I recently got a used ReadyNas 4200. I put in 5 1TB disks into it and RAIDar shows "Corrupt Root".
I have tried Factory Default option as well as OS reinstall but so far no luck. Four out of Five LED lights on the disk blink on and off roughly every second, the 5th top light is solid green and botton is amber. On RAIDar the 5th shows as solid green.
I am not sure if it is a firmware issue. I checked contents on the internal flash drive but it doesn' look the same as if downloaded from netgear website.
Also, wondering if this could be a disk issue. I even tried swapping the solid green disk with the blinking one, but still 5th one blinks, probably suggesting non-issue with disk.
Let me know if there is something I could try next? Should I check for partitions on the disks? how can I confirm firmare is installed? thanks for any help in advance
Corrupt root is pretty common if the disks were formatted. But using the boot menu's factory default option should have taken care of it.
You can also try removing the disks and zeroing them in a Windows PC. Western Digital's lifeguard program will do it, and also helps confirm disk health.
Then put them back in the NAS and boot it up. The system will do a factory install automatically if the disks are blank.
I am not sure if it is a firmware issue. I checked contents on the internal flash drive but it doesn' look the same as if downloaded from netgear website.
Thanks for the response. I download firmware from Netgear website and compared with what was there on the internal flash drive, just visual comparison like filenames, folder structure etc and it looked very different. I will try zeroing on Windows PC and try again.
Btw can you provide some details on where does the device boot from? I read different places including disk, internal flash memory, internal read only memory etc.
Also let me if know factory default will reinstall os
There shouldn't be any folders on the internal flash, just some files. These are mostly files contained in the firmware image, but also the bootloader and the EEPROM data.
The NAS boots off the internal flash for the early part of the boot process then transfers to booting off the disks.
A factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything). It wipes the disks, setups the RAID, installs the OS and creates a new data volume. Think of it as if you got the unit from the factory like that except with the firmware on the flash that's currently on it.
I'm confused. You said you bought a 4200, and those pictures show a 3200. Just a typo, or wrong unit? Also, the RAIDar capture seems to show a healthy system. Where are you seing "Corrupt Root"?
The pictue of the VGA screen shows a clean boot from the flash, but nothing afterward. While OS 4.2.x doesn't display anything after the boot from flash, 6.x does (or at least did when I installed OS6 on my 4200 -- I've never had reason to look since).
SAS drives should work just fine on a 3200 or 4200, but zeroing them on a PC is going to be problematic. Maybe you can boot from a Hiren's Boot CD from a USB CD or flash device (not the one that contains your ReadyNAS boot image). I've never tried it, but it should work. You may have to change some BIOS boot options.
Front panel of the device says 4200 but boot up screen shows 3200, not sure which one is correct. It only has 4 gb memory so I guess it is 3200.
Regarding SAS drives per mgdm and I checked too but couldn't find SAS on compatibility list. @Sandshark may I ask if you have tried SAS drives yourself. If you have info to that end please send over as I was going to get sata otherwise and would like to not if SAS also works. Thanks in advance
Another possibility is that you bought a 4200 with the flash from a 3200. The flash contains the model and serial number. The motherboards and cases are the same, CPU and memory are different, so I don't think that would cause a problem as far as functionality is concerned. Maybe somebody switched out the case or built the system from surplus parts (they were available) and wasn't careful about how they matched them.
The SuperMicro motherboard has two drive controllers, one integrated into the Intel ICH9 southbridge and an LSI 1068e. The Intel only supports SATA, and those ports connect to drives 1-4 But they also support drives >2TB (though I believe OS4.2.x limits them to 2). The LSI supports SAS and is connected to drives 5-12. It does also have a SAS enable/disable jumper, so Netgear may have set it to disabled. Google X7SB3 and you can find the motherboard hardware manual on the SuperMicro site.
If the drives are recognized at BIOS level, then I would think they should work. The LSI has a separate BIOS, and you prpobably have to do something during boot to enter it.
I connected monitor and the boot up log shows LSI so does it mean it is loading LSI 1068e controller for SAS? One thing I noticed which was always odd was that when I inserted 5 SAS drives in Bay 1-5, raidar showed just 1 drive but it never really worked. Can you confirm for LSI drive controller bay 1-4 won't work for SAS drives but only 5-12 will?
Also for LSI will I see the jumper option in boot menu? What is this option for?
I am am typing on me phone but in this thread I have posted picture of boot logs from monitor, please check if it provides some insights.
Lastly, previously I only tried putting SAS drives in Bay 1-4 never 5-8, do you think I should try that?
@Sandshark, when I connect device to monitor I do see LSI logs on boot up, does it mean it is loading LSI 1068e controller?
Also one thing I noticed from the beginning which always seemed odd is that when I insert 5 SAS drives in bays 1-5, raidar showed just the 5th drive green / active. Can you confirm in LSI mode only bays 5-12 will work, not 1-4. If so, that might explain why only 5th drive shows green / active. Would it, should I try only 5-12 bays leaving 1-5 empty?
Also please let me know the function of jumper. Any way I could use all bays 1-12 with SAS drives?
As suggested by sandshark I inserted the 5 SAS drives in bays 5-9 and they *all* show solid green / active on RAIDar. I also went through boot up logs, and confirmed hard disks are being recognized!! However, the admin page on browser says "ReadyNAS does not detect any disks. You'll need to insert disks before you can create a volume"
Any thoughts! I feel I am getting close. Shall I try factory default now to reformat the disk etc?
Why is bios showing drives but not RAIDar admin page? Is this related to jumper being disabled? If so, how do I enable? thanks
You can see the jumper and the SAS heartbeat LED is blinking which means SAS connectors are ON, however, SAS Activity LED is OFF which means drives aren't being used.
I have taken few other pictures and boot up video to confirm LSI sas controller is being loaded. Also, I looked at wiring and was abe to confirm that SATA 0-3 ports are connected to bay 1-4, and SAS 0-7 are connected to bay 5-12 - which is what @Sandshark had suggested.
At this point, I have tried everything that has been suggested, the drives have some vibration so believe disks are spinning but I can't get RAIDar and Frontview to recognize the drives. You can also see RAIDar screenshot showing the 4 drives in bay5-8.
Will the system work with only SAS drives, or does it need atleast some SATA drives? Does netgear firmware support SAS - i wasn't able to see anything SAS supported on compability list from netgear. At this point, I feel I am blocked. Any help is appreciated.
