I am having problems setting up a never used Readynas 1500 unit. I can see it RAIDar it tells me to press the setup button and after slecting RAID type, it starts setting up but it always ends up with 'Corrupt Root' message.
I've tried factory reset, OS reinstall options and nothing helped. There was even a 510 minute format of the drive and now the drives cannot even be formatted or zeroed out outside of the NAS.
I got a new pair of drives but that did not fix the corrupt root issue.
I am currently running a memory test and it's been cycling the LEDs for over an hour.
I've tried factory reset, OS reinstall options and nothing helped. There was even a 510 minute format of the drive and now the drives cannot even be formatted or zeroed out outside of the NAS.
Initially I had a pair of 4TB Hitachi drives bought back in 2012. Before I started with the NAS I was able to connect them to a Windows machine, and create and destroy partitions. After the 510 minute format, erasing the drive fails in Windows and OSX on multiple machines. On OSX it fails with 'unable to write to last block of device' and on Windows the drive started showing up as 1.8Tb.
I thought the drives were bad, so I bought a pair of new Seagate Ironwolf drives, went through the whole process again (minus the 510 minute format) and I still can't get the NAS to work.
The memory test has been running for over 5h and it was still cycling LED, ending on the blue one on the right.
Is this a firmware issue? I was not unable to restore it via USB and I'm wondering if I should try TFTP at this point.
Initially I had a pair of 4TB Hitachi drives bought back in 2012. Before I started with the NAS I was able to connect them to a Windows machine, and create and destroy partitions. After the 510 minute format, erasing the drive fails in Windows and OSX on multiple machines. On OSX it fails with 'unable to write to last block of device' and on Windows the drive started showing up as 1.8Tb.
My guess is that these disks have simply failed. You could put them back into the Windows PC, and test them with WD's Lifeguard program (HGST having been purchased by WD back in 2012).
In general, there's no need to format the drives in a PC first, as the NAS will just need to reformat them anyway. But it is a good idea to test them before using them in a NAS (even when the drives are newly purchased). If you want to test the Ironwolf drives, you should use Seagate's Seatools utility (which has similar functionality to Lifeguard). Personally I run both the long non-destructive test, and the full erase (write zeros) test on my drives before I use them. I have found some drives that pass one test and fail the other.
The memory test has been running for over 5h and it was still cycling LED, ending on the blue one on the right.
Is this a firmware issue? I was not unable to restore it via USB and I'm wondering if I should try TFTP at this point.
Corrupt root is usually something with the disks. The NAS boots from the disks, and it is telling you that it can't do that with yours. If you did format the Ironwolf drives (maybe with a quick format), then I'd go back to Windows and remove the partitions with the windows disk manager. Then try inserting just one disk in the NAS, and power it up again. Normally it will do a fresh factory install. Trying with one disk eliminates the need for the NAS to build the RAID array, so it is a quicker test.
One thing to keep in mind - with the old NAS, there is a ~10 minute window after you start the factory install before the install actually starts. That is to give you time to go in with RAIDar and switch to FlexRAID if you want. That gap can mislead you into thinking the NAS isn't working.
I checked the drive with Sea Tools and all tests passed. The only one I did not run was long, generic as it is crashing or not making progress on my computer.
After that, I zeroed out the drive, inserted a single one into the NAS and let it do its thing. It failed with 'corrupt root' once again.
I repeated the process and tried bay 4 just in case but no go there either.
Further more, I can no longer even initialize the pair of Hitachi drives that I was able to partition before the Readynas disabled through formatting them.
At this point, I am certain it's not an issue with the drive. Any other clues on how to solve this?
If the disks and memory (RAM) are fine another possibility is the firmware on the internal flash.
Not sure which firmware the 1500 originally shipped with or which firmware your unit shipped with, but if it's a very old version that could also be a factor in why it's not working.
Have you tried booting with an old hard disk <2TB.
There should be a sticker on the unit indicating the RAIDiator-x86 4.2.x firmware version the unit shipped with, I think. Which firmware is it? If the firmware has never been updated then the firmware on the sticker will be what's on the flash.
Further more, I can no longer even initialize the pair of Hitachi drives that I was able to partition before the Readynas disabled through formatting them.
Formatting a working drive won't "disable" it. But there is a secure erase option in the boot menu of the older NAS that will lock the drive, and if that is interrupted the drive will stay locked.
Is that something you did? If so, it is possible to unlock them.
The firmware I have is 4.2.21. I tried updaring it via USB but I don't think it worked. Is it safe to TFTP a newer one? I'm just a little hestiant because the lastest one I found (https://kb.netgear.com/000038793/RAIDiator-x86-Version-4-2-31) is a file with no extension, as opposed to a .chk mentioned in the documentation.
I also tried putting in an older, 1TB drive (uninitialized) and that one is being reported as 'Bad disk detected'. I've never had any issues with that drive and I know it work well outside of the NAS.
Further more, I can no longer even initialize the pair of Hitachi drives that I was able to partition before the Readynas disabled through formatting them.
Formatting a working drive won't "disable" it. But there is a secure erase option in the boot menu of the older NAS that will lock the drive, and if that is interrupted the drive will stay locked.
Is that something you did? If so, it is possible to unlock them.
I am running a long generic test. It's at 32% after 6h, should be done tomorrow.
I did one round of erase from the nas. It took 510 minutes and there was no indication of failure other than corrupt root. Since then, I can no longer initalize the drive in any of my computers, so from my point of view it appears as if the NAS bricked them. How can I ulock them?
I did one round of erase from the nas. It took 510 minutes and there was no indication of failure other than corrupt root. Since then, I can no longer initalize the drive in any of my computers, so from my point of view it appears as if the NAS bricked them. How can I ulock them?
That's a secure erase - generally not a good idea to run it on the NAS, as it takes forever - and as you discovered, it can leave your drives.
where the /dev/??? is the linux disk device. If you run hdparm on a windows PC, you'd use hda instead of /dev/??? for drive letter C. hdb would be drive letter D, etc.
I did one round of erase from the nas. It took 510 minutes and there was no indication of failure other than corrupt root. Since then, I can no longer initalize the drive in any of my computers, so from my point of view it appears as if the NAS bricked them. How can I ulock them?
That's a secure erase - generally not a good idea to run it on the NAS, as it takes forever - and as you discovered, it can leave your drives.
where the /dev/??? is the linux disk device. If you run hdparm on a windows PC, you'd use hda instead of /dev/??? for drive letter C. hdb would be drive letter D, etc.
First, I'd try testing one of the drives with the full erase / write zeros test. I have had drives that passed the long generic test, but failed the erase test. Failed writes could be part of the puzzle, as that could result in a corrupt root (which means the NAS can't find a partition to boot from). If that drive passes the erase test, then maybe try again with only that drive installed in the NAS. After the erase, simply powering up the NAS should trigger a factory install.
Of course the NAS chassis could be at fault - a failing SATA backplane, poor connection to the drive trays, memory issues, etc. I think that could include the possibility of corrupt firmware in the flash. So you could try a USB recovery: https://kb.netgear.com/30267/RAIDiator-4-2-USB-Recovery-Tool
First, I'd try testing one of the drives with the full erase / write zeros test. I have had drives that passed the long generic test, but failed the erase test. Failed writes could be part of the puzzle, as that could result in a corrupt root (which means the NAS can't find a partition to boot from). If that drive passes the erase test, then maybe try again with only that drive installed in the NAS. After the erase, simply powering up the NAS should trigger a factory install.
Of course the NAS chassis could be at fault - a failing SATA backplane, poor connection to the drive trays, memory issues, etc. I think that could include the possibility of corrupt firmware in the flash. So you could try a USB recovery: https://kb.netgear.com/30267/RAIDiator-4-2-USB-Recovery-Tool
Runninng full zero now.
The USB recovery tool fails to open on Windows 10 with 'This application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect'. I believe this is a missing VCRedist package and I did get it to work before. I tried reinstalling about 6 of them and still no-go now.
Any hints on what I need to insdtall to get that going?
Probably worth trying an older version of Windows if you have an older Windows machine lying around.
The 1500 is a 32-bit x86 system like the NVX and 1500 v1.
If you get a login prompt when you telnet to the device when it's in the corrupt root or no disks detected state or have chosen the tech support boot menu option then there's other troubleshooting options to try to identify if the firmware on the internal flash is the problem.
I did full erase via SeaTools, it passed, I inserted the drive into ReadyNAS, powered it up and it still says corrupt root.
Then, I ran factory reset, and after 'Testing Disks' it said 'press setup'. I choose the default 'Expandable Volume (X-RAID2)'. It went into 'installing', then 'Corrupt root'.
I repeated the same with 'Flexible-RAID' - Corrupt root.
For firmware, the documenation says the NAS is sensitive to USB drive type. I createad three different drives, powered up the NAS with 'reset' button pressed in for 15s and each time it got stuck in boot selection menu. Did not shut down after 20 minutes. Is there another way to trigger firmware update from USB?
I am able to telnet into the NAS and am getting the login prompt. How can I troubleshoot from there?
The corrupt root means that that NAS was unable to create a bootable partition on the disks during the factory install.
Possible causes are
bad disk(s)
an error in the flash (a corrupt firmware image for example)
some other hardware error (for instance failing SATA hardware).
You've ruled out the disks. I haven't needed to diagnose or fix flash issues myself, and I don't know of any step-by-step for it. Some others here have, and hopefully they will chime in.
USB recovery is what I recommend next. While I have heard of exceptions, the general rules I recommend for choosing a flash drive that will work is: Not USB3, not over 8GB, and must have only one partition. Older. slower devices seem to work better than newer ones. I bought a pack of 5 8GB on Amazon for <$15 and they work great. Especially with a rackmount NAS, one with an access LED can help you know it's working.
USB recovery is what I recommend next. While I have heard of exceptions, the general rules I recommend for choosing a flash drive that will work is: Not USB3, not over 8GB, and must have only one partition. Older. slower devices seem to work better than newer ones. I bought a pack of 5 8GB on Amazon for <$15 and they work great. Especially with a rackmount NAS, one with an access LED can help you know it's working.
I do have an old 1GB drive from 2006 but I am not sure the documented way of using it is acurate for ReadyNAS 1500.
Looking at the hardware manual, unlike current rackmount models the 1500 has a backup button. So I would try pressing the backup button (rather than the reset button) on boot like with the desktop systems.
It took 7 different USB drives to find one that will work but the USB firmware update did the trick and I was now able to properly set up the unit.
Thanks so much for the help!
To anyone struggling with this in the future:
- The front USB port is the one to use. Don't get discouraged that the USB LED does not lit up.
- Even though the USB recovery page says 'Before powering on the device, press and hold the Backup (or Reset on Rackmount) button', on my rackmount it was the 'backup' button that did the trick.
- If the Recovery tools fails to launch on Windows with the side-by-side error, you will need the VC redist for Visual Studio 2005 (there are two, get the latest). Install the x86 version!
- It might just be a coincidence but after creating the recovery drive, I noticed only the release notes got copied. I am guessing the firmware got re-encoded to a different format but since it was missing in its original downloaded form but the .html was there, I copied the firmware file manually once the usb recovery drive creation was completed.
