Help Please - Unable to mount Disks when removed

[TheRookieGB]

Hi All

Need some help please:

We have a Netgear ReadyNas NV+2 v2 with 2 western digital RED 2TB drives (also tried this with 2 x WD Green 2TB drives).

We have configured the unit as XRaid2 and set it all up to work. We have now discovered that this solution for storage is not really adaquate for what we need as a company.
We have removed the drives and I have attempted to read them in: Windows server 2003 r2, Ubuntu 12.10 (linux), USB SATA enclosure on Windows 7.

However this is the big query: None of the drives will Mount, all show I/O errors. They will show the details of the drives but they won't mount, format, Zero Wipe, Iniatialise or do anything but show errors. (I/O read write errors, and Mount unknown). I know this must be due to the ReadyNAs box changing the format and maybe the firmware on the Disks but surely I can get the 4 2TB drives back to the NEW factory state they came in last week?
I have put them back into the NAS box and used RAIDar software to erase the disks but this has no affect, I have run the Factory Default and attempted to format to FlexRAID but this shows the error: Corrupt Root!*!.

I have tried Seagate tools, WD Lifeguard and various other software .... all without success.

Are these disks fried? Screwed? What has the NAS box done. Why can't it be reversed? :x

This is taking far too much time to resolve this, we don't want this unit now keep our storage, it seems to take half a day to boot and check the disks!

Any help with this would be great, remember we are not looking to get th eunit working, we simply want our 4 x 2TB disks back to how they arrived as NEW last week.

I look forward to your solutions.

Many Thanks

[ReadySECURE]

I'll start by mentioning that the NV+v2 is not a business device and works best in home environments.

Secondly, how are you attempting to mount these disks? The only thing the ReadyNAS will perform on these disks is change them to a GPT boot record, partition the disks, then create RAID over them.
You can put these disks back into the ReadyNAS and factory default, then when you get ready to setup the device again, you can select "Delete Volume" to delete the data off of the disks.

[TheRookieGB]

readysecure1985 wrote:

I'll start by mentioning that the NV+v2 is not a business device and works best in home environments. Secondly, how are you attempting to mount these disks? The only thing the ReadyNAS will perform on these disks is change them to a GPT boot record, partition the disks, then create RAID over them. You can put these disks back into the ReadyNAS and factory default, then when you get ready to setup the device again, you can select "Delete Volume" to delete the data off of the disks.

Hi Thanks for the reply ...

I have put one, two, three and even all four disks into the NAS box, I have run through the setup with RAIDar and Erased the disks, and all the options. (3 days worth). I have tried to Mount these inside a server with Windows 2003 R2, on a USB with windows 2000 and windows 7 (My Computer/Manage/Disk Managaement), also in a Ubuntu 12 Linux PC (all SATA). They all show the 2TB disks but refuse to test the disks, refuse to Zero Wipe them, refuse to Mount them at all. Its like the ReadyNas has destroyed the firmware or the drive structure, but I just can't workout why?


Have tried varoius software for reading Raid drives with FlexRAID, XRAID2 etc but no luck.

Is there any software out there which is Industry grade used by the Hard Disk Engineers then will factory reset the drives?

Cheers

[StephenB]

You should be able to delete the partitions in Windows, even though it doesn't recognize the format. It might be that the drives are locked (not sure if the v2 units do that though).

Can you see the SMART stats on another system (acronis drive monitor will show them on Windows, there are other tools of course).

[TheRookieGB]

Have tried Acronis. To be honest I have tried around 6+ different software solutions, all fail on all disks. (as in first post at top)

The disks are indeed either locked or damaged in some way by tghe ReadyNAS.

Need help on this from NetGear, please advise.

[StephenB]

If you file an on-line support request (support.netgear.com), they should be able to unlock the disks (assuming they are locked). If you purchased within the last 90 days, you can also use the phone support for free.

It is possible that if you reinserted them into the NAS that the NAS firmware might unlock them.

If they are physically damaged then that would be another matter.

[mdgm-ntgr]

If you did a factory default and selected the secure erase option via RAIDar and if the secure erase didn't complete the disks might well be locked. Easy enough for L3 support to check using hdparm whether this has happened or not.

[chirpa]

For future reference, this should unlock the drives:

hdparm --security-unlock NETGEAR /dev/???
hdparm --security-disable NETGEAR /dev/???

[efxi]

Hey chirpa, would you mind adding some detail about logging onto the unit remotely and executing that command? I have a ReadyNAS Duo v2 and think I have locked drives. Driving me crazy. Looks like it does a Factory Reset every time the unit is restarted. I have 2 WD RED 3TB drives. I probably quit a secure erase prematurely leaving me in this state.

What needs to be done to be able to log onto the unit remotely? Is it telnet or something? I'm on a PC, not Linux.