Hello, I have an NV+ with 4 2TB drives. The unit was not responding and the message on the front panel was "Spinning down..." but this remained on for over 20 minutes. I removed power and tried to restart the unit. When I turn the unit on, the blue power led will flash a few times, then all the LEDs flash 3 times. Then the LED over disk one will slowly blink 5 times, then all the LEDs will blink 3 times. The pattern of blinking over the first disk, then all of them will repeat for as long as power is applied.
Can anyone tell me what it is trying to tell me and what to do?
On a two-bay duo that means it is detecting an unsupported RAID configuration (http://home.bott.ca/webserver/?p=324) I'm not sure if that carries over to the NV+ or not.
Maybe try powering down, removing disk 1, and re-booting. If that works, make/update a backup of your data before doing anything else.
So, I put the drive back in, and (BTW I have an NV+ V1) and tried accessing the boot menu with the reset - got a very strange result. At no time did the bottom LCD light up. The power button flashed rapidly, and all the leds blinked once after about 20 seconds, then after another 10 seconds or so just the LEDs above disk 2 and 4 lit up and stayed lit. No change for the next 30+ seconds. So, I turned off the NV+, restarted it and it is now booting. All disk lights are on, the power button is plusing, and the LCD menu on the bottom says "Booting, check FS x%" I can also see the unit on RAIDar.
Hopefully, this will get it back up and running, but I want to know what checks I should do to make sure the unit is okay. Once I get the unit up, I plan to back up all the data first thing before anything else happens.
It's been 10 hours with the NAS stuck on "Booting FS 12%" no activity led, and the power button pulsing. I am guessing this is indicative of a bad drive. Would the next step be to turn off the NAS and try a reboot with the disk check?
Might verify all 4 drives with drive manufacture software first. Especially since there seemed to be some kind of indication of a possible problem with #1.
After that then try an O/S reinstall via USB. Don't reinstall the O/S without verifying the drives first.
To verify the drive with manufactures software, that means removing the drives, attaching them to my PC and running the diagnostics, correct? Is there any danger that connecting the drive to a Win 7 machine will damage the files on the drive? All the drives are the same. WS 2TB WD20EARS
WDC's lifeguard program shouldn't damage the drive. Windows won't recognize the format at all; as long as you are careful not to reformat with the Windows disk manager you should be ok. You can test with a USB adapter btw.
There is a memory diag built into the boot menu that you can use.
Where can I find the instructions on how to test with the USB? I can't run the memory diag because I can't bring up the boot menu. I just get flashing LEDs.
There aren't any instructions. If you connect the drives with a sata/usb adapter (also power) Lifeguard will find/test them. eSATA or SATA is probably better, but is often not possible. The adaptors are widely available, and in the US cost about $25 on-line. You can also use a USB enclosure.
You can't bring up the boot menu if you press and hold the power button?
If I press and hold the power button: 1.) Unit turns on - fan on high. Bottom LCD not lit. 2.) All LEDs flash 3 times (fast) 3.) HD 1 LED flashes 5 times (slow) 4.) LED flashing pattern repeats ad infinitum. 5.) Bottom LCD remains unlit throughout.
I have a bunch of STATA connectors, so I can hook them into my PC and test. I also have new memory on order to test if the memory in the unit is bad.
I replaced the memory on the unit - I had upgraded it to 1GB about two years ago. With the new memory in, the unit booted, the bottom LCD lit up, and I am crossing my fingers as it goes though the FS check. At 12% now. The point where it stopped last time...
I replaced the memory on the ReadyNAS, and it booted normally, with the LCD lit. However, it still hangs at checking FS: 12%. I note that the manual talks about a disk test via the Boot menu, but later in the manual there is no reference to how to do it - looks like the disk test feature was dropped at some point. http://www.readynas.com/download/docume ... 6Dec11.pdf
So, I guess I am back to testing the disks out and running the utilites on them.
For some reason my last two posts did not show up on the board.
So, I changed out the memory, and this fixed the no LCD and odd blinking light problem - but the system would still hang at the 12% FS check. I then booted skipping the volume check and the system came up, then started a volume sync - showing that disk 2 was out of sync. I let the synch continue all night and it is now at 93%. If I look at the SMART status of the drives, none of them seem to show any obvious problems.
Is there something I should do once the sync is done to further test the drives? (aside from immediately back it all up?)
I will try again - I have tried to post an update 3 times, and it never seems to show up on the thread.
I replaced the memory in the NV+ (That I had upgraded to 1GB a year before) and the unit did boot correctly, and the LCD would light up. It ran through the checking FS and again hung at 12%. So, I booted bypassing the volume check and it came up and went to resync the volumes. Then I got a message " Access to the disk on channel (??) is producing I/o errors. Although the array is still redundant, place replace this drive as soon as possible, as it is likely to fail soon. Odd that it did not state which drive.
I am currently testing the drives, using the extended test of the WD data lifeguard tools (All drives are WDC20EARS-00J2Gb0 green drives) So far, the drives seem to be passing without issues. I am 2/3rds though the third drive, the first an second reported no errors. (Only one left to go.) The first drive did seem to take much longer than the others to make it though the test, but showed no errors.
I will report the results once I finish with the last drive. I am assuming that if all the drives test okay, then the Netgear unit is bad. I had replaced the power supply which went dead shortly before the warranty expired, about 6 months ago.
Manufacturer thresholds for drive failures are much higher than the ones I personally use.
I'd also look at the SMART stats on the PC. Acronis Drive Monitor is one freeware program that lets you see them (I don't recall off hand if lifeguard does).
The NV+ itself might be ok - you could try different drives, and see what happens. (Or even just a factory reset). I'd leave the memory upgrade out for now though.
Well, as it would be, the very last drive of my quartet of WD20EARS 2tb drives showed bad sectors that were not recoverable. Of course the drive was out of warranty. So I have ordered a replacement and will see how it goes replacing the drive. I am curious what stats do you use as your threshold? I have a newer ReadyNAS with WD RED drives that I had been planning to migrate to, sounds like it is time to do this!
