I have a Netgear ReadyNAS 214 4-bay with 2 4TB drives and 2 2TB drives configured in RAID 5. X-RAID is turned on. Last night, the display read: find_get_entry+5c and I could not log into the device via browser or connect to Plex. The power button was not responding, so I had no choice but to unplug it. It happened again, so I unplugged again and then immediately logged into the device and ran a SYSTEM --> VOLUME --> settings --> Disk Test. It ran for a while, and it looked like volume 1 (2 TB) was throwing errors and possibly on the brink of failure. I immediately began running a Google Drive Cloud backup because I have all of my DVDs/BluRays copied to this NAS and I'd lose my collection.I decided to upgrade the 2 2 TB drives to 2 4 TB drives which would give me 4 x 4 TB instead of 2 x 2 TB and 2 x 4 TB, and my RAID would go from roughly 6 TB to 8 TB; it's a money thing - right now I don't have any. I had a drive go bad previously, and upon hot swapping a drive, I lost the entire volume and had to start over. I don't want to make the same mistake this time. How do I change out the 2 2TB drives with the new 4 TB drives? I DID check, and ALL drives involved are ReadyNAS 214 4 bay compatible. See attached screenshots. Also, when I initiated the Google Drive backup it changed from Read and Write to Read Only. I want Read and Write permissions.

kuroneko1971 , neither StephenB nor I work for Netgear or receive any compensation for our contributions here. Given that, you have unrealistic expectations of when you will receive a response without even considering any time zone differences. If you really want help, don't go off doing things on your own. As with the re-boot (which you think you couldn't avoid, but now we'll never know), you are doing more damage to your volume every time.

No, your volume is not "degraded", which simply means still accessible, but lacking redundancy. It's unmountable, aka "lost" Exactly what I warned you was a likely occurrence when I told you "DO NOT, under any circumstances, reboot the NAS to try to fix this. The more likely result will be nothing best case or loss of your volume worst case." There was a chance, assuming you have SSH enabled, that a reboot wasn't necessary. But now we'll never know. Each time you've "tried something on your own" you have made things worse and made helping you a moving target. I understand you aren't trying to be rude, but you are impatient You want to fix the problem, and you want to do it now. But if you want help, you have to wait for it and you need to heed the advise given to you. At this point, somebody (not me, I'm not an expert there) will need to analyze your logs and see if you can mount your volume manually, assuming you are comfortable doing so via SSH or Telnet and the Linux command line. Then, if it is mountable, you'll need to copy the files to another device before you factory default the NAS and restore the files. There will likely still be issues with some files, which may or may not be readily apparent. So it's now up to you whether you want to go through the task of trying to recover at least some files (probably most if you can mount it) or just start from scratch now. And, you may also want to consider a backup plan. Given Netgear is clearly exiting the NAS market, getting another brand of NAS to become your primary and relegating the ReadyNAS to backup duty could be a good choice.

Here's a second screenshot of my configuration; I guess you can only post one image per post.

If your volume automatically went from read-write to read-only, it's because the volume is on life support. You likely have faults on at least two drives. The OS did that to protect you. Any writes at this point will most likely cause data loss. DO NOT, under any circumstances, reboot the NAS to try to fix this. The more likely result will be nothing best case or loss of your volume worst case. Once the volume goes read-only, I have never been successful in making it permanently read/write without destroying the volume and starting over (or a factory default, if you prefer).

Unfortunately, it locked up during the backup and I rebooted before your reply came across and I got this:Remove inactive volumes to use the disk. Disk 1,2,3,4 (see screenshot)I have two drives on the way. If I shut down, remove 1 (1 I know was going to fail) and replace with a new drive and reboot, will the RAID reconfigure all the data to the new drive? It should have redundancy in the RAID5 X-Raid array, right? Then, after it resyncs, replace drive 2?

ReadyNAS RN214 RAID5 disk upgrading

15 Replies

kuroneko1971
Aspirant
Jul 21, 2023
Here's a second screenshot of my configuration; I guess you can only post one image per post.
- Sandshark
  Sensei
  Jul 21, 2023
  If your volume automatically went from read-write to read-only, it's because the volume is on life support. You likely have faults on at least two drives. The OS did that to protect you. Any writes at this point will most likely cause data loss. DO NOT, under any circumstances, reboot the NAS to try to fix this. The more likely result will be nothing best case or loss of your volume worst case.
  
  Once the volume goes read-only, I have never been successful in making it permanently read/write without destroying the volume and starting over (or a factory default, if you prefer).
  - kuroneko1971
    Aspirant
    Jul 21, 2023
    Unfortunately, it locked up during the backup and I rebooted before your reply came across and I got this:
    Remove inactive volumes to use the disk. Disk 1,2,3,4 (see screenshot)
    I have two drives on the way. If I shut down, remove 1 (1 I know was going to fail) and replace with a new drive and reboot, will the RAID reconfigure all the data to the new drive? It should have redundancy in the RAID5 X-Raid array, right? Then, after it resyncs, replace drive 2?
StephenB
Guru
Jul 21, 2023
kuroneko1971 wrote:

I decided to upgrade the 2 2 TB drives to 2 4 TB drives which would give me 4 x 4 TB instead of 2 x 2 TB and 2 x 4 TB, and my RAID would go from roughly 6 TB to 8 TB;

You should upgrade the storage, as at the moment you only have 10% free space. It's best to have at least 15%, especially if you have snapshots enabled.

Your storage calculations are incorrect - with 2x2 + 2x4 TB, X-RAID is already giving you an 8 TB volume size (reported in TiB, so it is listed as ~7.27). 4x4 TB will expand your volume to 12 TB (10.9 TiB).

kuroneko1971 wrote:

Also, when I initiated the Google Drive backup it changed from Read and Write to Read Only. I want Read and Write permissions.

This needs more explanation. The NAS will set the volume to Read Only when it detects a problem with BTRFS in order to minimize the chance of data loss. Is that what "it changed"? Or are you talking about something else (perhaps permissions on the google drive backup???).

kuroneko1971 wrote:

How do I change out the 2 2TB drives with the new 4 TB drives? I DID check, and ALL drives involved are ReadyNAS 214 4 bay compatible. See attached screenshots.

First, the HCL for ReadyNAS is quite old, and in some cases misleading. I recommend using WD Red Plus or Seagate Ironwolf with the RN214, though any enterprise class drive is also fine. Most desktop drives in the 2-6 TB range are now using SMR technology, which doesn't work well with ReadyNAS. WD Red models also use SMR, so they also are not good choices.

If you aren't sure about SMR/CMR, then I suggest posting the manufacturer and model of the drives you purchased, so we can follow up.

I always test my own drives in a Windows PC before inserting them into the NAS - using vendor tools (for example Seatools). I don't format them in the PC (that isn't necessary to run the tests). I run both the long non-destructive test, and the full erase test - I've had some out-of-the-box drives fail one of these tests, but not the other. It takes some time, but I find it's much better to confirm that the drive is working properly before trying to add it to the array.

Netgear recommends backing up the NAS before manipulating drives (and I agree - personally I always maintain up-to-date backups of my data).

I recommend hot-swapping the drives (removing the old, and inserting the new drive with the NAS running). If the replacement is unformatted, the NAS will automatically add it to the array when you hot-insert it. Wait for the resync to fully complete before you hot-swap the next drive - if you remove the second drive before the resync finishes, you will lose your data.

Note it will resync in two steps because you have two RAID groups in your volume. After the first replacement, the volume should expand from 8 to 10 TB during the second step. If it doesn't expand, then something is wrong, so don't continue.

After the second replacement, it will expand again from 10 TB to 12 TB.
- StephenB
  Guru
  Jul 21, 2023
  It's good that you sent me the logs.
  
  Untfortunately, this is not a simple disk replacement. You have more than one disk with errors, and I am also seeing BTRFS errors in one of your RAID groups.
  
  I replied with more specifics in a rather long PM.
  - kuroneko1971
    Aspirant
    Jul 22, 2023
    StephenB I sent you a PM, but since I didn't hear back, I decided to experiment a little bit. I turned the NAS back on and once it was, "up," I popped disk 0 of the array (in the first bay) out and waited until the NAS acknowledged the drive had been removed. I then counted to 10 and re-inserted it. It immediately began rebuilding the array. That was at 3:30 this afternoon; it is currently 9:40 pm, 6 hours later, and it currently stands at 85.72% and if all goes well, should be complete in about 2:20 (about midnight). Since I plan on staying up until then, I am going to see what happens, and possibly replace that 2TB drive with a 4TB tonight and let it resync while I sleep. I'm on the West Coast, but I will check in some time tomorrow with an update on what happens.

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ReadyNAS RN214 RAID5 disk upgrading

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