3 Disks failed, 2 back, still trying case # 20574298

Just a quick update, I just PUTTY the NAS for be sure that a L3 engineer should not encounter any problem connecting from the Internet to the NAS. All ready to have that elusive connection...

For my curiosity, I place a sfdisk on the unit, I got:

# sfdisk -l

Disk /dev/hdc: 243200 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 0+ 254- 255- 2048000 83 Linux
/dev/hdc2 254+ 286- 32- 256000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdc3 286+ 121599- 121314- 974447286+ 5 Extended
/dev/hdc4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/hdc5 286+ 89403- 89117- 715827881+ 8e Linux LVM
/dev/hdc6 89403+ 121598- 32196- 258611211 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/hde: 243200 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hde1 0+ 254- 255- 2048000 83 Linux
/dev/hde2 254+ 286- 32- 256000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hde3 286+ 121599- 121314- 974447286+ 5 Extended
/dev/hde4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/hde5 286+ 89403- 89117- 715827881+ 8e Linux LVM
/dev/hde6 89403+ 121598- 32196- 258611211 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/hdg: 121575 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hdg1 0+ 254- 255- 2048000 83 Linux
/dev/hdg2 254+ 286- 32- 256000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdg3 286+ 121599- 121314- 974447286+ 5 Extended
/dev/hdg4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/hdg5 286+ 89403- 89117- 715827881+ 8e Linux LVM
/dev/hdg6 89403+ 121598- 32196- 258611211 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/hdi: 243200 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track

sfdisk: ERROR: sector 0 does not have an msdos signature
/dev/hdi: unrecognized partition table type
No partitions found

Where you can see /hdc and /hde are the HDD recovered from the dark side of the force, the /hdg is the survivor original HDD and the /hdi is the brand new HDD not partitioned drive.

I understand that partitions over /hdc /hde /hdg are identical, that is for some reason giving me hope to recover data, but, no matter that I put the NAS to boot without check filesystem (as instructed by tech support) the RESYNC option is just not available over Frontview.

I wonder, Is it mandatory to have a partitioned HDD to get a RESYNC available over Frontview? I don't think so, but, I like to ask, as I feel we are close to got an answer, positive or negative.

Let's see what happens, I realy would love to know how to RESYNC over commands, but that seems to be out of my range, as a more experienced Jedi master is requested.

Cheers!

Council:

Some curious happened today: the blue led, which usualy blinks as indicating that some is not going fine, turned off; but the USB led turned ON, fixed green.

I call tech support to update the case and let them know about, and they confirmed that the NAS is still available over the telnet boot mode, I also confirmed that through PUTTY, and they another time said that a Level 3 engineer connection is required...two months now for get that connection...

I can't remember have seen that USB led ON, as I never connect a USB drive to the NAS.

Anyway, let's mark the Master Kenobi words: "Patience, you must learn to have patience"

Some curious happened today...light show :?

After an electrical blackout the NAS is not able to enter Tech Support mode, is not showing itself anymore to the RAIDar and it just blink the blue led of activity while the led from HDD 1 is steady on green.

After doing anything else I update my case for let know techsupport.

Now, the curious thing: after 30 minutes the HDD 1 led changed OFF, but, the #2 started to blink, then changed to green fix but HDD #3 get green fixed ON.

I hope the light show mean some non destructive, I will let the NAS to work prior to shut it down or doing anything else.

In short words.-

Try to boot (no pressing any button), HDD #1 led green fixed ON.
After 30 minutes, HDD #1 led goes OFF, but #2 started blink slowly ON green.
After 5 minutes, HDD #2 stays green ON but #3 got ON steady.
After 15 minutes #1 got ON fixed green again, now leds #1, #2 and #3 are ON; blue led all the time blinking.

HDD #4 is new and it does not have even format.

What's going on??????

This is getting more interesting...

If you power down the NAS and remove the disks (label order) can you then put it in tech support mode? If so, re-insert the disks again (keeping the same order as before) and let the support agent know what's happened.

Hello again mdgm,

I'm almost assure you that the NAS will boot into tech support mode just following your advise.

In the meantime the light show goes on, I'm taking notes about the changes, and I detect some logic, and activity is appearing every 10-15 minutes, I have been waiting for 2 months, therefore, I feel no hurries letting the NAS to work, I just hope to be sure when the NAS finished it's errands, I hope that finally the LAN led will go ON and the NAS will show on RAIDar.

I might be too optimistic, but, you know: feel, don't think, use your instincts...:-)

Against what I expect, when I remove all the 4 HDDs from unit:

The NAS is unable to boot to tech support nor normal boot not even skip volume check.,It just blinks the power led on blue twice a second, and the HDD # 2 remains ON.

I double check the SODIMM removing and reinseting it, also did the same with the RAM DIM, same dead end: blue blink and #2 ON fixed.

Please advise

Do you see your light pattern here?: http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/hardware/what_does_this_light_pattern_mean

Thanks for the quick reply mdgm:

Yes, I did, but what puzzles me is no match, as the led # 2 just remains ON as the blue led blinks, but no change in the pattern so far (the NAS is powered UP 1 hour ago).

The blue led on the SODIMM itself, that I remember was fixed blue when tech support mode, now is just OFF.There is a jumper near by the SODIMM, it says "Defoult OFF=Jumper 1-2, Defoult ON=Jumper 3-4" actually is on 3-4, Is it related to the SODIMM?

By the way, I'm possibly missnaming the removable internal USB module the 1100 includes, I'm calling it SODIMM, but possibly that would be the 512 MB RAM DIMM present near by.

Update:

Tech support has requested an RMA as seems that chasis got something wrong at hardware level.

I already started the RMA process, let's wait some days to contuinue this case of the 3 damaged disks...

Keep calm...and pray to the X-RAID