system boots up OK with drive 3 replaced that there is something I can do to correct or recover from this "faulty" drive 1 (0) and at least get it to the point where I can access my data.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
John
5 Replies
- Please contact NetGear tech support (http://www.readynas.com/support). Edit thread title (subject of first post) to include your case number. Attempting to fix the problem yourself (particularly replacing disk 3 with another disk when you couldn't access your data) may have harmed the chances of data recovery.
Mutliple disk failures can happen (disks can and do fail at any time), so backups are important. - Thanks for the response. My ReadyNAS is out of warranty so I didn't think to open a support case with Netgear before attempting to fix the issue. I always thought with XRaid that you could have a bad / missing drive and the system would continue to operate OK, but maybe that is not always the case.
Point taken on the importance of backups, but at this point I typically use my ReadyNAS as a backup system and as a location for less important data. No hardship if I do lose the info, but it sure would be nice to be able to check out exactly what is on there before I give it up as a lost cause.
John - If you have a problem with multiple disks then RAID isn't going to help. Now if one disk that's having problems is repairable then there is some chance of data recovery. I believe NetGear offers data recovery services for a reasonable fee. However if the data isn't that important to you, I would probably just cut your losses, check the health of all your disks, replace the bad disks and do a factory reset.
- OK, not quite ready to give up on this yet. The thing is I'm not so sure I do have two bad disks. From the best I can tell disk 3 definitely has some issues as the unit refuses to boot with this drive in there. However, the other suspect disk is disk 1 (or disk 0, depending on where you are looking) and it does not really show any signs of having hardware problems. The system boots up fine with it, there are no SMART errors reported, and the OS appears to be running off of a partition off this drive. This doesn't mean the drive is OK, but it certainly seems that way. Did I possibly (probably) do some harm by booting the unit without drive 3 in there? Maybe that is the case, but there seems like there could/should be some type of behind the scenes magic to somehow reset this "faulty" reading on the drive / partition.
If getting this thing to boot normally is going to be out of the question then I have two follow-ups:
1) What is the best / recommended way of checking the drives to see if they do have hardware problems?
2) Has anyone had any success with recovering data by putting the drive / drives in another system and using something like a live SystemRescueCD?
Thanks again,
John - The best way to test the drives is with the vendor tools. To do this you need to download the appropriate tools and connect the drive directly to a MB SATA port. If you do not have a spare SATA cable, you can temporarily unplug the DVD drive and use those cables.
Hindsight - for future reference in a similar situation, with the unit off, remove and test each drive in sequence rather than trying to boot the unit after pulling a drive.
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