Readynas 312 - bricked after firmware update attempt

[ChrisB2021]

Hello,

I attempted a firmware update of my readynas 312 to latest version (6.10.6) from a few major versions (6.5.x I think), using the admin portal. Left it overnight and came back to system that appears to not be able to boot up or shutdown (blue power light continuously blinking).

I’ve tried all manners of rebooting normally, boot console startup (reset button) and even the last resort USB thumb drive firmware update, per advice from NETGEAR support techs but the same problem persists. Have also tried combinations without disks, connected to network and different usb thumb drives. NETGEAR techs assume I have bricked the unit and chassis memory is corrupted.

Any ideas I can try to resolve? No longer under warranty and so willing to open up chassis. It has hdmi port, does this system normally output anything on screen?

Any tips or tricks would be appreciated!

[Laserbait]

Sorry, I wish I had some advice for you.  I just updated my RN204 a couple of days ago from 6.10.5 Hotfix 1 to 6.10.6, and it went smoothly.  I rebooted the NAS before doing the update. I've found these NAS's like a reboot about every 2-3 months, to keep them running smoothly.

If no issues crop up on my 6.10.6 install on the RN204, I'll be doing my RN316 in a week or two.

[J_Malmlund]

Hi,

Not that this might help much but out of pure interest... You said "you think"?! you tried to update from 6.5.x??

In the release notes for the new ReadyNAS OS V6.10.x versions there is this warning: 

"systems must not be updated directly to 6.10.x from 6.3.x or older firmware. They must first be updated to either 6.2.5 or 6.3.5 then to 6.5.2 and then to 6.10.x."

If you're not sure from what version you tried to do the system update, you might very well have bricked your unit in a very hard to recover way.

I'm not familiar with your model of NAS but I'd start by looking into how to do initiate a reinstall of the system from the built in usb storage that manages and sets up the NAS the first time you boot it up with new and empty disks. I did it once back in the os 4.x.x days (ReadyNAS PRO-6) and while I had to redo quite a bit of configuration it did get the my box back up with a working system after a failed system update.

With that being said, I do sincerly hope someone else might shed some more insights into what can be done because I'm out of ideas for now.

[Sandshark]

That warning only applies to ARM based units, which the 312 is not.

Often, failures after an OS update are really latent things that would have happened on the next re-boot.  Regular maintrenance (scrubs and balances) can help prevent or at least point out a problem before it gets that far.

The first thing I recommend you try, assuming you have a RAID1 volume, is booting from each of the drives individually.

[ChrisB2021]

Thanks for the reply.

I had not connected the NAS on my network in a while (1-2 years) due to relocation and so I didn’t even think about issues with firmware versions! I left it to upgrade overnight and I first noticed a problem when I couldn’t ping the box.

Anyway, I’ve tried all manners of USB drive firmware reinstalls and not having much luck.

[ChrisB2021]

Yes a RAID1. No luck, still the same behaviour with one drive connected.

I did try something new, I found a 8GB USB thumb drive that has an activity light and noticed it did not light at all at any point when I attempted to boot from the drive (holding backup button). Is this useful for troubleshooting further? Does it tell us anything we didnt already know? I assume it's not getting to the part of the bootup process to even tell it to look at the USB drive?

[Laserbait]

If it's RAID1, you might be able to recover the data yourself by attaching one of the drives to a computer running Linux.