I have an Ultra 6, originally with 2Tb drives. I've been adding 3Tb drives one at a time, although the volume expansion fails after the drive is synched. I figured it would expand when all six drives were 3Tb.
Last night I added the 4th 3Tb drive. During the synch, Drive 3 (one of the newer 3Tb drives) failed and the system immediately stopped the synch and marked Drive 4 as a spare. I tried putting the original 2Tb Drive 4 back in, but it first showed it was dead. I reinserted it, but then it said new disk detected and I took it out.
Firmware is 4.2.27. Here are the logs up to this point, oldest to newest, comments after <--
Fri Jan 16 01:08:14 EST 2015 System is up. <--- Disk 1,2 and 3 are 3Tb, Disk 4 is 2Tb Fri Jan 16 01:09:01 EST 2015 Data volume will be rebuilt with disk 4. <--- inserted new 3Tb drive in Disk 4 Fri Jan 16 01:09:29 EST 2015 RAID sync started on volume C. Fri Jan 16 02:06:39 EST 2015 Disk failure detected. <-- Disk 3 fail Fri Jan 16 02:06:39 EST 2015 If the failed disk is used in a RAID level 1, 5, or X-RAID volume, please note that volume is now unprotected, and an additional disk failure may render that volume dead. If this disk is a part of a RAID 6 volume, your volume is still protected if this is your first failure. A 2nd disk failure will make your volume unprotected. If this disk is a part of a RAID 10 volume, a failure of this disk's mirror partner will render the volume dead. It is recommended that you replace the failed disk as soon as possible to maintain optimal protection of your volume. Fri Jan 16 02:07:27 EST 2015 RAID sync finished on volume C. The array is still in degraded mode, however. This can be caused by a disk sync failure or failed disks in a multi-parity disk array. <--Now shows Disk 3 dead, Disk 4 spare Fri Jan 16 07:22:38 EST 2015 Newly added drive has more space to expand the volume, Fri Jan 16 07:22:50 EST 2015 Volume expansion failed will start volume expansion. <-- This is the error I've gotten each time I installed a new 3Tb drive Fri Jan 16 11:00:59 EST 2015 Blinking disk lcd 4. <-- NAS locked up, unable to access. Power off and on, will not boot. I removed failed Disk 3 and left empty bay Fri Jan 16 11:26:51 EST 2015 Volume scan failed to run properly. Fri Jan 16 11:27:11 EST 2015 The paths for the shares listed below could not be found. Typically, this occurs when the ReadyNAS is unable to access the data volume. media backup Fri Jan 16 11:27:13 EST 2015 System is up. Fri Jan 16 11:32:13 EST 2015 New disk detected. If multiple disks have been added, they will be processed one at a time. Please do not remove any added disk(s) during this time. [Disk 1] <--I figured when Disk 3 failed the synch stopped and Drive 4 did not contain all of the old drive. I reinserted the old 2 Tb Disk 4. Raidar said new dis detected, so I pulled it quickly before it could be formatted or overwritten Fri Jan 16 11:32:21 EST 2015 Disk removal detected. [Disk 1] Fri Jan 16 11:32:21 EST 2015 A disk was removed from the ReadyNAS. One or more RAID volumes are currently unprotected, and an additional disk failure or removal may result in data loss. Please add a replacement disk as soon as possible. <-- shut down and went searching the forums. Fri Jan 16 13:01:01 EST 2015 Volume scan failed to run properly.<--Booted to check firmware level. Fri Jan 16 13:01:19 EST 2015 The paths for the shares listed below could not be found. Typically, this occurs when the ReadyNAS is unable to access the data volume. media backup Fri Jan 16 13:01:20 EST 2015 System is up. <-- Disk 3 and 4 removed. No volume detected.
I guess the question is whether I can force the NAS to use a drive it has decided is dead or a new volume. To restore the volume I need either Disk 3 or Disk 4 to be recognized.
Do you have a backup? If you store important data primarily on a device it is vital that you back it up. This is especially true before replacing/adding disks to expand a volume. The resyncs put heavy stress on all disks and if one is failing a resync can finish it off.
This looks like a data recovery attempt situation to me. Data recovery can be much more expensive than backing up your data especially when you consider that it may not be successful.
It's possible the new disk 3 may need to be cloned or somehow forced online (depending on how badly it has failed) to enable you to copy some of the data off (if possible).
No, I don't have this backed up. I always figured having two drives fail at once would be unlikely. I've used a RAID in place of backups for about 15 years and this is the first time I've had a problem. I think I finished it off by putting the original disk back in and causing the Ultra 6 to mark it permanently unavailable. I guess I'll try to clone disk 3. If it works, I guess I should be able to see the volume again, and I can back it up. That's a lot of disks.
I am unable to clone Disk 3, the original drive that failed. That leaves Disk 4 as my only chance for recovery. Isn't there some way to make the system accept the drive? There is nothing wrong with Disk 4 except that I removed it and put a larger disk in place. Now it won't recognize the original drive.
Disk 4 is likely useless now as it is out of sync with the other disks.
The more you try to fix the problem yourself the less likely paid data recovery services (should you choose to use them) will be able to recover some data (though it is already looking quite bad).
I've used a RAID in place of backups for about 15 years and this is the first time I've had a problem.
Due to the size of drives and arrays these days, your chance of something going wrong during an expansion/repair are much higher than they used to be in the days of 300GB drives and ~1TB arrays. Rebuilding arrays can take days whereas it used to take a couple of hours.
