Firmware Update from 6.7.1 to 6.7.3 Has Failed

I did exactly as you suggested in your PM and had exactly the same results as prior.

The updated syslinux file made no difference.

The NAS is now no longer functional after the firmware update.

I've sent you another PM requesting some more details.

Looks like your system is now fixed and running fine.

Using Rufus a USB Boot key was created that could be successfully booted from.

Then I fixed the full root issue some other users have seen.

McRob1, can you please explain the steps you needed to take to resolve this? My 314 is in the same state but I'm not having any luck with the suggested solutions.

The real issue I had was getting a USB drive to be read by the NAS as a boot device.

MDGM suggested I use a software program called Rufus to create a bootable USB device.  Windows 10 would not format a USB device that the NAS considered bootable.

After using the default settings in Rufus to format and make the USB device bootable I used the Netgear USB recovery tool to add the firmware and image data to the USB device.

Now the trick is to get the NAS to actually boot from the USB device.  When it boots from the USB device it will install the new firmware from it.

My NAS 516 required me to insert the USB device into any USB port and then power up the NAS.  I had to wait for the front panel to go dark and then press where the OK button was lit to get the NAS to give me a message asking if I wanted to boot from a USB device.  I continued to press on the OK symbol to get the NAS to boot from the now bootable USB device.

I am not sure how your NAS314 works but there should be instruction links provided in this post by MDGM.

Then after it loaded the new firmware the NAS still had a problem booting.

It got to 77% complete and then started giving messages about boot failures and that it was retrying.

I was able to restart the NAS and get it into service mode so that MDGM could correct an issue with the OS partition being full.

I have no idea how or what he did to correct that issue but within a few minutes he remotely changed something and rebooted the NAS.

No data was lost and it is now running 6.7.3 firmware.

If you need more info let me know and have hope.

Thanks. I've now tried with three four different USB drives. Two Three (a SanDisk Cruzer 4GB, a generic 1GB and a Staples 4GB) simply don't work. The 314 just tries to boot up as usual and I get the recurring "mount_block_root + 1f1" error code.

The third USB drive (a Patriot 8GB) gets a bit further. After one brief blink of activity on the USB drive's status light, I can see "Netgear Storage / Welcome [ ]" on the 314's LCD and the NAS power button blinks steadily, but there's no USB activity and nothing seems to be happening. At no point do I see "USB Recovery Mode" or anything on the LCD.

I've now left the 314 in that limbo state for 20+ minutes two times. No joy. 

All three USB drives have been formatted using the default options in Rufus, and I've approached the USB Recovery creation two ways: Both with and without clicking "Format" in the USB Recovery creation tool. When I don't format, there's an extra "LOCALE" folder and an autorun executable. When I do format, those two files aren't there.

I don't really have any more USB drives that I can try. What size and model USB did you use?

I guess I got lucky.

I used a Sandisk Cruzer Glide 3.0 that was 16 GB in size.  I bought it at Costco some time ago.

MDGM gave me a link to a updated syslinux application file that I replaced a older version in the X86 folder.

Maybe that made the difference.

My NAS516 required me to time the pressing of the OK button very quickly after initial power on or it would not give me the message "boot from USB device".  I had to wait until just after the front panel went dark to then quickly press and firmly hold where the OK button was.

If I missed the timing by a second I would not get the message "boot from USB device" and I knew I needed to start over with the power up.

My NAS was running firmware 6.7.1 which according to MDGM would automatically boot from a USB device.  That did not work at all.

I had to press the OK button.

When I actually got it to work the NAS display said loading FW.  After 50 tries I was really happy I got a new message.

Good Luck and there is hope.

If you try a 3rd party tool you do need to make sure that the files from the x86 folder go on the USB key (initrd.gz, kernel etc.).

On a more recent BIOS the system should automatically boot off a NETGEAR USB Service key. On an older BIOS on the RN314 you'd need to press and hold the backup button on the front, turn the NAS on, and continue holding the backup button to get it to boot off USB 

The USB key does need to be syslinux bootable.

I did that. Tried all formatting methods, held the Backup button, etc. Nothing is working.

Did you remember to right click the program and choose Run as Administrator? Even if you're logged in as an Administrator running as an Administrator can help.

You may have tried incompatible USB keys.

Yes. I've done everything that was suggested. I got online with chat support and I can't even access the boot menu. Something's really wrong. It sounds like they're replacing the chassis.

This is weird. I have several ReadyNAS units and have been able to successfully use USB Boot Recovery with any of them I've wanted to.

I do think either the USB keys you've tried are incompatible or something has gone wrong creating the USB Boot Recovery key.

Anyway we do reach a point where we feel that considering all that's been tried in cases like this that an RMA is the way forward.

Has anyone considered creating a USB drive that they know works and sending it to a user that is having problems.  Netgear might be able to avoid the expense of returning a NAS.

The "known working" USB is a solution I would have preferred — or even a list of verified compatible USB sticks. I ordered a newer USB stick but it will take longer to get here than a replacement NAS. It might even be worth Netgear's while to include a USB Recovery stick with each NAS.

Incidentally, I tried six different USB sticks in the end: three SanDisk (two of the same model), a Patriot, a Staples and a no-name. And I tried formatting each of them using different methods: with Rufus and then drag-and-dropping the USB Recovery files, with the USB Recovery tool alone, and with a mix of the two. None worked. But then, my NAS won't even boot into the Boot Menu for maintenance mode, so it might be too far gone to use USB Recovery.

My NAS516 would not boot into recovery mode either.  It must have had a corrupted firmware load.  Thats why all I could get was a message "mount_block_root +1f1".

I also needed to press the buttons during startup at exactly the right times in order to get the unit to even look for a USB drive to boot from.

When you get done looking at all the posibilities you have about a 1% chance of making it work when you include how difficult it is to create a USB stick that also works.

There are so many ways to not get things exactly perfect that it is very rare to make it work.

I think my firmware load to 6.7.3 failed on the NAS516 becasue of a prior issue with the OS being full.  I was able to install the new firmware on two other NAS units without issue.

Perhaps Netgear should do a better job of doing a quick test on a unit before a new firmware is installed just to make sure everything is ready.  They may want to include that test in the firmware update tool.

I still have my USB drive that worked available if that would help anyone.

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nsne wrote:

But then, my NAS won't even boot into the Boot Menu for maintenance mode, so it might be too far gone to use USB Recovery.

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Not being able to boot into the boot menu is usually one of the rare situations where USB Boot Recovery actually is worth a try.

There are way too many USB sticks out there for us to be able to test them all.

Can you get me a copy? i have tried to many ways with too many pens..... it is really hard...

While there may be flash sticks with issues becoming bootable, generally most of them should work fine; however properly preparing them can be difficult and/or confusing.

I would recommend reviewing the various methods @ https://www.google.com/#q=creating+bootable+linux+usb

to see what works for you

I'm having exactly the same problem as mentioned here.

I've even removed all my drives and can't get in to the boot menu.

Also, if I try and boot off USB it says "booting off USB", then "booting", then "mount_block_root + 1f1"

What can I try from here?

I believe if it can't boot off the USB key it falls back to trying to boot off the disks.

Not all USB keys are compatible.

Our script expects a syslinux bootable USB key using the MBR partitioning scheme with the recovery files on the first partition.

A common reason I've seen for USB Boot Recovery failing is configuring a USB key with no partitions at all. The script looks for the first partition and can't find one so it cannot find the USB Boot Recovery files.

As has been mentioned elsewhere you can try using Rufus, you can try using syslinux 6.03 directly and you can try an alternative initrd.gz and kernel I've prepared that boot the NAS into a tech support mode like state.

Thanks mdgm.

As I mentioned, I've removed all the disks so I assume the FW on the chassis itself is stuffed.

I've tried using Rufus (just ran the program, clicked Start and then afterwards running Netgear USB Recovery) but that doesn't seem to work either

There's only one partition, FAT32

It appears that creating a bootable USB disk is like winning the lottery.

Your odd's of actually getting it to work are 1 in a million.

It's not something that is done very often if at all by most users.

There must be a better utility that Netgear can create that will create a bootable USB drive without having to use 3rd party software like Rufis to format a USB drive.

The utility should also automatically grab the latest firmware version from your desktop and put it in the correct place on the USB drive.

Updating your firmware on a NAS should never be this difficult.

Just another opionion.

This error relates to the firmware on the flash, yes.

In Rufus you could select to create a syslinux 6.0.3 bootable USB key with a MBR 0x80 put on the USB key. You can manually copy the files from the x86 folder from the USB Recovery download (except for the syslinux.exe)

I've sent you a PM with links to some custom initrd.gz and kernel files that you can use instead of the default initrd.gz and kernel. With these custom files the NAS will attempt to boot into a tech support mode like state and it won't matter if the USB key has a partition table on it or not.

Also the tool should be run as an Administrator (right click and select Run as Administrator)