Update Available Volume Space

Do you have snapshots enabled?
Do you have home shares enabled? Are they empty?
Is backup the only share?
What firmware?

Snapshots are the thing to check first, they are the most likely cause.

Home shares are not enable.
firmware 6.1.7
Yes Backup is the only share.
Snapshots are enabled. (where are these stored and how to I release them?)

StephenB..... Awesome Avatar.

Glad you like the avatar!

To delete the snapshots, you use the web interface.
Select the backup share, then click on the "recovery mode" icon. You will then see a lot of date-stamped folders. You can select them one at a time chose "delete".

Chrome lets you delete them in bulk, but unfortunately the current version (34) doesn't work with OS 6.1.7 due to an XML parsing bug in Chrome.

The "Recovery Mode" wasn't enabled (the Allow Snapshot Access Option) so when I tried to enable it I got an error. it allowed me to ignore it and move forward. when I attempt to go into "Recovery Mode" everything seems to work however there are no snapshots available for me to view. When I navigate to the directory for the snapshots however I see plenty of folders and files.

I attempted to rename/remove 1 folder as a test to see what would happen and I get a "read only" file system error. when I try rmdir I get device or resource is busy.

1002030001<br />Commit failed
Error Code while trying to allow Snapshot Access:

Code: 1002030001
Datetime: 04:37:42 04/21/2014
1002030001<br />Commit failed

I am able to "browse" through the web panel into the snap shots and even select remove/delete. For a moment it even looks like it will remove remove the folder then the progress bar disappears and nothing changes. :( Darn.

I suggest contacting support (support.netgear.com). Phone / chat support is free for 90 days after purchase, after that use email.

Darn. I contacted support and they told me to reinstall the OS.

"Hi Daniel,
Thank you for choosing NETGEAR. My name is Vincent, and I will be your support expert. Good day!
In regards to your inquiry, I would suggest performing:
OS Re-install. Reinstalls the firmware from the internal flash to the disks. Use the OS reinstall boot mode when the system crashes and corrupts some configuration files. OS reinstall boot mode also resets some settings on your unit, such as Internet protocol settings and the administrator password, to defaults.
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19000/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzk3ODQzMTUyL3NpZC9HeTFSQjZTbA%3D%3D
To know more about your device/For more information on your query, NETGEAR FAQs are available at:
http://support.netgear.com"

I was hoping for another solution.

So tell me about this snapshot process. It sounds like it is a double layer of protection over the raid?

First, OS-reinstall should not harm your data. The admin password is reset (back to "password" in your case), and your IP address configuration reverts back to DHCP. But content and share settings are shouldn't be affected (though of course a backup is always recommended). A factory reset will destroy your data, but they did not recommend that.

Snapshots are built into btrfs, and really aren't related to RAID. They are more like "recycle bin on steroids". RAID protects your data from disk failures, snapshots protect you more from user error (particularly accidental deletion).

When a snapshot is first created, it takes essentially no space - it simply points to the actual file content. But as files change or are deleted, the old versions are written into the snapshot - so you can roll back to the older version. This is what the "copy on write" feature of btrfs is basically about. The more the files are changed or deleted, the bigger the snapshots become.

Whether they make sense for your backup folder depends on what you put there. If you are simply backing up copies of files, then snapshots probably do make sense -though you might adjust the settings to account for your backup schedule. If you are using a backup tool that already includes rollback features (or are writing large image files) snapshots probably don't make sense, and you should turn them off.

I am mostly backing up shared folders from another NAS. So I leave them on, but I will go in and manually clean them up if they get too large, or if I do a lot of reorganization of the source folders.