Forum Discussion

Aspirant

Mar 01, 2018

Disaster on a readynas 314 - need advice please

Going to simplify this - essentially this is all because of the 6.9.2 update causing NAS to not boot up after update. Not happy. I had 2 x 3TB drives as RAID1 in a 4 bay NAS. I installed a new 3TB...

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StephenB

Guru - Experienced User

Mar 01, 2018

I don't work for Netgear, and I think some of your questions are best answered by them.

spicedrive wrote:

Can I also ask on a RAID5 where is the OS installed? (I dont understand why it doesnt boot atm).

Also is the NAS reading anything off itself when it is booting, i.e. are all the config files, and setup (like the PWs, etc) stored on the drive or the 31400?

The operating system is stored in a small partition on the drives (4 GB). That uses RAID-1 mirroring (that is, if you have 4 drives, it is mirrored on all of them). That allows the system to boot from any drive.

Settings are also stored on the drive.

There is a firmware install also saved in the RN314 flash. That is updated whenever you do a firmware update. If you migrate disks to the RN314, the system looks at the OS partition during the boot. If the OS is newer than the flash, then the boot process updates the flash to the newer version. Similarly, if the OS is older than the flash, the boot process updates the OS.

At least part of the new safe mode feature needs to be in the boot loader, since it is supposed to boot up even if the OS partition is corrupted. But I don't much information on that.

spicedrive wrote:

What is the go if I install all three disks and then boot menu (if it works) and reinstall OS, is that a good idea to get it started again?

My main concern is the risk of doing more damage by experimenting. You can mitigate this by cloning your three disks (though of course that requires you to purchase more drives).

spicedrive wrote:

Unfortunately I only have a notebook and so ReclaiMe might be a bit tricky, but I guess I could buy a computer for this purpose.

USB docks will work, though you might also need a USB hub.

spicedrive

Aspirant

Mar 01, 2018

So grateful for your information.

I tried 3 drives in and getting to the boot menu. It just wouldn't, and was stuck on welcome netgear storage.. And it couldnt have been me because when I put the 4TB only in can get to boot menu within 2 attempts.

I'll probably look at a USB hub and that software and a UPS followed by a long recovery...

Wish there was a way to make it boot. You'd think with the OS on 3 drives. 1 would work.

Thank you. Will await 6.9.3 option advice also.

mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Mar 01, 2018
You could send in the logs you downloaded (see the Sending logs link in my sig), but I do think you should contact support.

If data’s important you shouldn’t store it on just the one device. User error (e.g. formatting the wrong disk) is just one of the things can go wrong.

6.9.3 might be helpful going forward in some situations like this but it is still beta firmware.
- spicedrive
  Aspirant
  Mar 05, 2018
  Thanks. Have uploaded the logs. Id be happy to wait for a working 6.9.3 if it could help in my situation.
  - mdgm-ntgr
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    Mar 05, 2018
    The safe mode in 6.9.3 should just make it easier to diagnose as it would boot up into a state where you could do things like check the SMART stats.
    
    Your logs show that the disk in drive bay 4 has a current pending sector count of 37.
    
    It's important to check your disk health before adding a disk or replacing a disk.
    
    You should contact support.