I decided to upgrade my NAS's firmware and I usually do it manually, so I downloaded it. The version I downloaded was RAIDiator 4.1.13 (Sparc) but my ReadyNAS Duo (v1) didn't like it so I decided to try to let the NAS check for new firmware via the remote option. It came back with a slightly different 4.1.12 so I chose to let it upgrade. It rebooted and RAIDar says it is updating - but it has been updating for 2-3 hours now. I've never done a 'automatic update", I've always done it manually and it has taken MAYBE 20 minutes. Currently, the blue power light is flashing regularly about once a second and the little green LED below it (looks like it is labeled ACT or DCT?)will flash once every fourth time that the blue light lights up.I closed RAIDar and reopened it and it still says updating but nothing has changed for hours. I have thought about unplugging it and powering back up but I am afraid that will brick it if it is truly updating. Any suggestions or experience with this?BTW, one of my drives was going bad, I'm not sure if one has anything to do with the other. Not sure which one it was.Thanks for any help!

Did you unzip the 4.1.13 image and then upload it? If so, perhaps the OS partition is full.Regardless do try a reboot. The update certainly won't complete if it hasn't for this long.

I did not unzip the file before I tried to upload it. Since it didn't take it, I followed up with just letting it do it remotely (first time for doing it that way). I figured the remote method would be somewhat automatic but it hasn't worked out that way.This morning I unplugged it and powered it back up. It has been about 20-25 minutes and it is still booting up (still says 'booting') via Raidar too. The blue light is still blinking once a second but the two drive lights are solid and the green ACT/DCT (or whatever that light is) isn't on at all. The drives are grinding away which wasn't happening last night. I'm hoping that this is a good sign and I have not bricked this thing.I am wondering if the growing number of sector errors on one of the drives may have a hand in this (?). Any ideas of how long I should wait or what I should do next? Would it help if I removed the drives and tried to boot?

45 minutes in and no changes to the above description. Still booting... :(

3 hours later, it was still trying to boot. I unplugged, removed the drives and powered back up. THat apparently does nothing at all. I guess the firmware is corrupted. Is there and way to fix what I have done?

The system will not boot w/o disks. Though you should be able to see it in RAIDar without them.

Updating firmware...FOREVER | NETGEAR Communities

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mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Dec 04, 2013
Did you unzip the 4.1.13 image and then upload it? If so, perhaps the OS partition is full.

Regardless do try a reboot. The update certainly won't complete if it hasn't for this long.
ckelly33
Aspirant
Dec 04, 2013
I did not unzip the file before I tried to upload it. Since it didn't take it, I followed up with just letting it do it remotely (first time for doing it that way). I figured the remote method would be somewhat automatic but it hasn't worked out that way.

This morning I unplugged it and powered it back up. It has been about 20-25 minutes and it is still booting up (still says 'booting') via Raidar too. The blue light is still blinking once a second but the two drive lights are solid and the green ACT/DCT (or whatever that light is) isn't on at all. The drives are grinding away which wasn't happening last night. I'm hoping that this is a good sign and I have not bricked this thing.

I am wondering if the growing number of sector errors on one of the drives may have a hand in this (?). Any ideas of how long I should wait or what I should do next? Would it help if I removed the drives and tried to boot?
ckelly33
Aspirant
Dec 04, 2013
45 minutes in and no changes to the above description. Still booting... :(
ckelly33
Aspirant
Dec 04, 2013
3 hours later, it was still trying to boot. I unplugged, removed the drives and powered back up. THat apparently does nothing at all. I guess the firmware is corrupted. Is there and way to fix what I have done?
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Dec 04, 2013
The system will not boot w/o disks. Though you should be able to see it in RAIDar without them.
ckelly33
Aspirant
Dec 04, 2013
Disc one is corrupted. Disc two is fine but it would not boot with just disc two in and nothing in disc one slot. I have an extra HDD here, can I just stick it in disc one? How do I get the OS back running?
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Dec 04, 2013
Maybe try powering down, removing disk 2, and trying an OS reinstall?
ckelly33
Aspirant
Dec 04, 2013
StephenB wrote:
Maybe try powering down, removing disk 2, and trying an OS reinstall?

I removed the corrupt disc (which was in slot 1 and likely had the OS on it(?). I replaced it with a blank 1TB HDD. I don't have anything in slot 2 (disc 2 is where all of my data is located and I don't want to screw it up too).

I am trying to boot now with disc one only in, hoping that will somehow work but considering it is blank, I am afraid it won't.

How do I reinstall the OS? I've viewed this website: http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how ... oot_menu?s[]=reinstall but I do not understand the steps regarding how long to hold the paperclip in. I also have the USB on the front - can I use that and reinstall?
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Dec 04, 2013
If you install a new disk, it will do a factory reset (e.g, a clean install) on that drive. Remember that the NAS boots from the disk, not flash.

If you have a backup, you can of course go down this path, and rebuild the NAS (reinstalling add-ons, restoring the configuration, reloading data from the backup). It will not let you preserve the data from the original disk 1.

A good description of the duo v1 boot menu is here: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/ ... 6Dec11.pdf

If you want to pause and try recovering your data from disk 1, you can connect that drive directly to a Windows PC (SATA or USB) and try linux reader (http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/)
ckelly33
Aspirant
Dec 04, 2013
Thanks for your help!

OK. I have a new HDD in disc one, nothing in #2. THe link you provided gave these instructions:

1. To perform an OS reinstall, continue to hold the Reset button until all Disk LEDs flash once,
after about 5 seconds, and then release the button.
2. To perform a factory reset, continue to hold the Reset button until all Disk LEDs flash
twice (once at 5 seconds and then 25 seconds later), and then release the button.

I chose #2 and am waiting. Is that correct? Any idea how long I wait? Any chance I corrupted what is in the unit's flash memory with my botched update?