ReadyNas NV+ v1 boot help (have spent hours over weeks trying stuff)

Have pretty much determined at this point the ReadyNas hardware is toast somehow (would still LOVE some assistance in figuring out why it's dead as I'd still like to resurrect it).  So while someone may have a solution, I'm the inpatient, figure it out type and was frustrated with how outdated help was, all of the broken links, the converted-to-netgear forum I'm typing on (couldn't find anything compared to the awesome old infrant forums), and finally, one guy that obviously found a way and didn't bother to come back and share... so I'm not going to be 'that guy'.  

So off I went to mount my xraid set on Ubuntu.  The old page at http://home.bott.ca/webserver/?p=306 was still cached... Jim's notes (http://jim-st.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/mouning-readynas-drives-on-x86-systems.html) were useful as well (he also mirrored the original) though some update for 2015 was required - so here it is, step by step, while I wait for my data to copy :)

12 Dec 2015 Instructions:

Before we begin, here's what you need.

1. A PC with 4 SATA ports (and a keyboard, mouse, monitor obviously)
2. Enough power to feed 4 SATA drives (might need a y-cable splitter or two if you don't)
3. A USB flash drive (I used a 4GB Sandisk version but it doesn't matter)
4. A big external USB drive (I used a 5TB seagate... my original ReadyNAS had 6TB usabable but less than 5TB used).  You just need something to move data to that's big enough to cover your data.  Could be multiple drives, could move it back and forth, whatever (I'm saving the network vs local version of these instructions for someone else)

Getting the software:

1. I downloaded a copy of the Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook LiveCD from http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/maverick/ubuntu-10.10-netbook-i386.iso - didn't want to mess much with a new version without whatever i needed - so why not just use the old version? :)
2. I inserted my usb flash drive into my PC (note, everything will be wiped on it - so make sure you have whatever you need backed up)
3. I visited http://www.pendrivelinux.com/put-ubuntu-10-04-on-flash-drive-using-windows/ for instructions on using the Ubunto iso as a bootable USB under windows 8. I download the Universal USB installer from: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Universal-USB-Installer/Universal-USB-Installer-1.9.6.2.exe , installed it on windows, then ran it.
4. When running the universal usb installer, it comes up and asks what you want to put on your usb stick.  At the very bottom, there's an option to use a separate ISO (the last option).  I chose this and pointed it at the Ubunto ISO I downloaded above in step 1.  I then chose my flash drive as the 'target', and it made the usb flash drive a bootable version of Ubuntu.
5. I hit 'eject' to safely eject my USB flash drive from my PC.  

Getting things hooked up:

1. Take your labeled, SATA drives from your ReadyNASNV+v1 (Sparc) using XRAID, and connect them to each of the four SATA ports in the computer you're going to use (with the PC powered off).  I just disconnected all of my regular drives and CD-ROM from my PC (same one I just used to make the usb flash ubuntu boot drive) and all peripherals except the monitor, keyboard and mouse.  I connected the drives in the same order as the labels - e.g., Disk 1 to SATA port 1, and so on.  Some SATA controllers may go 0, 1, 2, 3.. not sure i matters order but that's what I did. Make sure they all are connected to power as well.
2. I plugged in the usb flash drive again into my PC (or maybe you just left it there from the last set of steps)
3. I left the big 5TB drive unplugged for now (for some reason, I couldn't boot off my flash drive with it plugged in as well but you can plug it in after Ubuntu boots and it will mount it plug-and-play style)
4. VERY IMPORTANT - READ FIRST.  I turned on my PC.  You'll need to interrupt the boot sequence to change the boot drive to your flash drive.  I also disabled all disk-boots just in case bad things were about to happen to my ReadyNAS drives.
5. Once the boot medium was changed, the PC booted off of the flash drive and went into Ubuntu Netbook Live.  I just let it default to the 'try' option.
6. Once Ubuntu finished booting, I plugged into my 5TB USB drive into an available usb port

Recognizing the NAS disks.  

1. Click on the gear in the upper left corner, and in the search box, type 'terminal' - then launch the terminal application

2. type

sudo su

3. you will need to add another repository to be able to find fuseext2.  Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file to include a line which says

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main universe

  then run the command:

apt-get update

  I also uncommented the other two 'universe' lines' for the Maverick repositories.

4. type

apt-get install fuseext2

5. type

apt-get install lvm2

6. type

modprobe fuse

7. type

vgscan

8. type

vgchange -ay c

9. type

fuseext2 -o ro -o sync_read /dev/c/c /mnt

10. type

cd /mnt

11. type

mv /mnt/<whateverdirectory> "/media/My Book/restore"

12. wait.  USB2 for me is 1.8GB/minute. uggh. (note since it's an ro volume, you can't move it- it ends up being a copy..and you get errors per directory at the end but it's all good... you could just cp it but my linux skills are rusty and I could figure out why i was getting errors'

13. Disconnected and reassemble your PC in reverse order.  You now have your ReadyNAS data on a volume you can read from your PC.

Hope this helps someone. ... but I'd still like to know why my ReadyNAS NV+v1 is dead if anyone has ideas...

-Mike