The Pro models will display "ReadyNAS" even if all they have is 5V power. The Pro has no speaker, so the "beeps" sound like maybe a bad drive.
To hlp with the troubleshooting, remove the drives (labeling order for proper re-insertion) and boot it up. It won't boot without drives, but it should say "No Disks" and show up in RAIDar (also with "No disks" status. If that works, you can either test the unit further by inserting a spare blank drive to see if it initializes, or testing the drives with a PC and manufacturer's tools.
If it still just says "ReadyNAS", then it's something else. On these older units, the power supply is always a suspect. If taking the unit apart is something you feel comforatble with, a standard ATX supply can be used externally to see if that's the problem. Hopefully, you have one from an old computer or can "borrow" one from a current one. If that fixes it, then there are plaenty of threads in the forum about replacing it.
If that doesn't fix it, or if you'd prefer this to a temporary power supply, that's where connecting a monitor to it can help. There is a VGA header inside, and Googliing will help you find how to connect to it. With a monitor and a USB keyboard, you can see what's happening in the BIOS and as it tries to boot the OS.
Replacing the power supply is not terribly difficult, but certainly not "easy".
An eBay replacement with an Ultra6 or Pro6 is a possibility, but you are buying somebody else's problems. Yours being a -200 model, it's one of the newest.
Assuming the drives were not also damaged, then with help from Netgear, which I believe you have to pay for, you can purchase an new (I believe Intel based only) ReadyNAS and they can help you recover the files. But you will need a place to put them, as it's only a temporaty solution (read-only, I suspect.) before you let the NAS reformat the drives for native use.
Mounting the drives in a PC and using a Linux Live CD is also a possibility (more detailed instructions are available in the forum), also assuming the volume is intact. But mounting 6 SATA drives on a PC has it's own issues.
Lastly comes recovery software like ReclaiMe, which would only be necessary if your volume is corrupt. But it also has the issue of mounting 6 drives with your PC and is expensive. But you can evaluate how well it will do before you buy.
If everything’s fine with the disks and what’s on them you could move them to a new x86 ReadyNAS e.g. RN426, RN428X, RN526X, RN626X, RN528X, RN628X and it should boot up with the old OS so you could copy the data off. See ReadyNAS: Migrating disks from RAIDiator 4.2 to ReadyNAS OS 6 (x86)
However if there is a bad disk or a problem with the RAID, the root volume or the data volume then paid assistance may be needed to attempt to recover your data.
Well, either something is wrong with the chassis (including the PSU), or you have something wrong with the disks that is interfering with the normal boot.
The warranty on the Pro-6 is 5 years for the original owner (not transferrable). Most of them are out of warranty now, but some aren't. You can check your warranty status at my.netgear.com. If you purchased on-line, you can most likely also get documentation/confirmation on your purchase date by looking at your purchase history at the on-line store.
If you have access to a Windows PC, you can test the disks there using vendor tools (Seatools for Seagate, Lifeguard for Western Digital). The drives can be connected either via SATA or via a USB dock/adapter.
If you are limited to the Mac, then you could still see if one bad disk is blocking the boot up.
What you do is
(a) power down, remove disk 1, power up and see if it boots
(b) power down, put disk 1 back, remove disk 2, power up and see if it boots
...
If you are lucky, one of those tests will boot. If it does, then the next step is to backup up all the data you can from the NAS.
WOW - thank you to all of you for your kind support and recommendations.
I have gone ahead and purchased a new NAS setup and an additinal backup so I can see if I can migrate the data over and then copy it.
When I have that in a couple of days i will also try the boot idea.
Again, thank you for your help. This has been the most informative and helpful forum/community I have ever used in 25 years of computing/photography. Kudos to you guys.
It's taken a while to resolve with the holidays and all - but sucess !! I do have one folow up question though.
I was able to setup the new NAS box under ReadyCLOUD on my Mac and then add the 6 old drives to the box. I could then see the data.
HUGE thank you for that. I have another (different brand) NAS and while i had hoped to be able to connect them to each other directly - I had to setup a LAN and copy over the data between the two NAS. It took several days - but I got it done.
Now - I have removed the 6 old drives (as its read only) and want to setup the Netgear NAS as a brand new device - with 6 new drives - so I can copy back the data and have a working, uptodate, new NAS.
How can i do this? The box seems to want the 6 old drives put back into it? I tried doing a factory reset and it does not go back to a "virgin" install....
Again, my sincere thanks to the help I have received on this.
Just install the six new drives with the NAS powered down. If the drives are blank, then just power up. If the drives are formatted already, you'll need to do a factory default using the Pro's boot menu.
Everything off -swapped out old drives for the new (brand new) drives - relaunched NAS and computer.
The NAS however wanted to "re-sync" (sorry I forget what it said on the box) - but it slowly went through a % rebuild mode...
Then the new drive could not be discovered in readycloud and I had to use RAIDar to find the new NAS.
However setting the drive up under this meant establishing admins and passwords and wehn I came to then trying to copy data it wanted me to get authorisation. This was all way different than when I simply setup the NAS from new the first time.
So I then went the boot mode to rest to factory settings - but again - it does not and is still not discoverable in readycloud. The drive was easily discoverable when I first set it up.
So I am trying to get back to square one as if its new out of the box??
