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Forum Discussion
RN104 trying to replace a disk
Hi, I've been running a RN104 for many years without issue till we had a power failure last week. RN104 is now flashing 'Degraded', and disk 3 is flashing. Contents 4No. WD 1TB Caviar disks runnin...
JC15973 wrote:
Do I need to format the new disk or something for it to re establish safe data.
If you don't have a current backup, then you should definitely make one before proceeding.
If the disk was unformatted, then the NAS normally will just add it. If the disk was already formatted, then you'd need to select it on the volumes tab, and then manually format it in the NAS. However, you can't do that if the disk slot shows as empty.
One possibility is that the replacement disk is dead-on-arrival. If you can connect it to a Windows PC (either with SATA or via a USB adapter/dock), then I suggest testing it with WD's dashboard software (which should find it, even if it is not formatted).
If you can't do that, then I suggest first checking that the replacement disk is fully inserted in the slot (removing it and reinserting it). Be careful not to accidently pull one of the original disks - if you do that, then you will lose the volume.
If that makes no difference, then I suggest powering down the NAS, and removing the original disks. Label them by slot as you do this. Then move the replacement to slot 1, and power up the NAS. If the disk is healthy, the NAS will do a factory install to this disk. If that happens, then you can use the disk test (on the settings wheel of the volume) to verify that the disk is ok.
After that completes, you can power down the NAS and move the new disk to slot 3. Power up, and see if the NAS boots normally. That will let you see if the slot has failed.
Note that doing this successfully will put a volume on the drive. So when you put it together with the others, it will show up as a bad volume. To make sure things don't get confused, you should destroy the volume before you combine the drive with the others or remove all partitions using a PC before you combine them.
Hi Sandshark, thanks for that, but now I am confused, and concerned about having to delete volumes etc. I could loose all my data? I thought this was a hot swap device. I was all ready to try the things as earlier suggested, but now it seems there are further issues to contend with.
I have downloaded the software and hardware manual for this and cannot see anything that mentions what to do if a disk becomes degraded. There is nothing in the control panel that actually says which disk has an issue - It just says volume degraded.
The only indication I have is the flashing No3 on the device. and the control panel showed no drive in No.3 before I swapped them out.
Do you know if there is a manual that explains all this or does it rely on questions to the community ?
I was telling you what will happen with the single new drive if you use it to test the NAS as StephenB suggested. Once you are finished using it alone, it's best to not put it in the NAS with the other disks until you've "unformatted" it, so the NAS won't see the separate volume the testing created and not know what to do with it. You don't delete anything on the remaining good drives from your original volume.
Yes, it's normally hot-swappable. But something is amiss on your system, and it could be the new drive or the chassis (SATA backplane, most likely, if it's not the drive), so the suggested testing lets you figure out which it is.
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