Stuck on Boot Menu - Time to toss it and forgo Netgear products in the future?

Question

My 104 fans were going crazy one nice, so I turned it off by pressing the power button and allowing it to gracefully shut down. I tried to boot it a few days later, and now I get:

1) a flashing power button

2) "Boot Menu" printed on the screen

3) "Normal" added to the screen then I press the Backup button

I think I've had this problem before but don't know how I fixed it. I also see that's it's a very common problem with this piece of... hardware.

I tried to remove the disks and boot without them - same thing. I've tried making a USB Recovery tool and booting into that. It allowed me to boot from USB and seemingly completed the recovery process and turned itself off, but when I booted it again I was back to the "Boot Menu" screen.

Is it time to toss this thing to the curb? Can I buy a different brand and just slide my drive into it and retain the data? Can I plug the drives into my computer and retain the data?

rn_enthusiast · Answer

Hi again.&nbsp;You obviously haven't had the best experience from what I can read. The RN104 is an entry level unit but that doesn't mean it should fail more often, honestly. I am moving away from ReadyNAS as my main unit in 2021 but that is for a different reason as I am creating my own NAS over which I will have greater software and upgrade control.&nbsp;If you want to get the data out it requires:- A PC booted into Linux- Be able to connect all your HDDs to the PC, at the same time- A place where you can dump the data (other network storage or large USB also connected to the PC, etc.)&nbsp;The NAS runs 3 raids. One for the OS, one for swap space and one raid for the data volume.You&nbsp;only care about the data raid. To assemble the raids, the ReadyNAS uses mdadm which can be installed on any Linux box. Then afterwards BTRFS needs to be installed (also available to any Linux distro) in order to mount the filesystem (post the raid assembly). Once you have access to the data, then back it up/dump it somewhere (network storage/USB/etc.).&nbsp;Here are some places to start.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mdadm&nbsp;https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/A_guide_to_mdadm&nbsp;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Btrfs&nbsp;https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Getting_started&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Cheers

StephenB · Answer

You should see a "no disks" status on the display if you power up with no disks inserted.
&nbsp;
If you purchase another OS-6 ReadyNAS, you can migrate the disks to it.&nbsp; It's a bit easier if you get another RN214, but it will work with other models.&nbsp; The main issue is that most apps won't migrate, so you'd need to reinstall them.

jamiebeith · Answer

Well it definitely doesn't say "No Disks", so I guess I'm screwed?

It's a shame that the NAS failed before any drive inside failed. That's pretty unacceptable to me. I don't want to use Netgear products if this is the quality I should expect. Is it possible to migrate the data out of the Netgear ecosystem?

rn_enthusiast · Answer

Hi jamiebeith&nbsp;&nbsp;Each have their own experience and I don't know for how long you have had this product but my general experience is that Netgear's hardware is of really high quality, compared to the Plastic box you will get with for example Synology. And you get a very decent warranty for free, with your product.&nbsp;You can get the data out of the NAS, yes (it requires knowledge though). There is no use of proprietary software to make that RAID work. However, I would echo what StephenB said and suggest upgrade to an RN214 which is a very good unit. It would be super easy to transition, simply swap the disks over &gt; power the new unit on and off you go.&nbsp;&nbsp;Cheers

jamiebeith · Answer

The problem is that the issue I'm having seems extremely common across owners of the 104, so I don't really seeing it as being a dud that I got.&nbsp; Do you think that it's fair that a NAS enclosure should outlast the mechanical disks inside?&nbsp; I believe I've had this for 4 years or so and it's the 3rd major issue I've had with it (once was locked out of admin page after an update and another where the issue was the same as now)&nbsp;I'm fairly versed in computers, so I may just look into plugging them into my computer assuming I have the SATA slots to handle it and figure it out from there.&nbsp; I really don't see myself buying another Netgear product as I was unable to find any official statement on the 104 failing in this way, and that to me is also unacceptable.

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Stuck on Boot Menu - Time to toss it and forgo Netgear products in the future?

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