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Forum Discussion
How to backup 4200 firmware USB stick?
How does one go about backing up the internal USB flash memory stick on a 4200 v2? Does this method also work for other x86 OS6 devices? Thanks
One way is to simply pull it out and use a program such as ImageUSB or Win32DiskImager on a PC. That, of course, only works on NAS such as the 3100/3200/4200 that have a removable USB as the boot device.
It ought to be possible to mount it and use dd, but Netgear has done a pretty good job of hiding it. At least under OS6 (I don't have one running 4.2.x), it shows up in neither lsblk or fdisk -l as a mountable block device. On mine, dmesg shows a removable drive at sdi with a partition sdi1, but there is no entry in /dev for sdi or sdi1 and sdi is noticably skipped in lsblk. There isn't even an entry in /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices.
I believe it is mountable using debug mode FTP access, but I've not done so.
Debug mode doesn’t use FTP to connect. Local access is via telnet.
Cloning the internal flash is not recommended. You are relying on the filesystem etc. being in a good state on that, and with devices that shipped with 4.2.x the flash has EEPROM data specific to that unit on it.
With models that shipped with OS6, USB Boot Recovery should be sufficient to put good firmware on the internal flash and get devices working properly again.
With legacy x86 devices such as the 4200 v2 there is a side effect of USB Boot Recovery which often leads to EEPROM data becoming corrupt.
Cloning the internal flash is not recommended. You are relying on the filesystem etc. being in a good state on that, and with devices that shipped with 4.2.x the flash has EEPROM data specific to that unit on it.
With models that shipped with OS6, USB Boot Recovery should be sufficient to put good firmware on the internal flash and get devices working properly again.
With legacy x86 devices such as the 4200 v2 there is a side effect of USB Boot Recovery which often leads to EEPROM data becoming corrupt.
I don't know how susceptible to failure the internal USB flash is on those units, but I don't see having a backup as a bad idea. I have images of the flash for all mine. USB recovery won't fix a non-working device.
If one is planning to do the conversion to OS6, then making a backup of a fully functional 4.2.x flash is a reasonable plan before proceeding. One of the few things that can (rarely) go terribly bad in the process is flash corruption, and having a backup of it would allow you to restore and try again.
If you purchased a unit that didn't come with the USB (some who sell them remove it thinking it contains personal data) and want to clone one from another unit, that would at least tell you if that's all you need to fix. But the serial number of the two units will end up the same. I don't know how the mods would feel about fixing the serial number in that case.
The flash also contains encrypted information regarding the model type, so you can't clone the flash from a 3200/4200V1 to a 4200V2, for example, and have it function properly.
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