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NV+ failed power supply, best course(s) of action?
I have a ReadyNAS NV+ labeled NV4000 v3 but everything I've read suggests that it's a v1. I can't remember when I bought it. All indications are that the power supply is blotto, to use a highly technical term. If I use the MAC address as a serial number then the unit is too old to be covered under the service advisory... or too new, I didn't count digits. The system has four Barracuda 1.5TB drives, though I doubt that matters.
I'd like to recover data from the (RAID) drives in the easiest way possible. Trying to consolidate all of the information that's floating around is giving me a headache, so I'm turning to you fine people for help. I'm willing to throw money at this as necessary, but I'd prefer to minimize cash expenditures. I'm enough of a LInux sysadmin to be able to follow directions fairly well, but I don't have any spare systems sitting around. As far as I can tell, my best options appear to be:
#1: Buy a power supply (Currently $150ish on Amazon)
#2: Buy a used system on Craigslist (Currently one available for $160, not sure it's compatible) or eBay (haven't checked costs)
#3: Buy and rewire an ATX power supply and make a FrankenNAS (cheap enough, and I think I have a spare power supply)
#4: ??
In an ideal world I will end this process with a fully functional ReadyNAS of some sort, but if I only end up recovering the data then that's OK. I don't mind rewiring a power supply if that's the best course of action-- I'm more of a software girl than a hardware hacker, but it seems to be well within my skill range and I don't mind ending up with an ugly but functional solution. If I could buy a newer model and just slam the old drives in then I'd be willing to do that, but it seems like the drive format is different.
Additionally, I had two USB drives hanging off of this. One is an old backup drive and the other was a newer drive that replaced the old one. I've plugged both into a PC, and the partitions are showing as unformatted even though the ReadyNAS has been writing data to them and I've verified the process at least once. It seems like I must be doing something wrong, but I can't see an obvious blunder on my part. If I could read the newer backup drive then I would have all of the data that I need.
Help?
I'd like to recover data from the (RAID) drives in the easiest way possible. Trying to consolidate all of the information that's floating around is giving me a headache, so I'm turning to you fine people for help. I'm willing to throw money at this as necessary, but I'd prefer to minimize cash expenditures. I'm enough of a LInux sysadmin to be able to follow directions fairly well, but I don't have any spare systems sitting around. As far as I can tell, my best options appear to be:
#1: Buy a power supply (Currently $150ish on Amazon)
#2: Buy a used system on Craigslist (Currently one available for $160, not sure it's compatible) or eBay (haven't checked costs)
#3: Buy and rewire an ATX power supply and make a FrankenNAS (cheap enough, and I think I have a spare power supply)
#4: ??
In an ideal world I will end this process with a fully functional ReadyNAS of some sort, but if I only end up recovering the data then that's OK. I don't mind rewiring a power supply if that's the best course of action-- I'm more of a software girl than a hardware hacker, but it seems to be well within my skill range and I don't mind ending up with an ugly but functional solution. If I could buy a newer model and just slam the old drives in then I'd be willing to do that, but it seems like the drive format is different.
Additionally, I had two USB drives hanging off of this. One is an old backup drive and the other was a newer drive that replaced the old one. I've plugged both into a PC, and the partitions are showing as unformatted even though the ReadyNAS has been writing data to them and I've verified the process at least once. It seems like I must be doing something wrong, but I can't see an obvious blunder on my part. If I could read the newer backup drive then I would have all of the data that I need.
Help?
9 Replies
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- Do you recall how the backup drives were formatted? ext wouldn't be recognized by windows.
- If you do get e.g. a 314, our support should be able to help you recover your data, but you would need:
1. One disk (not from your array) to put in the ReadyNAS
2. Somewhere to backup the data to
3. Follow instructions and not put your disks from your NV+ into the ReadyNAS till prompted
4. After backing up the data, do a factory reset then restore data from backup.
If you get e.g. a 314 and one disk to put in the 314 you could verify the NAS can see the data on your backup disk and restore from that if that is all you need. As StephenB said EXT filesystems wouldn't be recognised by Windows (unless of course you installed drivers to be able to read it). - I'm not 100% certain how they were formatted, but in thinking about it they are almost certainly ext3. I've tried ext2fsd on both an XP and a Vista box, but it just shows the partitions as RAW. explore2fs on XP finds nothing whatsoever, though I'm not sure I'm using it correctly... I haven't tried it on the Vista box yet.
Oh hey... I have a rackmount server downstairs that probably has a USB port. I'll fire that up tomorrow and see if I have any luck. if I can read the larger of the USB drives then I'll be a happy camper, since that should be a 100% backup. - Maybe use a linux boot CD on one of the windows systems?
Or try linux reader (http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/) - If you run-out of ideas, you might want to call 5R Processors in WI and see if they have any NV+ chassis left. I bought one from them a few years ago as a backup for $100 bucks i.e. for the less than the price of a power supply alone you get a complete chassis.
715-532-2050 ask for Randy. He has/had an ID on this site Cheezhead but I see he hasn't posted for a couple years... good guy if he's still there. - Thank you all for the assistance!
The backup drives were formatted as ext3. I threw a bootable USB drive into a laptop, fired it up, and was able to recover the files that I had an immediate need for. This drive should be a 100% backup of the ReadyNAS, so I can figure out what I want to do for a replacement/repair at my leisure. - Well you will want to make a fresh backup so you have at least two copies (preferably three of important data, whether or not you have an immediate need for it).
Glad to hear you managed to recover what you need now. - mdgm, that is an excellent recommendation!
I actually have a backup, as it turns out. The backup drive is now effectively the primary drive, and the ReadyNAS drives are my backup. I'll have to fix the power supply before I can restore from backup but I only have to do that if the former-backup-now-primary disk fails. - I have been through the PSU failure. Call Netgear Business. Tell them your PSU has failed. They will sell you a new unit for around $28.00. Do not use a Overtek PSU or a PSU with an extension cable on it. You may have compatibility issues.
My ReadyNAS nv+ now has disk problems. Disk4 reports dead and will not sync. I believe it is related to PSU. Not sure why, but think it is either the +12V supply was noir stiff enough and couldn't handle the drives -or- the added blue line on the end of the connector is a sense line and it being far away from the motherboard with the extension cable cause me the grief.
When I replaced the PSU with Overtek, first thing noticed was display errors. All was fine. I decided to resync the unit(big mistake) and it told me after a lengthy time that disk4 had failed. I happen to have two more identical drives in an OWC RAID box... spares. They were working fine. I replaced drive4 with one of those. Told me disk4 removed. Disk4 replaced, Syncing disk4. And then way later disk4 bad. Tried the second known good drive. Same thing. Put the original removed drive back, same thing.
If anyone can suggest next step, would be happy to listen and try. I know enough not to pull one of the other drives. It will run with 3 drives in non-redundant mode. Have not been successful in inserting a used formatted drive in drive4 and having the ReadyNAS nv+ v1 sparc unit format and sync it. Should I try formatting it ext3 first and then insert it? I thought the unit automatically formats any foreign drive before or as it sync's it. Can anyone verify this?
ANYWAY... warning I recommend avoiding the use of PSU with extender cable for the ReadyNAS Nv+. You may have display errors and problems later. Call NetGear and buy the replacement for around $30.00
Chris
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