You may not be aware your X-raid is failing

Make sure you have all your data backed up. Don't overwrite the existing backup when attempting to backup the data (if possible).

If the NAS was purchased on/after August 21, 2007 but before some point in 2009 (I think) it would have a 5 year warranty. If purchased outside this date range the warranty length would be shorter.

Since your NAS is out of warranty, there would definitely be a fee attached if support were to help you with an issue like this. It's a major problem. For some reason the RAID isn't working. It could be a problem with a disk, a filesystem issue or some other issue. Considering the age of the unit and the possibility you've had the same disks in the NAS for over 5 years (over the length of the disk warranty) it's not surprising that you've run into an issue.

If you can please run the memory test a few times: http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/hardware/is_there_a_way_i_can_verify_if_my_memory_is_good

Also connect your disks up to an internal SATA port in your PC and check them using vendor tools

If you are able to doing a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything) would be a good idea. There are multiple benefits from doing a factory default on 4.1.8 not least of which giving a clean setup on the latest firmware. It's much easier to support systems that have been factory default on recent firmware.

Now might not be a bad time to purchase some new disks. Please choose disks from the Hard Disk HCL

You could power down and remove the old disks (label order), put the new disks in before doing the factory default. That way if you change your mind about the old RAID set you still have it.

Whilst it's possible to downgrade to RAIDiator 3.x this is not recommended for a number of reasons:
1. A factory default is required if you downgrade so no point attempting to downgrade before trying a factory default on RAIDiator 4.x.
2. RAIDiator 3.01c1-p6 was released back in December 2006 (see http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7836). It's extremely old and missing a huge number of bug fixes, new features and enhancements. It won't work well at all with newer OSes such as recent versions of Mac OS X and Windows 7. Also most likely a very old version of a web browser would be needed to manage the unit. Considering the age of the firmware there would be very limited support able to be provided.
3. The old 3.x firmware doesn't support volumes larger than 2TB in capacity. So with 750GB or larger capacity disks you're better off on RAIDiator 4.x
4. RAIDiator 4 has online expansion (when your volume is expanding when adding larger capacity disks you can still access your data).
5. RAIDiator 4.x includes "tech support" mode. This can be used by support to fix some possible problems that prevent the NAS from booting or problems which prevent the web admin interface being used.
6. RAIDiator 4.x adds the option to install SSH access which you can use to get shell (linux command line) access to the NAS (if you are comfortable with that): http://www.readynas.com/?p=4203 (amongst other things SSH access can be used to regain web admin access if it is lost for some reason)
7. There are plenty of other add-ons available for your Sparc ReadyNAS on RAIDiator 4 which you can use.


Your unit is in a range of units that shipped with faulty PSUs (see http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10259) that are known to fail prematurely. However I don't think this issue has anything to do with the symptoms you're experiencing.

Hi, yep. Out of warranty. It's one of the Infrant ones I think. Not complaining as bar terrible performance with Vista and PSU popping, it's been faultless for over 5 years.

I've replaced the PSU on a number of these units, this one included.
Checked the disks using Seagate tools, they're all ok.
Memory test ran 5 times. Seems OK.

I'll verify the backup and pop some new drives in it. They're a mix of old 320GB, 2 x 500GB and 1TB. Time I popped in some new ones :-)
Are Netgear still recommending WD drives as I had a hell of a time last year with a customer with multiple Readynas boxes and Seagate 2TB drives?


Aside from all this, I'd suggest the next firmware upgrade makes it a bit more obvious when the X-Raid daemon/service/whatever has failed. As explained in OP, there's absolutely nothing aside from the one email alert to bring your attention to this.

There should also be an alert when you next open Frontview after getting the error.

Take a look at Hitachi drives.

Shutdown and restarted NAS. Frontview with IE9 in Win 7, no alert.
Shutdown and restarted NAS. Frontview with Chrome on XP Pro, no alert.

Sounds like you already saw the alert in Frontview previously then. It would show under Status > Logs in Frontview

Sounds like you're patronising me. No, I haven't seen any popup alert in Frontview, and in any event, it should surely be set to popup after every startup. As stated previously, only alert showing is via email when the unit is restarted. As stated previously, there's pretty green lights everywhere. I just use the device as a backup and I'm about to reset the unit as per previous advice to see if it rectifies.

Not my problem really, thought it might be useful to alert other users and Netgear but hey, this response ("the user is stupid") is kinda typical and thus the main reason my important stuff is done on Synology gear.

But hey, here's my log file to prove I'm not delusional:-

Sat Jun 2 09:18:40 MHT 2012 Backup button defaults restored.
Sat Jun 2 09:18:40 MHT 2012 Backup job(s) successfully deleted.
Sat Jun 2 09:18:35 MHT 2012 Backup button defaults restored.
Sat Jun 2 09:18:34 MHT 2012 Backup job(s) successfully deleted.
Sat Jun 2 09:18:07 MHT 2012 Backup button jobs saved.
Sat Jun 2 09:18:07 MHT 2012 Backup job(s) successfully deleted.
Sat Jun 2 09:17:53 MHT 2012 Backup button jobs saved.
Sat Jun 2 09:17:53 MHT 2012 Backup job(s) successfully deleted.
Sat Jun 2 09:17:44 MHT 2012 Backup button jobs saved.
Sat Jun 2 09:17:44 MHT 2012 Backup job(s) successfully deleted.
Sat Jun 2 09:17:25 MHT 2012 Backup job(s) successfully deleted.
Sat Jun 2 09:16:50 MHT 2012 Backup log cleared. [Job 001]
Sat Jun 2 09:16:42 MHT 2012 Backup log cleared. [Job 001]
Sat Jun 2 09:11:22 MHT 2012 System is up.
Sun May 27 22:59:56 MHT 2012 Powering off device
Sun May 27 22:59:55 MHT 2012 Please close this browser session and use RAIDar to reconnect to the device after it is powered back on. System powering off...
Sun May 27 22:44:12 MHT 2012 Blinking disk 2.
Sun May 27 21:13:12 MHT 2012 System is up.
Sun May 27 21:11:18 MHT 2012 Volume scan found no errors.
Sun May 27 20:36:17 MHT 2012 Rebooting device...
Sun May 27 20:36:16 MHT 2012 Please close this browser session and use RAIDar to reconnect to the device. System rebooting...
Sun May 27 19:40:40 MHT 2012 Alert settings saved.
Sun May 27 19:39:46 MHT 2012 Alert test message has been sent.
Sun May 27 19:36:42 MHT 2012 Successfully stopped FTP service.
Sun May 27 19:33:42 MHT 2012 Successfully applied new network settings.
Sun May 27 19:33:32 MHT 2012 Changes to the network is being backgrounded. The browser will automatically refresh in 10 secs.
Sun May 27 19:10:05 MHT 2012 Volume C is approaching capacity: 83% used 75G available
Sun May 27 19:08:42 MHT 2012 System is up.
Sun May 27 19:04:03 MHT 2012 Your ReadyNAS device has been updated with a new firmware image. (RAIDiator 4.1.8)
Sun May 27 18:53:43 MHT 2012 Rebooting device...
Sun May 27 18:53:43 MHT 2012 Please close this browser session and use RAIDar to reconnect to the device. System rebooting...
Sun May 27 18:53:15 MHT 2012 Please reboot your ReadyNAS device to continue with the update process.
Sun May 27 17:48:24 MHT 2012 Failed to send alert test message.
Sun May 27 18:34:29 MHT 2012 System is up.
Sun May 27 18:32:44 MHT 2012 Improper shutdown detected. To ensure data integrity, a filesystem check should be performed by rebooting the NAS through Frontview with the volume scan option enabled.
Sun May 27 18:18:55 MHT 2012 System is up.
Sun May 27 18:16:14 MHT 2012 System powering off...
Sun May 27 17:52:43 MHT 2012 System is up.
Sun May 27 17:46:45 MHT 2012 System powering off...
Sun May 27 17:47:00 MHT 2012 Failed to send alert test message.
Sun May 27 17:26:42 MHT 2012 Failed to send alert test message.
Sun May 27 17:24:16 MHT 2012 Failed to send alert test message.
Sun May 27 17:20:30 MHT 2012 ReadyDLNA media file rescan started.
Sun May 27 17:19:02 MHT 2012 Successfully started Home Media Streaming Server service.
Sun May 27 17:19:02 MHT 2012 Successfully started ReadyDLNA service.
Sun May 27 17:19:00 MHT 2012 Error stopping Firefly Media Server.
Sun May 27 17:18:58 MHT 2012 Successfully started Home Media Streaming Server service.
Sun May 27 17:18:57 MHT 2012 Successfully started ReadyDLNA service.
Sun May 27 17:18:54 MHT 2012 Successfully stopped Firefly (iTunes) Media Server.
Sun May 27 11:40:03 MHT 2012 System is up.

That is interesting. One would have though it should have logged it in the status log. I'm just a user, but it's my understanding that when a problem is detected an email is sent and an entry added to the status log. When you open Frontview you are alerted to new messages in the status log.

You could try opening an online tech support (http://www.readynas.com/support) case and see if NetGear can review your logs zip file. Edit the thread title (i.e. subject of first post in the thread) to include your case number. Whilst I'd doubt they'd be able to fix the problem for free (probably suggest backup and factory default as an alternative) they might still be able to determine what the cause of this issue is from the logs and if there is a bug suggest a bug fix for the next firmware. Worth a try and see what happens.

I'll point this thread out to one of the NetGear guys and see if he can shed some light as to why this might happen.

Ok, my issue appears resolved. Backed up NAS shares to USB. Threw in a new WD Black and a used Seagate drive I've scavenged. Performed a full factory reset. So far so good. Noticeably faster writes over the wifi with win 7 too.