I just got a Stora and also have 2 Seagate 3TB drives.
I've been able to get both drives recognized with RAID0 and show 5.4TB available but I want redundancy and would like RAID1.
I get both drives recognized with 2.7TB each but total disk space says 0 and it keeps saying I need to configure the drives. I've tried over a over again but doesn't seem to do anything.
I've upgraded to the latest update but still doesn't work.
This wasn't done because Netgear finally decided to set it up to support the drives. Although, this wasn't that difficult and netgear can put in the next release without that much effort. I had to back door the device and make a few changes to the configuration for it to work. I had to manually create the raid and redo the partitions on the Stora.
Hopefully you won't have any issues going forward when applying Netgear updates, or if you need to replace a drive.
I don't know about updates yet but replacing a drive shouldn't be a problem, it should do a rebuild like it normally would. It already knows about the 3tb partitions, so that shouldn't be an issue.
I have the same problem with 2 3T Western Digital hard drives. How have you solved the issue? (back door?)
You can do some google'n about it but it does involve some Linux work. I'm no expert at it but it wasn't that difficult.
You have to manually change the partitions and create a new RAID array. I won't give out the info here because I think it would be stepping on netgears toes but they know it can be done and there isn't a reason why it can't be fixed on the next upgrade.
I don't know about updates yet but replacing a drive shouldn't be a problem, it should do a rebuild like it normally would. It already knows about the 3tb partitions, so that shouldn't be an issue.
Can you please email me at mhornung09@gmail.com how to set up the drives. I am having difficulty getting the drives formated. I have the same seagate barracuda drives that you have formated.
I sent you an email. Let me know if you need any help. Be advised that it works but I still have not tested it after a firmware upgrade. I won't be able to do that until after Netgear comes out with a new upgrade.
I have been using the Stora now for about three years. I upgraded to two 2tb drives and have been using them as RAID1 with no problems. Recently I have wanted to increase my storage space, like a lot of other people here. What I would like to know is what NAS box should I be looking to buy to upgrade from Stora that will allow 3tb drives and larger in the future? Does Netgear make such a box at this time?
I sent you an email. Let me know if you need any help. Be advised that it works but I still have not tested it after a firmware upgrade. I won't be able to do that until after Netgear comes out with a new upgrade.
Hi SpudNuts, The 2012 firmware update does not change anything: 3TB HD are still not supported. One of my 2TB HD crashed and I made the mistake to replace both by twi 3TB WD HD. Would you have something that could work to sort this out? Many thanks.
But I am having problems with my 3TB western digital hdd going into my Netgear Stora, any chance you could email me the details on how you managed to get your Stora to accept your 3TB drives?
You can do some google'n about it but it does involve some Linux work. I'm no expert at it but it wasn't that difficult.
You have to manually change the partitions and create a new RAID array. I won't give out the info here because I think it would be stepping on netgears toes but they know it can be done and there isn't a reason why it can't be fixed on the next upgrade.
Hi - it seems Netgear never got around to fix the 3tb issue. Anyway it is still not possible with the latest (and last) firmware upgrade. So could You pls send me info on how to do the backdoor fix - it won't be stepping on anyone’s toes as it never was fixed
Since i'm not getting posts from the forum and netgear isn't going to upgrade to support 3tb drives, i'm just going to post it here:
First, you need SSH access to your stora:
SSH Access to a Stora
First you need to get your Stora’s product key, it’s located behind the Stora, close to the ethernet port or may be on the bottom of the device, it’s in the form “XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX”.
Then you just need to SSH to your Stora with a particular user which is just one of the users created through the web interface (the user needs to have the administrator flag selected) concatenated by the string “_hipserv2_netgear_XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX” (where XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX is your product key, ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!), this time you’ll get a password prompt instead of the “connection to x:22 exited: remote closed the connection”, just enter the user password, which is the one you use to access your Stora through the web interface and you’ll get user access. Now to get root access you just need to write “sudo -s” and enter again the user password, every ADMINISTRATOR user is allowed to use the sudo command. You’ll probably get a: “audit_log_user_command(): Connection refused” but it doesn’t matter, you’ll get the root prompt!
Example: if you created a user named “stora”, flagging the “user is administrator” during the Stora setup or through the web interface and your Stora’s product key is “1234-5678-9999-9999? you just need to ssh to your Stora and use “stora_hipserv2_netgear_1234-5678-9999-9999? as user, either using Putty or your favorite SSH client and enter that user’s password, then “sudo -E -s” and you’ll get root access, that’s it!
There’s another way to login concatenating the username with the string “_axsync_” but it allows you to issue only “mkdir” and “rsync” commands.
Explanation:
Basically Netgear, or more probably Axentra, ships his software with a modified version of SSHD that disallows regular user access, except for “root” and “apache” users, what it does is basically changing the logging username by substituting the first character with a “0? so it doesn’t match with the list of allowed users inside the /etc/passwd.
The SSH Deamon leaves a “backdoor” open, which basically is: if your username is appended with the above string, this substitution doesn’t take place, and you can login normally.
p.s. the “hipserv2_netgear” part may be different for some users, although I suppose is the same for everybody, if you already hacked your Stora using other ways I’d ask you to check the “/etc/oe-release” and post here the DistName line and we’ll try to figure it out.
Now to setup your stora to support 3tb drives:
Requirements:
- Any SSH client - Two 3TB or bigger drives - Any USB stick inserted in the front of the stora
Log into your device via SSH
Copy every line step by step:
---Get root
sudo -E -s
---Navigate to sbin directory
cd /sbin
---Partition the first drive with GNU parted (to make a GPT file format so that 3TB+ drives work)
./parted /dev/sda mklabel gpt yes [Press Enter] unit TB mkpart primary 0.00TB 3.00TB (4.00TB for 4tb but I haven't tried it). print quit
Wait a few minutes, you should see the device boot. The HDD leds will go from green to orange for a few seconds, don't worry they will become green again and you should hear the HDD's working. This is probably the stora finalizing the partition so that it's ready for use.
Can this be made into a sticky? Since there hasn't been in upgrade in ages, maybe some can use this for 3-4tb drives. I've been running on 2 3tb drives for about a year now and no issues.
Can you used this medthod to do JBOD rather than RAID-0? I want maximum capacity, and my past experience with other devices is that with RAID-0, if I lose one disc, I lose everything, were as with JBOD I have managed to recover the non-failed drive.
OK, that worked. I now have 2x4Tb drives as RAID-0 I don't know how long it took, as after typing
watch cat /proc/mdstat
nothing happened. After 6-8 hours the SSH session still appeared to be frozen so I checked nia the web interface and it appeared to be done. I followed the rest od SpuNut's instructions, and everything worked, so I'm now pouring many Tb of data back into the Stora! :):):)
Only one question remaining before I start on my 2nd Stora - Is it possible to do JBOD instead of RAID?
