NV stopped working. shows 3rd disk light lit solid

[a4kquattro]

Hi,

I've owned my NV for several years without any problems. about a year ago it started occasionally crashing, requiring a hard reboot to bring it back online. reading the forums this seemed to point to memory or power supply issues so I did a memory test via the power button which came back clean. I've just ignored the problem (aside from going ahead and making a full backup copy of my data on a separate drive...) until now, where my NV wont boot up at all.

Figuring it was the power supply I modified a standard ATX power supply per the forums (two yellow wires swapped into the main ATX connector) but no go, it powers up in the same fashion as before. Here is what its doing:

power on the box, power LED blinks like its supposed to. you can hear each of the disks spinning up in sequence. it will then sit there for several hours without bringing up the network (cant ping the IP). eventually (but not all the time) the power LED will stop blinking and stay on but dimly lit, and the 3rd disk light will be lit solid. I read somewhere that this has to do with a memory error so I ordered a new RAM module from newegg (reseating it and cleaning the contacts on the memory module didn't do anything either).

so, what next? The new ram module arrives tomorrow but I'd like to know my options if that doesn't work...

thanks.

[mdgm-ntgr]

I think that error suggests USB Boot Recovery should be attempted.

[a4kquattro]

looks that way. new ram did nothing. Alright, I'll try following the instructions for the usb recovery mode. fingers crossed.....

[a4kquattro]

ok. So, the usb boot recovery process seemed to go ok (it loaded the image, and went through the sequence of disk lights in the guide, then powered itself down). however, when I boot the device up its the same deal, long wait and then eventually the 3rd disk light stays lit solid.

So, I'm guessing this NV is scrap metal unless somebody else has some bright ideas.

What are the chances of buying a used NV and having it recognize my disks? thinking thats probably my best option at this point...

[mdgm-ntgr]

An NV+ (v1 - silver chassis with internal PSU) would work as well as the NV for recovering data assuming the disks and array are fine. Make sure the firmware on the NV+ is at least as up to date as the firmware on the NV was (you can insert a spare disk -must not be from your array - update the firmware if necessary, verify the firmware update was successful, power down, remove the spare disk and migrate your disks across).

Another option would be to get e.g. a 314. If your disks and array are fine we should be able to help you get your data back. Don't put the disks in the 314 until instructed to by support if you choose this option. You will need somewhere to backup the data to.

[a4kquattro]

thanks for the tips.

I found an NV+ on ebay for reasonable money with 1 drive in it. I'll upgrade radiator to the latest then install my disks in the same order as my current nas. anything else I need to do or should it grab everything it needs from the disks?

[mdgm-ntgr]

Assuming your disks and array are fine and the replacement NAS is also fine it should be fine

[a4kquattro]

ok... so, got my "new" nas (nv+). booted up fine with the disk they gave me. I went to the admin screen and updated to the latest firmware. rebooted, all fine there. shut it down. Installed my original disks in the order they came out of my nas in. booted up.. aaaaaaand. Same problem 😞

it blinks forever, lcd shows "booting", and ultimately winds up with the 3rd light lit and no further progress.

what do I do now????

[StephenB]

Does RAIDar tell you anything?

Did you try powering down, removing disk 3, and powering back up? (be sure to power down before reinserting disk 3).

[a4kquattro]

it doesn't respond via IP communication so I have no visibility other than what the LED's and LCD are saying.

I'm told the 3rd light lit thing is telling me the boot image on the disk is corrupted and USB recovery should be attempted, but I've been through that with my original nas without success? Maybe I didn't use the right recovery image even though it seemed to go through successfully?

[mdgm-ntgr]

Could be a disk issue. I guess I must have been wrong about USB Boot Recovery being needed if another disk works fine.

[a4kquattro]

If it was a disk issue I'm surprised I didn't get some kind of errors or fail flagging on the suspect disks. anyways, got your private message and replied.

[mdgm-ntgr]

How many disks do you have installed? I see two disks. The disk in the 3rd slot is not responding.

[a4kquattro]

there are 4 installed, or should be. let me press on them all and make sure they are seated. the carriers are a little shoddy, they dont lock in anymore.

[a4kquattro]

they are all in there and seated... so, I guess its possible I'm dealing with 2 bad disks. guess I'm glad I made that backup... just wish I had done it again before complete failure. about 2 months of work on there that will be gone if I cant recover it. better than 10 years of lost work I suppose.

[a4kquattro]

for the archives, mdgm helped me resolve this issue.

one of my drives failed in a way that somehow made it prevent the device from booting.

I've removed the offending drive and was able to boot in degraded mode with the remaining 3 drives. I've now copied off my data to my backup drive so I'm up to date. ordered a replacement drive for the failed one and I should be back in business.

Thanks very much for your help.