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RN214 internal power supply failure
Hi all,
My second ReadyNAS (RN214) died recently after five years of always-on use. Same thing that killed my previous one - failure of the internal power supply.
I've had some awful problems trying to recover the data from the drives with Windows data recovery software. Was about to give up, but then I found Sandshark 's guide on how to setup a ReadyNAS VM: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/Mounting-ReadyNAS-drives-in-a-virtual-NAS-for-data-access-and/m-p/1933822/highlight/true#M186687
I have two problems:
1) The vmdk images no longer appear to be available from Netgear. Can anyone point me to an archived copy? I did try to download one from Wayback Machine, but then...
2) I followed the instructions on how to setup VirtualBox from here: https://github.com/ReadyNAS/sdk/wiki/Setup-ReadyNAS-OS-on-VirtualBox. However I get an error message on attempting to boot the machine: SYSLINUX 4.06 EDD load error - Boot error
I'm not sure if the boot error comes from the image I downloaded from the Wayback Machine, or if I've misconfigured the VM somehow. Advice would be appreciated. I have backups from the end of 2022, but I'd really like to get the 2023 data back.
Recovery is now in progress, humming along the LAN to my new QNAP at a blistering 75MB/s, ish. Not sure if that speed limit is due to the resources I allocated to the VM (bridged adapter, 2 CPUs, and 2GB of RAM) or some other limitation happening on the network. But whatever, at least it's working! The VM recognized the raw drives instantly and booted just like real hardware would. Even reverted to my old login credentials.
Sandshark, I have 4 x 8TB Seagate Ironwolf Pros in RAID 5, for 20TB available space. I'd offer a minor tweak to the instructions that you posted:
1) Firstly, Windows users may encounter problems getting vboxmanage.exe to actually mount the raw drives, getting an ACCESS ERROR message (or something like that), as I did at first. This is likely due to a permissions problem with VboxSVC.exe - go into the Properties menu and set it to run as administrator. Run vboxmanage.exe and VirtualBox itself as admin, too. Once I did this it all worked smoothly.
2) Second, the createrawvmdk command has now been deprecated and VirtualBox recommends you don't use it. The new approved method for mounting a raw drive is:
VBoxManage.exe createmedium disk --filename nas1.vmdk --format=VMDK --variant RawDisk --property RawDrive=\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
Thanks again for posting your initial guide - I likely wouldn't have my data back without it!
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It is possible to mount the drives manually from Linux. So a live boot linux USB would be another option.
The issue that I've had with the data recovery software (ReclaiMe and Hetman) is that the files they've recovered are all corrupted in some way. All video files - either they don't play, or have bizarre issues like 4 hr lengths, jumbled up sound, etc) So I imagine mounting them in Linux might have the same issue? I figured my last-ditch effort would be to mount them in a ReadyNAS OS environment.
My RN214 is actually still within hardware warranty, so when Netgear support is available on Monday I'll see if they can replace or repair it. But otherwise I think the VM may be my last hope. (Unless some helpful local electronics shop can repair my power supply!)
It does sound like the flash image may be corrupt.
I've not run it on VitrualBox >V6, so there may be an additional; setting needed if you are running V7.
Make sure the "flash" image is installed on SATA channel zero and that EFI boot is not enabled.
You should also be able to disconnect the hard drive image and see if it boots and searches for disks.
Note that booting without a drive installed will cause the OS to update to 6.10.10 unless you have the Ethernet settings set such that it cannot see the internet (like Host Only mode). While Netgear has claimed to me that this auto-update is impossible, it absolutely does happen, at least in some cases, with the VM being one of them.
Thanks Sandshark. Fortunately, a helpful YouTuber uploaded the image to Google Drive for me. There's a link in his video description here, if anyone else has this issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1wnpyGb4cA
I've successfully booted the VM now and have access to the GUI. I'll make an attempt at connecting the drives for recovery tomorrow (it's 0100 here!). Will update this thread to help out others who may face the same problem as the ReadyNAS hardware that's still out there gets older.
Glad you got it worked out.
How large are your drives? One thing I never did is try to determine if there was a limit to the drive size, just as there is a limit to the number of drives. So let us know if you have success.
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