ReadyNAS Duo v1 HDD replacement problems

Thanks for your prompt reply!

I wouldn't have recommended those disks. The WD RED or the SeaGate NAS drives could be worth considering.

As I mentioned in my post, I searched for a replacement disk based on the make and models listed in the HCL. The Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 had good specs, had a 4 out of 5 star rating by over 3 thousand user reviews, and was only about $85. If the disk really isn't compatible for the Duo, it shouldn't be on the list. If you need to use a different type of drive based on if it's the primary drive or the secondary (RAID) drive, it shold say so in the documentation. And, speaking of the Netgear documentation, I find it very lacking. Especially since this model is geared towards home use, I don't think it's written very well for the lay person. The average Joe most likely won't be spending hours searching through forums posts. Even with my technical background, I find it cumbersome in finding even basic information. Sorry, I digress!

Do you recall what version of RAIDiator is running on your NAS unit?

Sorry, I forgot to include the version of RAIDiator my unit is running. It is running RAIDiator version 4.1.13.

Are you able to try backing up your data, do a factory reset (wipes all data, settings, everything) and restore your data from backup?

As I mentioned before, I bought the unit with just one 1TB hard disk (HDD1). Although I would have like to added a second disk after I purchased it, I've been out of work since 2008 due to health issues. Therefore, there hasn't been the funds for the purchase. It wasn't until I recently started getting the SMART self-assessment test errors that I looked at getting a second disk for the unit. Right or wrong, that's the situation I'm in.

As for recovering your data using an ordinary x86 Linux machine see e.g. http://home.bott.ca/webserver/?p=306

I went to the website and followed the instructions, however, I got the following messages:

root@john-HP-Pavilion-dm4:/home/john# sudo su
root@john-HP-Pavilion-dm4:/home/john# mkdir /mnt/lvm
root@john-HP-Pavilion-dm4:/home/john# fuseext2 -o ro -o sync_read /dev/sdc1 /mnt/lvm/
fuse-umfuse-ext2: version:'0.4', fuse_version:'29' [main (fuse-ext2.c:331)]
fuse-umfuse-ext2: enter [do_probe (do_probe.c:30)]
fuse-umfuse-ext2: leave [do_probe (do_probe.c:55)]
fuse-umfuse-ext2: opts.device: /dev/sdc1 [main (fuse-ext2.c:358)]
fuse-umfuse-ext2: opts.mnt_point: /mnt/lvm/ [main (fuse-ext2.c:359)]
fuse-umfuse-ext2: opts.volname:  [main (fuse-ext2.c:360)]
fuse-umfuse-ext2: opts.options: ro,sync_read [main (fuse-ext2.c:361)]
fuse-umfuse-ext2: parsed_options: sync_read,ro,fsname=/dev/sdc1 [main (fuse-ext2.c:362)]
fuse-umfuse-ext2: mounting read-only [main (fuse-ext2.c:378)]
root@john-HP-Pavilion-dm4:/home/john# 

Using X-RAID disk 2 is typically the dedicated parity disk. That's why it didn't have any partitions on it.

I never viewed the disk in Gparted to see what it looked like. However, I observed two things. The first thing I observed was with the original disk in slot 1 and after the secondary disk had successfully initialized and synced, the secondary disk failed within 24 hours, as I mentioned earlier. After this occurred, I did view the secondary disk in Gparted and it only showed an 'unallocated' entry with a red exclamation point icon next to it. This same thing happened again with a different new secondary disk. The second thing I observed was on my third attempt. After the secondary disk had successfully initialized and synced, I removed the original disk in slot 1 to see if my data on the NAS was still accessible through a file browser with just the secondary disk in the unit, and if it would still generate a disk fail event as it had the previous two times. I guess my assumption was that the secondary drive had a full copy of the primary drive, and therefore, it really didn't matter what disk was in what slot – one was always the mirror of the other. That's why, after not seeing another disk fail event after 3 days after removing the original disk in slot 1, I thought if I hot-swapped my other new disk in slot 1, it would properly initialize and sync as did the other disk did in slot 2.

Newer models have distributed parity with partition tables on all disks.

As I said, money is tight so I'm trying to make the most of what I already have with the least amount of additional costs. In the end, I want my system to fully redundant and have the know-how to properly replace a disk the next time I have a problem with one of the disks (God forbid!), whether it's in slot 1 or slot 2.

By the way, there are some other questions I have that I forgot to add to my original post.

• Is the procedure different for replacing a disk depending on if it's in slot 1 or slot 2?


• Are there utilities that enable you to possibly fix disk errors?

Thanks!
John