ReadyNAS Duo only boots with no drives

Can you check this guide, and confirm your model? http://www.rnasguide.com/2012/01/09/how ... -or-nv-v2/

The warranty is 3 years - if you are still covered you should contact support (support.netgear.com).

It would appear from the physical descriptions, that I have a ReadyNAS Duo V1

I cannot find out when I bought it, as my email archive is actually stored on the NAS :( . I don't remember exactly how long I've had the unit. It's very possibly over 3 years.

Ok. If you registered it, you can also check the warranty status at support.netgear.com.

The NAS won't fully boot without disks, as the operating system is installed onto the disks during the initial setup process.

When was the last backup done? If there is data you need to get off, you can connect disk drive 1 to a Windows PC (with a USB adapter or SATA), you might be able to get the data off with linux reader (http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/). This will NOT work with disk 2, only disk 1. That is probably the thing to try next.

If you have a SATA drive you aren't using, you can try inserting that drive in the NAS by itself (NAS powered down), and see if the factory install procedure executes. That would let you know if the NAS hardware is still functioning normally. You can alternatively do a factory reset with the current drives, but that will destroy your data.

The hardware manual for the v1 is here: http://www.readynas.com/download/docume ... 6Dec11.pdf The boot menu options are described starting on page 15.

Ah! I've had it longer than I thought. My hardware warranty ran out in 2013.

I have been running weekly backups every Sunday for as long as I can remember direct to a USB Drive. I always get an email on Sunday morning to say it completed successfully, so I assume I can attach that drive to any USB port on my PC and use the linux reader you linked to? I will try that when I get home tonight.

If I can recover the data from the USB drive then I'll factory reset the Duo with the current drives and see what happens.

If the Duo hardware turns out to be OK, then why do I have this problem in the first place? I set it up with drive 2 as a mirror just in case I had a drive failure, thinking I would avoid this exact situation in the first place.

Thanks for your help. I'll post update later.

One scenario is a full OS partition - generally due to very large log files, though some add-ons also create databases in the OS partition that can grow over time. ReadyDLNA is one.

Though as the partition gets full it usually gives other warning signs - usually the system starts dropping off the network.

Some disk failures also can lock up the SATA interface. And it is possible that both drives failed in rapid succession - they are identical, and have the same amount of use. So testing the drives with vendor tools is recommended. I'm not sure what the right tool is for Samsung since Seagate acquired their disk business some years ago. Seatools might include it - though if not, it still has generalized disk diags that will work with any drive.

Of course the NAS hardware could also have failed - hopefully not though.

If you do need to replace the drive(s), I'd suggest a NAS drive. The WDC Red and the Seagate "VN" series (ST2000vn000, etc) are about the same price as consumer drives, but have longer warranties and are intended for home NAS.

Your system can use 2 TB drives, but nothing larger. 2 TB drives are pretty close in price to 1 TB models, and even if you replace only one disk you can use a 2 TB drive (though the NAS won't give you more space until you upgrade the second). The Seagate NAS drives don't include a 1 TB model, the WDC Red line does.

Thanks Stephen.

The good news is that I am in the middle of recovering all my files from the USB backup drive over to a spare internal SATA drive (using the Linux Reader). As soon as I finished that, then I need to decide on the next step.

Would there be any way to recover from a full OS partition without a full reset? If not, then I'll go for factory reset with the existing drives and see what happens.

I'll bear in mind your advice about replacement drives should it come to that - thanks.

Support could resolve it (likely for a fee since you are out of warranty), and some folks here probably know the steps using the telnet interface into the box. I haven't used that though - maybe someone who has can reply.

The good news here is that you have a backup.

After copying everything I needed, I completed an OS re-install (paperclip on the reset for 5secs while starting). A few minutes later and my Duo was back up and running with all my original files and shares intact. The only thing that seemed to have changed was the password, which went back to the default.

So, now able to view the error log, which was actually from last Sunday's backup, I see: "Error encountered copying data from source path ==> /USB_HDD_1_1/ due to lack of disk space. [Job 002]".

The odd thing here is that Linux Reader shows the USB drive with a capacity of 931.34Gb with 2 volumes on the disk
Linux Ext Volume 1: 1832 Items (111.13Gb)
Linux Ext Volume 2: 16 items (3.99Kb)

I seen that the DUO was showing 288Gb of free space, so somewhere in the region of 700Gb used (for the short time it was back online before it dropped offline again with the fan in overdrive and power light flashing, but no disk activity lights). :cry:

I switched the power off and tried a full reset (paperclip for 30secs during start). I got to the second set of LED's OK, but the fan was just in overdrive again (with the blue power light flashing, but no disk activity lights). The unit does not feel hot at all, but I've shut down now anyway to allow full cool down to ambient.

Any thoughts on the reported lack of disk space, or suggestions as to the next step?

Is the USB drive the backup drive? Or was it disk 1 of the NAS in an enclosure?

The Duo may be unresponsive for a while after you start the factory install. My recollection also is that fans will run full speed for a while. I'd start again, and leave it running for about 2 hours and see if it completes.

Why did you do the full reset btw?

USB drive was the backup drive. That's why I was puzzled by the lack of disk space error.

I went for the full reset only because I had recovered my data, so thought that re-formatting the Duo Samsung drives would 'sort everything out'.

I tried the full reset again, ignoring the fact the fan was running all the time. The unit ran with the fan on full and the power light flashing for approx 5 minutes then stopped (power off).