Forum Discussion

Aspirant

Jan 05, 2021

ReadyNAS424 has reset after a power cut

Hi there, I took the plunge back in November and purhased a ReadyNAS424. I put a spare HDD into it to get to learn how it operated and after 2 days, I had managed to get it working. Over the fe...

Superfly

Aspirant

Jan 06, 2021

Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your replies. It seems then that there was no fault with the set up or with the unit itself but just how it operates. A power cut leads to the aforementioned problem.

I had named the drive and that showed in the display on the front. It now calls itself “nas-45-...”. I think once I get it reset and working again, I’ll invest in a UPS. How does that connect into the system? Directly or into the WiFi router via Ethernet?

Thanks again

StephenB

Guru - Experienced User

Jan 06, 2021

Superfly wrote:

Thanks very much for your replies. It seems then that there was no fault with the set up or with the unit itself but just how it operates. A power cut leads to the aforementioned problem.

Actually usually not. But it can.

Superfly wrote:
I had named the drive and that showed in the display on the front. It now calls itself “nas-45-...”.

Obviously you'd named the NAS, not the drive. Going back to the default name suggests that the NAS can't boot from the OS partition (or that the configuration files on the OS partition have been corrupted). This is unusual - you might be able to see more useful information from RAIDar: https://kb.netgear.com/20684/ReadyNAS-Downloads

But if the NAS isn't detecting the disk, then it probably would go back to the default name in the boot loader.

I suggest testing the disk in a Windows PC with vendor tools - if there was any power surge related to the power failure, the drive might be damaged. Use Lifeguard for WD disks, and Seatools for Seagate - and run the extended test, not just the short one (which really is more of a confidence test).

If the disk passes the test, then the NAS itself might have been damaged. If that's the case, you can contact paid tech support, and ask for an RMA. FWIW, I wouldn't volunteer the power-loss information.

Superfly wrote:

I had named the drive and that showed in the display on the front. It now calls itself “nas-45-...”. I think once I get it reset and working again, I’ll invest in a UPS. How does that connect into the system? Directly or into the WiFi router via Ethernet?

Normally it is connected via a USB cable to the NAS. The toolkit in the NAS is NUT (network ups tools). They have some information o compatibility on their site. https://networkupstools.org/

APC is a popular brand, I use CyberPower which works with my OS-6 systems.

Superfly
Aspirant
Jan 06, 2021
Hi again,

Thanks for your replies. I appreciate the responses. It's all new to me so trying to understand what's going on is a bit of a struggle.

Yes, I named the NAS device and not the individual drive.

Update: I've just done an electrical job in the house so needed to turn the sockets off. Upon checking it again, it says on the display that it's in safe mode, which may explain why it isn't detecting the drive. I have the NAS plugged into a surge protection extension lead so don't believe a surge caused the problem but not being here I can't guarantee that.

Is the OS held on internal memory and not on the drive/s? Bit of a catch 22 if it's stored on a drive it can't detect!

I now need to determine if anything is still at fault. I'm going to remove the drive and do a factory reset on the NAS. I'll put the drive into a USB SATA enclosure and see if it's still readable etc. plus see how everything has been loaded onto it. I have all the files elsewhere so it won't matter if the NAS wants to format it on reinsertion. It may of just got confused from the power cut and so not be faulty but I won't know that until I get it all up and running again.

I did a quick search on Amazon for UPS' and APC is a best seller. A bit more research will be required to see how it links into the system.

Ok, thanks again for your tips. Time to see what happens.
- Sandshark
  Sensei
  Jan 06, 2021
  The flash memory holds a very small boot loader that passes control to the OS on the drives as well as a clean copy of the OS used only for an OS re-install or update. So, basically, yes, it runs from the drives.
- StephenB
  Guru - Experienced User
  Jan 06, 2021
  Superfly wrote:
  
  I'm going to remove the drive and do a factory reset on the NAS.
  
  Don't bother trying this. The factory install (and reset) format the drive and install the OS onto the disks. It can't be done with no disks installed.
  
  RAIDar should be able to tell if you if the disk isn't being detected, or if it is just not bootable.
  
  The simplest thing to do is to simply do the reset with the disk in place - and if that works, just set up the NAS and load the files again.
  - Superfly
    Aspirant
    Jan 07, 2021
    Hi again,
    
    Thanks once again for your replies.
    
    I had already taken the drive out before I saw your message. I connected it up to the pc using the SATA USB enclosure and it did not appear along with the other drives. Using disk management it said the drive was not initialised and trying to initialise it didn't work either. I then decided to put it back into the NAS and see if it would format it during the factory reset like you suggested. It went through its process and at the end of the 10 minute time out it displayed "do_exit+4aa". I understand this means no disks are detected yet the bay indicator light showed blue. That's probably the same scenario as the pc where it know it's there but can't communicate with it. It seems then that the drive has become corrupted? I do want to put 2 and eventually 4 8Tb SSD drives into it but my fault diagnosis has now hit the buffers. Gut feeling is the NAS is ok.
    
    Regards,
    
    Liam