ERR: Used disks. Check RAIDar (dirty disks)

[nsne]

Not having a great time with my ReadyNAS at the moment. After encountering problems when trying to add a new HDD, I added the old drive back into the bay. The ReadyNAS then resynced successfully.

I just went to reboot the NAS and try adding the new HDD again, but now I'm encountering the following error: "ERR: Used disks. Check RAIDar." RAIDar says that the disks are dirty ("Previously formatted disk(s) detected").

What are my options here? Netgear's "failing to boot" steps say I can either do an OS reinstall or a factory reset, although RAIDar is saying I have to wipe the disks completely.

I'm also wondering if this isn't a larger problem, given that I was encountering weird "Format disks failed" errors when I tried to format the new HDD. Is it possible my ReadyNAS is detecting partition problems when there are none?

[UPDATE: I tried the OS Reinstall option from the Boot Menu. It didn't do anything, just went back to displaying "ERR: Used disks. Check RAIDar." on the LCD panel again.]

[mdgm-ntgr]

A factory reset would wipe the disks.

Have you tested the health of the disk you had trouble adding? You can use SeaTools for SeaGate disks and WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for WD disks.

Sounds like there is a problem with the 4GB root volume

Perhaps if you try booting without the new disk it might boot.

[StephenB]

One test you could try is to power off the NAS, and unplug it for a while (15 minutes or so), and then try one more time.  It's a long shot, but sometimes this resolves bios hardware detection issues in PCs.

Assuming that doesn't change anything - if you want to avoid a factory reset, the best option is to used Netgear support (my.netgear.com).  If you purchased your RN300 new between 1 June 2014 and 31 May 2016 you have lifetime chat support.  Even if you didn't purchase during that range, you could get per-incident support.

[nsne]

@mdgm-ntgr, just to be clear, the *old* disk is already in the NAS. I put it back in when I encountered the odd formatting errors with the new disk. The volume resynced successfully, so I was giving it a reboot before I tried again with the new disk.

I only thought it seemed weird that the unit was presenting formatting errors when I tried to add the new disk, and now it's saying the old disk array (which was working fine) is dirty. Seems like a strange commonality. 

And, yes, I've tested the new disk thoroughly using SeaTools on two different systems.

I'm trying @StephenB's suggestion of just unplugging it and waiting. I'd really like to avoid a factory reset, although (thank heavens) I do have an up-to-the-minute backup that I completed just before rebooting. Before I factory reset, I'd like to diagnose the problem more fully.

My 314 was purchased in 10/2014, so it looks like I do have lifetime chat support.

[nsne]

Following a live chat with support, the unit is now in debug mode and awaiting inspection from a level 3 tech. The level 1 tech seemed to think the fix won't require a factory reset, but we'll see.

If worse comes to worst and a factory reset is necessary, what's the best way to move the backup data from one ReadyNAS to another? I had been backing up both the data volume and the Time Machine volume to an Ultra 4 using rsync.

[FramerV]

Hi nsne,

Thank you for the updates. I am updating the thread so that if in case you wish to provide updates to us.

Regards,