ReadyNAS 104 Firmware 6.10.7 - All four disks inactive following hot-swap of failed vol 2

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Whiskeypod wrote:

Performance tab claims all four disks are fine - all green.  

It appears to me that the ReadyNAS, in its wisdom, after resync, somehow decided to mark my original volume as DEAD, then decided that disk 4 had failed (it hasn't, as it is currently listed as healthy in the Performance tab; also there had NEVER been any notification about any degradation or issues with disk 4), and then marked my original volume from DEAD to INACTIVE. 

 

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Regrettably, the ReadyNAS can misreport disk health - there are several cases I've seen where the NAS reports a failed disk as healthy.  Disks also can and do fail without warning, so the absence of prior notification is not definitive either.

I recommend powering down the NAS and testing the disk in a Windows PC with WD's dashboard utility.  You can connect the disk to the PC using either SATA or a USB adapter/dock.   Probably makes sense to test disk 2 while you are at it.

BTW, label the disks by slot as you remove them (and also label the disk you removed).  

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Whiskeypod wrote:

(you can see from the logs that resync took about 90 minutes.)

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This is actually a bad sign.  RAID runs "below" the file system, it doesn't know what blocks on the disks hold data and which do not.  A resync requires reading all 12 TB on your pre-existing disks, and then writing 4 TB of data to the new one.  That can't be done in 90 minutes (despite the completion message), so something went wrong.

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Whiskeypod wrote:

My NAS does not have a backup, I purchased it with four drives AS a storage and back up, as the data was meant to be safe from failures with four disks.

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As you have found out, devices (including disks and NAS) can fail at any time.  RAID is useful, but it is not enough to keep your data safe.  The only way to do that is to have a good back up plan in place.  Hopefully you will be able to recover your data, and take care of that.

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Whiskeypod wrote:

 

Basically, after the hot-swap, the nas went about to self-destruct as per above, and then created a new volume, so there are now two, both marked as full as all disks are marked as inactive.

How do I fix this?
How do I get my data back?

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While it looks like it created a new volume, it didn't actually do that.  The problem is that it could not mount your existing volume due to the failures during resync.

Analyzing and fixing this problem is complicated (and honestly, success is not certain).  The best option is to use paid Netgear support - likely you will need a data recovery contract. 

• https://kb.netgear.com/69/ReadyNAS-Data-Recovery-Diagnostics-Scope-of-Service

Another option is to connect all the disks to a Windows PC (likely using an enclosure of some kind), and then using RAID recovery software that supports BTRFS.  ReclaiMe is one package that other users have used with success.  This option would also require that you have additional storage to copy off your data.

Also, keep the disk you removed.  It sounds like it hadn't completely failed, and you might need it as part of the recovery process. 

Some folks recently have had trouble getting paid support for their ReadyNAS.  The mods ( Mark_V and JeraldM ) should be able to help with that.  They likely will also move this discussion thread to the ReadyNAS forum area.