I have a ReadyNAS 212 that was working fine up until a week ago. Since then it will not connect. This has home and business documents on it. I need to access the drives.
Troubleshooting
1. Wired connection - checked cable and router port. The port is active and works with other devices. No changes were made to the port, still at default settings.
2. ReadyCould does not recognize the NAS.
3. RAIDar does not recognize the NAS
4. Checking my router network map the NAS device does not show but I have blue lights on the ethernet port when cable is connected.
5. Tried USB connection and PC is not recognizing any connection.
6. I have not factory reset the device, I do not want to lose the data on the disks.
7. The activity bay lights are blue. The ACT light is binking.
How do I get it connected?
If device is bad, how do I read the data on the disks?
Model: RN21200|ReadyNAS 212 Series 2- Bay (Diskless)
To further isolate the issue, you can try powering up the NAS without the disks in it and see if RAIDar will detect it with a status of 'No disks detected'.
If it is still not detected, then the issue is with the chassis. If the device is still under hardware warranty and you are the original purchaser of the device, you may open a support ticket and the support team should be able to process a replacement for your unit.
6. I have not factory reset the device, I do not want to lose the data on the disks.
Of course the problem might be that one or both of the disks have failed.
When you remove the disks for @Marc_V 's test, you should label them by slot. If you can connect the disks to a Windows PC (either with SATA or with a USB adapter/dock), you can test them with vendor tools (seatools for seagate, lifeguard for western digital).
If device is bad, how do I read the data on the disks?
If it is the NAS, then you can purchase a new OS-6 ReadyNAS and migrate the disks.
If it is the disk(s), then you might be looking at data recovery - which is expensive.
If RAIDar can see the NAS with both disks removed, a followup test would be to boot the NAS with only disk 2 in place (in slot 2), and see if that works. If that still fails, you could repeat that test with only disk 1 in place (in slot 1). It'd be best to boot the NAS as "volume read only" for that test. See pages 50-52 here: https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/ReadyNAS_%20OS6_Desktop_HM_EN.pdf
After you get the NAS/data back on line, I suggest that you look into putting a backup plan in place for the NAS. RAID isn't enough to keep your data safe.
Thanks. Separately adding found drive 2 was bad. I was able to boot the NAS on Drive 1 and all data is there. Netgear needs to add this to troubleshooting, I haven't found a go troubleshooting guide.
Model: RN21200|ReadyNAS 212 Series 2- Bay (Diskless)
This forum is often your best troubleshooting guide, especially for those past free Netgear tech support. Just using one drive would not have worked if your configuration wasn't RAID0, and a user making a bad choice from a troubleshooting guide could make things worse, not better.
If the forum had a better search engine, you likely could even have found the solution from when it was posted for another user in a similar situation. Google is a pretty good alternative for searching here, though.
Glad everything is still intact for you. I recommend you make a backup before replacing the bad drive. The re-sync process is drive intensive, so there is a chance the other drive will fail during it, especially if it's the same age or older than the other. If It does fail, you will lose your data.
