I have a 4200v2 device which I have inhereited (it was empty of Hard Drives and the Internal USB stick), and I am in need of reinstalling the USB. I downloaded the RAIDiator-4-2-USB-Recovery-Tool from (https://kb.netgear.com/30267/RAIDiator-4-2-USB-Recovery-Tool) and followed the instructions to Install (on an Kingston DTSE9 16GB). The usbrecovery.exe creates the files on the USB. I have booted the 4200v2 up but currently it gets stuck at:
GRUB loading...
Welcome to GRUB!
error: no such device: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>
Is the 4200v2's USB rescue this version RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31?
Have you tried booting it on USB Recovery mode already? If it's not seeing any OS you may have to try using different USB Drives and you may have to do this a few times. You may want to add a disk as well
Is the 4200v2's USB rescue this version RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31? Yes, you can download it here.
I'm guessing the device it's not finding is the internal USB. That GRUB is booting from the recovery one should indicate it's readable by the NAS. I don't thnk the 4200V2, being an OEMed SuperMicro machine, is as sensitive to the USB drive as some other older models.
Have you inserted an internal USB drive (different from the USB recovery one)? Is it formatted as FAT but otherwise blank?
I'm not sure if even that will work, but it's where you'll need to start. I have a 4200V2 that was in similar shape, but I had an internal USB from another I could clone. So I never tried a recovery with a blank internal USB drive. The internal drive is also quite small (256MB), and it might complain if the drive is too big.
Also, are you trying a RAIDiator 4.2.x recovery or OS6? To do USB recovery on a system orignally shipped with 4.2.x requires that you build the USB like one for 4.2.x but put a modified OS6 image on it in place of the 4.2.x one.
A problem you may have is that there is a file on the internal USB that the recovery process can't re-produce. It's named "VPD", and it contains the information on the system type and unit serial number. Although my RD5200 has that information in the motherboard DMI info, my RN4200V2 doesn't seem to, so I'm pretty sure it relies on the VPD file. I don't know if that may have changed anywhere along the way in later versions of the RN4200V2. The serial number isn't an issue, but the OS needs to ID the machine as a 4200V2.
I have now found the original 256MB stick (which was blank...). I have formatted it FAT32, and have used the usbrecovery.exe tool to reload the RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31 file to the stick.
Upon plugging the USB into one of the internal ports I get:
MBR
SYSLINUX 3.73 2009-01-25 EBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2000 H .Peter Anvin
And thats where it stays, upon ctrl-alt-delete, there seems to be nothing on the USB as it comes up with:
Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key_
I plugged the usb in the PC, and the drive has either become blank or has been formatted something windows cannot see as it says format this drive.
I have recreated the drive again with the usbrecovery.exe tool. and also tried pressing and holding the reset button with a paperclip until the boot menu comes up (or should) and again same issue...
Oh i have also tried all the above on various other USB's too.
The unit was finding the USB in the bios. I have subsquently found the original 256MB Stick (blank) and completed the same process of formatting FAT and FAT32 (various diffferent times, and on different sticks), and installing the RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31 on it (as per above reply post). but it is getting stuck at the: Loading initrd.gz.................ready, and thats the end of that, nothing more.
I may look at instructions for the 6.*, but I assume that will need a working bootable USB prior?
One thing I have also tried is: We have a working 4200v1, and I have cloned its USB with USB Image Tool to an .img file, and have restored that image file to the 256MB USB, but that does get further, but only to a stage where it says 'loading aborted' but this does have the VPD file you mention. With this USB it does not respond to the reset button at all.
The VPD file when opened just contains gobbledygook.
I dont suppose you still have a copy of the cloned USB you took from your 4200v2?
So... The USB drive (the original 256MB) I formatted FAT32 then ejected it. Another larger USB, I formatted FAT32 and then used the usbrecovery.exe and restored RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31 to it, them ejected it...
I plugged both in to the 4200v2 265MB internally, and the other one with the RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31 image on in the rear. Booted it up and left it (I made a cuppa), came back 10 mins later and it was off.... So i unplugged the rear usb, and booted the 4200v2, and Bingo, Ready was happily at the bottom of the screen.
I have loaded up the RAIDar and it located it and it is now currently testing the disks!
Glad you got it sorted. For the benefit of anyone else reading this because of a similar situation, the internal USB should not contain the content of the USB recovery. The USB recovery goes on another USB device that you put in an external port. Sounds like the NAS figured it out and over-wrote the recovery content on the internal flash, but it wasn't necessary. I'm not sure if it even needed to be FAT formatted, but thought it was a good idea.
Does your NAS display the right serial number? If not, and you decide to update to OS6, that's probably going to prevent you from using ReadyCloud.
In answer to your question; Does your NAS display the right serial number... No... This contains the serial number of my 4200v1 (for which I copied the 'VPD' file from its internal USB, onto the internal USB of the 4200v2), and there are obvious differences, as it has only recognised 4 out of the 12 drives (albeit it has found all 12 of them to create a X-RAID2 volume), and the Logs tab is stating 'power is out of normal range'.
Is it just the 'VPD' file that is required, and that is the file that contains the serial number and model specs etc? (and because I copied it from the other NAS box, I have those settings displayed).
Yes, I have determined that information is in the VPD file, though it is an excrypted file. I don't know what else is in it. The V2 uses the SAS controller for the bottom 8 bays, and the V1 has no such controller, so I'm not surprised you have that problem with the unit identifying as a V1. I just don't know what will happen if you delete it completely, but I'd give that a shot. Renaming would have the same impact.
From what I understand, OS6 uses the VPD file only if it can't determine something from the DMI/BIOS. But I don't know if it uses everything in the VPD if one thing is unknown, or if it uses whatever it finds in the DMI first and fills in from VPD.
The DMI Type 1 data in a 4200V2 is inconsistent with the format in other NAS:
Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes System Information Manufacturer: Supermicro Product Name: X8SIE Version: 01/27/2011 ReadyNAS-4200v2 V1.1 Serial Number: 0123456789
Normally, the manufacturer here should be Netgear and the product name something like ReadyNAS 4200V2. The version seems right, but the serial number is also bogus. The board is a SuperMicro X8SI6 (though it says X8SIE, a relative), but that's also in DMI Type 2. And a generic SuperMicro board won't boot any ReadyNAS OS (4.2.x or 6.x), so it's looking at something in the DMI or elsewhere in the BIOS to insure you don't have a do-it-yourself ReadyNAS (which, unfortunately, means you also can't use a generic board as a replacement part, which is what i tried and found failed)..
By the way, I bet RAIDar sees those drives, too. I have an external SAS chassis connected to my RD5200 and everything on the NAS seems to see the drives except the GUI. I wish there were a way to make them show up, even if not associated with a chassis. It's a pain to create the volumes manually via SSH. But once I do, those show up as well.
