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Drives Not Recognized by ReadyNAS Duo V2
My ReadyNAS Duo V2 (RND2000-200AJS) runs the 5.3.13 firmware and seems to work correctly with the old disks that I've used in it. However I need more storage capacity so I bought a pair of new 3TB WD...
Thanks for the prompt reply. Yes, I have done several factory resets as I tried out various things I hoped would work. I have no difficulty getting the ReadyNAS Duo V2to operate correctly as long as it is fitted with a couple of old disks I used in it for years until they became full. I have reset the device and reinstated those disks (by then wiped clean by the reset, in the cases where I had it in RAID mode at the time) with no difficulty; it all followed what the manual said it would do. However when I install one of the WD Gold disks alongside one of those old disks, the old disk behaves perfectly and the Gold disk is not processed. If I put in the Gold disk alone, it as treated as not having a disk installed.
I have been using Raidar 4.3.8, and it has worked well for me.
The inability to get the Gold disks recognised is the only odd thing that has been happening - in other respects the Duo V2 acts as I had expected. That has led me to suspect that the Duo V2 is incompatible with my Gold disks, and perhaps will all Gold disks. The Netgear list of acceptable disk types does not seem to have been updated in some time, and in fact I was unable to access it when I tried.
I'm hoping that there is a way around this problem, because each of the Gold disks cost substantially more than the Duo V2 did when I bought it new, and they are not returnable now that they have been formatted. It looks as if I will end up having to scrap the Duo V2 and go looking for a device I can use my disks in.
oldandtired wrote:
The Netgear list of acceptable disk types does not seem to have been updated in some time, and in fact I was unable to access it when I tried.
The HCL is available, but pretty useless since it is so old. It is possible that it isn't compatible, though I find that surprising. You did try unformatting the disk?
oldandtired wrote:
they are not returnable now that they have been formatted.
That sounds a bit unusual to me, and of course you can unformat them by zeroing them with lifeguard.
On-line sellers I've used generally will allow exchanges at least for any reason.
- Thank you once again for taking the trouble to help me. After reading your reply I successfully accessed the list of approved disks, which contained many WD disks but unfortunately not Gold. I then unformatted one of the disks using Data Lifeguard and installed it on the left, alongside a working RAID disk. The left "disk present" LED illuminated dimly, the right one brightly. I performed a factory reset, and it went through a normal initial setup but the left LED did not illuminate at all and the final status was only one disk present. I then followed your advice more closely by removing the right disk (the working one), leaving the new unformatted Gold disk on the left, and performing another factory reset. When it was completed RAIDar reported "No disks detected." That seems to be as far as I can go at the moment. Can you suggest anything else? I will approach the ebay seller of the two disks. Their status is a bit odd, they seem to be New Old Stock. Mine show a manufacture date of 2014, so I doubt they have a full WD warranty, if they have a warranty at all.
oldandtired wrote:
I then unformatted one of the disks using Data LifeguardAll I can think of is to try the full non-destructive read test in lifeguard, followed by the full write-zeros test. If they both pass, then afterwards check the SMART statistics for command timeouts, reallocated sectors and pending sector counts.
That should confirm the disk health, and would leave us with a compatibility issue. Though that does seem odd, since people clearly have put modern disks into your NAS. But I haven't seen any posts from people using this particular drive model in a v2 NAS.
I followed the process you laid out, but it didn't change the outcome and I investigated a bit further more or less in desperation. I looked up the new product announcement for the WD Gold series which turned out to be on April 19 2016:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/10259/western-digital-introduces-wd-gold-hdds-for-datacenters
Then I looked at my two disks and found they were dated 2014 and 2015. This led me to suspect that they were pre-production samples. I pointed this out to the ebay seller, and he agreed to take them back. I posted them to him.
Nothing about this experience has indicated anything negative about the ReadyNAS Duo V2, or the WD Gold as a product. I retain a slight suspicion that the "refurbishment process" said to have been carried out by WD on these drives may not have included updating the software on them, but it is always easy to criticise other people after the event by relying on hindsight. Many thanks to StephenB and the Netgear Community for guiding me in this process, which has had a successful conclusion.
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