Nv+ issues?

I am using OS X Snow Leopard and I have bootcamp so I can use windows xp. I am going to try to put it into tech mode now. I got techsupport to ask that I give them access.

ok booted in techsupport mode.. LCD is saying debugmode[56762] and ip 192.168.168.168 Not sure if this is the ip address they need to access (I don't think so) so still working on the ip address for unit to give to tech support.

I am having the same issue more or less, I do not have a good backup of ALL my data on the NAS, and some of it is pretty important to me. I was starting a backup on to a USB hard drive in my main PC when the NAS locked up completly, I could not access the webpage or shares at all, so I pulled the power on it to reboot it.
When it booted back up it just sits at "Checking FS" for over 12 hours now, I have tried to bypass the Volume Check, but then it just says "Booting..." for hours, I also tried to do the Firmware reinstall via the pin hole on the back of my NAS, but then its just back to "Checking FS" again.
It makes me pretty nervous, I have some adata on the NAS that I really do not want to lose, would be a really bad deal for me.
What is the best thing for me to do here? wait for reponse on forum, or if there a number I can call, I would be willing to pay if its resonable to get this fixed really.
Someone please help, tell me if I need to start a new thread or call or something!

Thanks.

Right now the NAS is still just sitting with "Checking FS" on the LCD, I can not ping the unit or pull webpage at all, so its hard to tell you for sure what version of RAIDiator I am on, but I think its recent, also all 4 drive LED's are GREEN, so I do not think its a hard drive issue.

Quick update. Techsupport guided me to get ip address and they were able to tell me which disk was at fault. Nas booted up. I checked the logs and saw I had a recent backup and shutdown to avoid a 2 disk failure. I ordered a backup and it should arrive tomorrow. I will also check each disk using vendor tools.

I had a backup so I knew I didn't loose anything but still it was a bit of a scare.

I had the same issue, drive 2 had gone bad I guess, thing is there was no way to tell that drive was bad from looking at the NAS, it had locked up and would not boot after that lockup, all drive LED's were green. Not sure how I am supposed to determine that a drive has gone bad, and which one has gone bad, seems like to me this is a bad thing in a RAID NAS like this.
I want to thanks the guys in Netgear support for telling me there was a bad drive and after I pulled that drive out the NAS booted fine, but it would be nice if I could access my own NAS like they did in a mode that would at least let me access logs to tell what drive is bad or what the issue is, if the unit is not going to indicate the problem on the front of the NAS in any way.

Especially since Netgear support told me my NAS was out of warranty since it was bought in 2007, and told me I could pay 75$ for a 1 hour phone support help, it seems unfair to charge people to me, since it is an issue with the NAS not letting people know a drive is bad, and which one is bad. if you make it were only support can help you in a instance were a disk goes bad and eventually a drive is going to go bad, then charge people to tell them what drive is bad, that just seems wrong, I choose not to pay that money and only use the online support, but was tempted to pay, since you really get the feeling from them that you are at their mercy since they are helping you for free, so you should just wait and be patient since they are being so nice in helping you, etc... I got this feeling both times I called support, and to be honest I feel like if it had been something I did wrong, or just did not know how to help myself, I should have to pay something, that's fair, but when there is no other way to get the NAS up and to tell what drive is bad but to call Netgear, you set yourself up for this type of reaction.

I am currently backing up everything on my NAS, but the NAS now has this error in the logs
"ATA error count has increased in the last day. Disk 3: Previous count: 0 Current count: 411 Growing SMART errors indicate a disk that may fail soon. If the errors continue to increase, you should be prepared to replace the disk."

Seems strange I am having 2 drives go bad around the same time, I am backing things up now, and the ATA error count on drive 3 seems to stay at 411 so far, so maybe I will be ok until I get it backed up.
I was in the process of backing up my data to upgrade to 4 / 2TB drives in this NAS anyway when the lockup occurred, but would now feel safer getting my data off the NAS first before attempting to insert even the first new drive in bay2 that I removed the bad drive from, but if drive 3 does go bad now I would be screwed, so wish me luck!

I asked support about why I did not get a error telling me what drive failed, this was the response below.

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The reason why you didn't get an error with this drive failing is because it was the base drive that failed. The base drive is the drive where the operating system is installed. If your parity drive or any other drive failed you would have got some kind of message related to it on the LCD or RAIDar, and would have still been able to access your data.
There is an email alerts feature in the ReadyNAS that you can have it email you problems with the drives and let you know if there is a possible failure.
If you want to be able to access the NAS like we did you can install the root SSH add-on. This will allow access to the ReadyNAS like what we had.
Thank you again for choosing NETGEAR ReadyNAS. Have a great day!
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Well I learn something new every day, I did not know the OS was installed on the drives in the array, I honestly assumed the OS would be installed on some flash memory or something like that inside the NAS.

So I really do not understand, maybe someone can explain to me how if the OS is installed on 1 drive in the array, and that drive fails and causes the whole array to lock up like mine did and not boot back up correctly until you remove that failed drive and then the OS is reinstalled on another drive or something. how is that redundant? I mean I guess you data is kept intact, but seems very flawed to me.

If you have the OS installed on 1 of the drives in the array, and currently I am doing a RAID expansion to all new drives, how does that work when eventually I am going to pull the OS drive out of the array?

Also I did not have the email alerts setup correctly, but not sure if I would have gotten a alert or not since the unit seemed to lockup, and I already have the root SSH addon installed, but not sure if I tried it or not, but seemed like the unit would not boot up enough of the way to even SSH to the it, it was just sitting at "Checking FS" forever.

Maybe someone can answer or just tell me what they think about the way the OS is installed like this?

Not sure about the os issue. But my saga now seems to continue. I pulled the disk 1 (the drive with the issue) and put in a new disk. I tried booting. It is now possible that it is stuck in checking root fs. How long does check root fs take?

Jeff

jturn00 - glad it worked out.

jsdeprey - Checking FS on boot should only take a few minutes.

Since you have pulled one disk and it is still hanging on that, it does not sound good. I would get back with tech support and ask them to escalate the case. That is the only way you will be able to save the data. When you get that message, what do the disk light icons in RAIDar look like?

PapaBear. I (jturn00) also had a root FS root check on booting that lasted 8+ hours. After seeing your message, I shut the NAS down and started it up and it booted. Disk 3 also looks like it is going bad and will need to be replaced. I did put in a new disk 1 and it is initializing now.

While I should be able to access all my data, I see only to folders/shares and it is asking for a resync. Needless to say. After disk 1 is initialized, I can see what issues remain and replace disk 3. Keeping my fingers crossed.