I use a ReadyNAS Pro 6 (RNDP6630D-200) here at the office to store, view and edit hundreds of hours of standard definition video. The unit was purchased in July 2012 and has worked without issue for over two years.Last October, I diagnosed an issue with the internal clock on the NAS. The workaround (not a solution, I now realize) was to reset the clock manually every 4-6 weeks.With the exception of the occasional clock issue, the ReadyNAS performed as normal until yesterday. Here's the situation:- I can turn the drive on, but the display never moves beyond "ReadyNAS" and I don't hear any of the normal boot-up sounds. - If I hold the power button to force a shutdown and then restart, the NAS will turn on for a second, immediately turn off, turn on again after about 5 seconds, and then hang on "ReadyNAS".- Even when I hold down the Reset button and power up, the NAS does not enter the Boot Menu.I have a feeling some part of the internal hardware has died (and the clock issue was the canary in the coal mine I should have paid more attention to). I'm working on getting a new ReadyNAS 516, but it'd be really nice to get this unit going again for at least a few more days.Does anyone have any insight? Thanks very much for the help!

How many drives are inside your NAS? Did you receive any e-mail notification that a drive/s has failed?Have you tried using other power cord or plugging your NAS to other power outlet?

Thanks for the quick response, Ixa!How many drives are inside your NAS?The NAS is comprised of six 3TB drives (that shipped with the unit).Did you receive any e-mail notification that a drive/s has failed?There was no email notification, but I don't have that feature enabled. The NAS is only connected through a Netgear switch to a Mac Pro and two iMacs, and does not face the Internet. But the last time it was fully operational (yesterday morning), all the discs were functioning normally.Have you tried using other power cord or plugging your NAS to other power outlet?Using a different power cord as well as plugging into a different power outlet produced no change to the situation.Would removing the discs and powering up be a worthwhile test?And FWIW, even though I don't suspect a disk failure, about 80% of the data on the NAS disks are backed up in another location (and another 10% can be recovered by other means), so even though it'd be nice to not have to start fresh, it wouldn't be the end of the world if necessary.

Ken Ochalek wrote:Would removing the discs and powering up be a worthwhile test?Yup! Let's check the NAS chassis... Pull-out all drives in your NAS and label accordingly from which bay you have pull it out. Then, try to turn on your NAS without drives inside then check if it stays up and it should say "No disks detected" on the LCD display. Check if it will be also be detected on RAIDar.

Okay, I removed the drives with the power off and unplugged. I reattached the power cord, turned the NAS on, and there was no change.BUT... next I plugged in the network cable, forced shutdown, and restarted. The NAS turned on for a second, turned off, then turned on again after 5 seconds, and booted to the "No disks detected" message on the LCD. RAIDar is detecting the NAS.Am I right in thinking I should restart to the Boot Menu and run a memory test and/or reinstall the firmware?

If you have a spare disk (not part of the array), doing a factory reset with just that disk installed - just to see that the install completes and the NAS comes up normally.On the original clock issue, the NAS should have adjusted the time automatically via NTP. Were you using a static IP address?

ReadyNAS Pro 6: will not start to boot menu #24685352

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StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Feb 03, 2015
Try shutting down the NAS, reinserting the disks, and then powering up.

Then use RAIDar to check the status.
Ken_Ochalek
Aspirant
Feb 04, 2015
StephenB wrote:
Try shutting down the NAS, reinserting the disks, and then powering up.

Then use RAIDar to check the status.

With the disks reinserted, the NAS booted up as normal this morning. Hooray! I'm currently updating my backups.

RAIDar shows all disks green. When I check the Status items from the Setup screen, everything is green in both the Health and Logs tabs.

Other info: Firmware is RAIDiator 4.2.26 (which I see is not the latest for this unit). The volume is X-RAID2, and is 68% full.

So I'm back up and running (thanks to you guys!), but still have no clue what was wrong. Can merely disconnecting and reconnecting the drives actually "fix" anything?

I'm going to complete my backup, upgrade the firmware, and see what happens next.
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Feb 04, 2015
Possibly one or more the disks wasn't properly seated???

Anyway, take the good news for what it is, and complete the backup!
Ken_Ochalek
Aspirant
Feb 09, 2015
UPDATE: So after getting the NAS up and running again, I completed my backup, and everything was cool for a couple days (note: I never shut down the NAS during this time). On Friday, I updated the firmware and even after the reboots during that process, everything was still fine. On Friday afternoon, I shut the NAS down for the weekend.

Now on Monday morning, I'm faced with the same issue that brought me here in the first place.

The NAS turns on, but hangs very early in the startup process. The display sticks at "ReadyNAS" and the fans spin at what I'd call a "standby speed", never ramping up to the speed they usually hit during startup when the disks spin up.

So, like last time, I forced shut down and removed the drives, then restarted. First time without the drives, same issue -- hanging on "ReadyNAS". I forced shutdown and restarted -- this time I got to the "No disks detected" error. RAIDar scans show everything green, except the absent disks, of course.

I forced shutdown again, reinserted the disks, and started up. This was all it took to get back up and running last week, but this time, it's still hanging on "ReadyNAS".

I'm fully backed up, and a new ReadyNAS 516 is on it's way, but I'd really love to find out what the heck is going on with this thing!

Anybody know what could cause these semi-consistent boot failures? And if there's anything I can do about it? At this point, it seems like all I can do is keep pulling and replacing the disks in between restarts, and hope to get lucky.

Thanks again for the help!
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Feb 09, 2015
One possibility would be a failing power supply unit (PSU).

You may to run a few passes of the memory test boot menu option to test the RAM.
Ken_Ochalek
Aspirant
Feb 10, 2015
mdgm wrote:
One possibility would be a failing power supply unit (PSU).

You may to run a few passes of the memory test boot menu option to test the RAM.

Thanks for the response, mdgm!

I pulled the drives again, and after several forced shutdown/restart cycles, I got to the boot menu. I let the RAM test run for a couple hours, and got six passes, no errors.

I shut down and reinserted the drives, but it still won't boot all the way. I can't get into the boot menu again either.

A failing PSU sounds logical to me -- especially because, upon restart after a forced shutdown, the NAS fires up for less than a second, goes dead, then starts 4-5 seconds later (only to get hung up and not fully boot). Perhaps that hiccup in the start-up process is caused by the PSU?

How difficult is it to obtain and replace the PSU?

The new ReadyNAS 516 arrived and I'm getting that going, but I'd still really love to NOT have to trash the Pro 6.
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Feb 10, 2015
Warranty on the Pro is 5 years, so if you are the original purchaser and bought in 2012, then Netgear should replace the pro-6 under warranty.
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Feb 10, 2015
Looking up the system it is still under limited hardware warranty. It does sound like an RMA is needed here.

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ReadyNAS Pro 6: will not start to boot menu #24685352

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