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Forum Discussion
Readynas 1500 corrupt root
I am having problems setting up a never used Readynas 1500 unit. I can see it RAIDar it tells me to press the setup button and after slecting RAID type, it starts setting up but it always ends up wit...
StephenB wrote:First, I'd try testing one of the drives with the full erase / write zeros test. I have had drives that passed the long generic test, but failed the erase test. Failed writes could be part of the puzzle, as that could result in a corrupt root (which means the NAS can't find a partition to boot from). If that drive passes the erase test, then maybe try again with only that drive installed in the NAS. After the erase, simply powering up the NAS should trigger a factory install.
Of course the NAS chassis could be at fault - a failing SATA backplane, poor connection to the drive trays, memory issues, etc. I think that could include the possibility of corrupt firmware in the flash. So you could try a USB recovery: https://kb.netgear.com/30267/RAIDiator-4-2-USB-Recovery-Tool
Runninng full zero now.
The USB recovery tool fails to open on Windows 10 with 'This application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect'. I believe this is a missing VCRedist package and I did get it to work before. I tried reinstalling about 6 of them and still no-go now.
Any hints on what I need to insdtall to get that going?
I'm not seeing that on my own Win10 system, so I don't know what to tell you on that.
Probably worth trying an older version of Windows if you have an older Windows machine lying around.
The 1500 is a 32-bit x86 system like the NVX and 1500 v1.
If you get a login prompt when you telnet to the device when it's in the corrupt root or no disks detected state or have chosen the tech support boot menu option then there's other troubleshooting options to try to identify if the firmware on the internal flash is the problem.
I did full erase via SeaTools, it passed, I inserted the drive into ReadyNAS, powered it up and it still says corrupt root.
Then, I ran factory reset, and after 'Testing Disks' it said 'press setup'. I choose the default 'Expandable Volume (X-RAID2)'. It went into 'installing', then 'Corrupt root'.
I repeated the same with 'Flexible-RAID' - Corrupt root.
For firmware, the documenation says the NAS is sensitive to USB drive type. I createad three different drives, powered up the NAS with 'reset' button pressed in for 15s and each time it got stuck in boot selection menu. Did not shut down after 20 minutes. Is there another way to trigger firmware update from USB?
I am able to telnet into the NAS and am getting the login prompt. How can I troubleshoot from there?
JaSn6 wrote:
How can I troubleshoot from there?
The corrupt root means that that NAS was unable to create a bootable partition on the disks during the factory install.
Possible causes are
- bad disk(s)
- an error in the flash (a corrupt firmware image for example)
- some other hardware error (for instance failing SATA hardware).
You've ruled out the disks. I haven't needed to diagnose or fix flash issues myself, and I don't know of any step-by-step for it. Some others here have, and hopefully they will chime in.
USB recovery is what I recommend next. While I have heard of exceptions, the general rules I recommend for choosing a flash drive that will work is: Not USB3, not over 8GB, and must have only one partition. Older. slower devices seem to work better than newer ones. I bought a pack of 5 8GB on Amazon for <$15 and they work great. Especially with a rackmount NAS, one with an access LED can help you know it's working.
Sandshark wrote:USB recovery is what I recommend next. While I have heard of exceptions, the general rules I recommend for choosing a flash drive that will work is: Not USB3, not over 8GB, and must have only one partition. Older. slower devices seem to work better than newer ones. I bought a pack of 5 8GB on Amazon for <$15 and they work great. Especially with a rackmount NAS, one with an access LED can help you know it's working.
I do have an old 1GB drive from 2006 but I am not sure the documented way of using it is acurate for ReadyNAS 1500.
https://kb.netgear.com/30267/RAIDiator-4-2-USB-Recovery-Tool
When following this, it just goes to the boot menu, and like I mentioned, I tried three different drives, front and back USB slots.
I can keep trying but just wanted to make sure this is in fact the way to do USB recovery on ReadyNAS 1500.
Thanks for all the help!
Looking at the hardware manual, unlike current rackmount models the 1500 has a backup button. So I would try pressing the backup button (rather than the reset button) on boot like with the desktop systems.
Success!
It took 7 different USB drives to find one that will work but the USB firmware update did the trick and I was now able to properly set up the unit.
Thanks so much for the help!
To anyone struggling with this in the future:
- The front USB port is the one to use. Don't get discouraged that the USB LED does not lit up.
- Even though the USB recovery page says 'Before powering on the device, press and hold the Backup (or Reset on Rackmount) button', on my rackmount it was the 'backup' button that did the trick.
- If the Recovery tools fails to launch on Windows with the side-by-side error, you will need the VC redist for Visual Studio 2005 (there are two, get the latest). Install the x86 version!
- It might just be a coincidence but after creating the recovery drive, I noticed only the release notes got copied. I am guessing the firmware got re-encoded to a different format but since it was missing in its original downloaded form but the .html was there, I copied the firmware file manually once the usb recovery drive creation was completed.
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