Harddisk of X-RAID 2 broken but replacement doesn't fix it
I have ReadyNas Ultra 6 with 6x1TB Harddisks setup as aX-RAID2. Firmware is RAIDiator 4.2.31
Recently after starting my NAS it first shows "booting...", then it starts with a "Resync c: x.x%". This resync takes a couple of hours. After that is done, my C: volume is not reachable anymore. The health status of the admin console shows that disk 4 isdead and disk 6 with status spare. All other drives are "OK".
The front display shows "Vol C lifesup!"
The "volumes" settings show a status of:
On life support - access to volume disabled. To restore volume, shutdown this device, reconnect the disk(s) if they had been inadvertently disconnected, and power the device back on. To avoid permanently rendering the disk unusable, do not reconnect the disk(s) while the power is on.
So I figguered disc 4 is broken, bought a new one (a bigger one (4TB) of a different manufacturer but AFAIK this doesn't matter), shut down the NAS. Replaced disc 4 with the new one. Started up the NAS again.
I was expeciting now that the NAS would rebuild the volume but instead it booted up without any resync or such and just states that no Volume is present. It is not even possible to access the "Volumes" or "Shares" menu items as the admin page just shows a message that these options are not available without a volume.
The log files states these entries (translated from German):
Entry 1: Volume scan failed to run properly
Entry 2: The path information for the displayed shares could not be found. This usually occurs when the ReadyNAS can not access the data volume. software media webroot backup
What am I doing wrong? How can I get access to my data?
Your system lost two disks from the array - the one that failed in slot 4, and the one that somehow got demoted to "spare" in slot 6. If you aren't running RAID-6, you need to get at least one of those disks back into the array before you can replace any drives. Perhaps test the "failed" disk in slot 4 and the one in slot 6 - powering down the NAS before you begin, and labeling them by slot when you remove them.
You can test them in a Windows PC (connecting with either SATA or a USB adapter/dock). Use Seatools for Seagate, and Lifeguard for WDC. Don't tell Windows to format the disks, and don't run any of the destructive tests (they are "advanced", and they will warn you). You need the data on at least one of them to repair your array.
Re: Harddisk of X-RAID 2 broken but replacement doesn't fix it
Thank you very much for your help. Harddisks are weird sometimes. How come that the array worked without any problems for 5 years and during my one week vacation two break?
I used seatools to check my (Samsung) hdds like you suggested. Disk 4 failed the quick self test. Quick repair didn't help, the self test still failed. So I tried my luck with disk 6. Self test passed right away. So I tried the full repair. 6 hours later it was finished. Still no errors for any test, so I added it back to the system. Booted. And again, the system claims that not a single volume is present. So what else can I do, I ran the full repair for disk 4. Another 6 hours later it finished and now the quick self test passed! Light in the horizon. Adding back disk 4 to the system, boot up, and the system starts to rebuild disk 6. And now it finished successfully! Raid was back online, all disks "healthy". I replaced disk 6 even though it seems to by fine again as it seems to have had the biggest issue (besides passing all tests from the biginning). Rebuild of the raid for the new disk 6 also worked without any issues. I will now buy another new disk to replace disk 4 just to play it save.
I'm glad everything is back! I do suggest backing it up though, this isn't something you want to go through again.
@miggedy wrote: I will now buy another new disk to replace disk 4 just to play it safe.
I recommend that, given the history.
I'd also look at the SMART stats for all the disks. Personally I replace a disk if the sum of the pending sectors and reallocated sectors reach 50. If the count starts rising quickly, I'll replace it sooner than that.
Re: Harddisk of X-RAID 2 broken but replacement doesn't fix it
One thing I'll add here, given some recent experience with 6.9.3 on a 528x, is that when looking at SMART information DON'T just use the web UI. It hides several important metrics, like uncorrected bad block count. I recently had an 8TB disk with increasing error count and emails being sent. And yet when I'd look in the web UI, no sign of trouble. WTH? So instead I went to the log tab, downloaded logs, and checked the disk_info.log file, in the downloaded ZIP.
The web UI shows "ATA Error Count" and nothing else. No visual indication of trouble there even after the uncorrected block count was up past 120 on this particular disk. But in the disk_info.log file you can see reallocated sectors, pending sector count, uncorrectable sector count, etc. THAT'S the information to really know the overall health of the drive. And it's a bit worrying that the web UI not only doesn't show these values but also that it gives no status indication when the NAS is *also* busy sending email alerts of pending doom.
So, just FYI. And make sure that your NAS is able to send you email alerts. Because if your sysetm was suffering a growing issue like my drive was, then you'd basically have no other outward indication of a problem -- which is a problem.
