RN102: any way to access data on a 'dead or inactive' volume after factory reset?

[dieman]

A factory reset has been performed on RN102 with a disk pulled out of the bay.

Now the RN responds again, but, the volume is, of course, not recognised anymore. The system detects it as 'dead or inactive'. I am pretty sure that the disk and the data on it are OK. Is there any way to have the volume on that disk recognised by the RN again?

[StephenB]

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@dieman wrote:

A factory reset has been performed on RN102 with a disk pulled out of the bay.

Is there any way to have the volume on that disk recognised by the RN again?

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You can try powering up the NAS with only that disk inserted.  Then either copy off the data, or zero the other disk and re-insert it.

FWIW, that general approach doesn't accomplish anything - the factory default just formats the disks, and does a fresh factory install on them.  And there is no way to sync the old volume to the new one. 

[Sandshark]

If you want to install both drives and copy from one to the other, there is a way via volume exportation.  But if you used the default name (data) for both volumes, then that option isn't available right away.  If you've not put anything of value on the new volume yet, you can just recreate the volume with a new name.  These are the steps:

1. Destroy and re-create the main volume on the new drive with a name other than data or the name of any volume on the old one.  Skip this step if the new volume already has a unique name.
2. Power down, remove that drive, and set it aside.
3. Boot with the drive from the old volume.
4. If there are any files in user home folders, copy or move them to a normal share.  If there are any shares named the same as on the new volume, re-name them.  If you forget this step, the files will be accessible via SSH, but it's easier if you do it now.
5. EXPORT that volume.  NOTE:  After you've done this, you cannot use this volume as a primary any more, so it is best to have a backup of the files before hand, just in case things go sideways. (There is a convoluted way to get it back to primary, but let's avoid that.)
6. Power down and re-insert the new volume along with the old.  Upon power-on the old volume will be imported to the system as a secondary volume.
7. Now you can move your files.
8. Once done, power down and remove the original drive.
9. Power back up.  The system will complain about the missing volume, but that's OK.  Because the next step is to DESTROY that volume.  Note that nothing actually happens to the volume, it can be re-imported later, since the volume was removed when destroyed.  (All the destroy does in this case is make the NAS "forget" the volume.)

Now you're all set.

[dieman]

Hi Sandshark,

Thank you, this looks like a solution for migrating the primary drive. I shall try it out.

Do you also have a solution for migrating the secondary drive? I mean, there is always the option of using an external USB drive as a "bucket", but is there a smarter way?

The only possibility I can think of is by somehow designating the old secondary drive a primary - this way one would arrive at a configuration in which the data can be easily copied. But is this possible at all with ReadyNAS - designate secondary drive as primary? 

[Sandshark]

BTW, I am assuming your old volume was RAID1/XRAID.  If not, disregard.

I'm not sure I'm following what you are asking.  Are you wanting the old one to be primary and the new secondary initially, then change the new one to primary?  I don't see how that'll get you anywhere better than the process above.  It might be a little easier to move the files, and you retain most of your configuration (installed apps excluded), but I have seen it cause issues because the OS doesn't automatically migrate any home folders or apps, and I've seen it fail to even create a new home and/or apps folder.  There is another user with an open thread that seems to have just that issue with apps.

But if that's what you want, this is how:

1. Boot with just the drive from the old volume.  The NAS will complain that the volume is degraded (not redundant).
2. Turn off XRAID.  If you skip this step, it'll use the new drive to mirror the old, and you'll be back where you started. 
3. Insert the new drive with power on, format it, and create a secondary volume.
4. Copy/move the files.
5. EXPORT the old volume.  This step is supposed to make the secondary the new primary, but I've seen it not work fully, so you could have to go in via SSH and fix things.  How often, I don't know.  But I ran a dozen or so experiments with exporting and saw it twice.  Now, the fact that I didn't start fresh between each experiment might have something to do with that.

If you have apps you need to migrate, see How-to-save-your-apps-when-destroying-your-main-volume-OS6 and follow those instructions before step 5.  Unless you have a big database to retain or something, it's easier to just re-install after the export.  But that also gives some basic knowledge on the apps share you'll need if the export fails to create a new apps share on the new primary volume.

I should have referred to my notes, as I did make an error in my first set of instructions:

Once the old volume is imported as a secondary volume, it can then be used alone as a primary if needed.  If you want to re-introduce it as a secondary, you have to do the export thing again.

Instead of destroying the removed volume, you could export it before removal.  That's when it cannot be used as a primary again (unless imported by a new primary first).

I also failed to mention that with the old drive being only one from a RAID1, the NAS will complain about it being degraded.  But that only means not redundant, and you probably expected that. 

[dieman]

Hi,

I am in a non-RAID configuration - 2 independent drives/volumes. My ultimate goal is to replace each of the two HDDs with an SSDs and migrate all data from each HDD to respective SSD.

What you described in your previous post should work for replacing/migrating the primary drive of a two-drive NAS - I haven't tried it out yet, but by the look of it this is what I needed, so thanks again. But there is the second part to this story - replacing the secondary drive. 

Suppose I've replaced the primary drive in accordance with your recommendation. Now I have: 

- 1 primary SSD

- 1 primary HDD

- 1 secondary HDD

- 1 clean SSD formatted as secondary. So far so good. 

So how would you go about copying data from your secondary HDD to the clean secondary SSD? You cannot insert two secondary drives - old and new - at the same time - the system won't recognise the volumes. One drive must be primary. But then you cannot copy data between the NAS drives because either your source or your destination drive is out of NAS. The simplest solution is to use an external USB drive, copy the data from the old secondary onto that USB drive, then replace the old secondary by the new secondary and pour data from the external USB to the new secondary drive.
I was just wondering whether there was a more elegant solution whereby one could copy the data directly from the old secondary to the new secondary, similarly to what we did for the primary drives.

[Sandshark]

It's a bit convoluted, so many chances for something to go wrong, but this should work.  I'm calling the old primary drive HD1 and the old secondary HD2.  The new SSD you want to be primary is SSD1 and the other is SSD2.

1. Boot the NAS with just HD1.
2. DESTROY the (not installed) HD2 volume.
3. Add SSD1, format, and create a volume.  Avoid any volume or share name on the HD volumes (you can re-name shares later).
4. Copy files from HD1 to SSD1.  Put any files in user shares in a standard share.  It shouldn't let you use any user name for shares, but you can use names for normal folders.
5. EXPORT HD1.  SSD1 now becomes primary.
6. Power off and remove all drives.
7. Power up with just HD2.
8. DESTROY the (not installed) HD1 volume.
9. Add SSD2, format, and create a volume.  All name limitations still apply.
10. Copy files from HD2 to SSD2.
11. EXPORT SSD2.
12. Power down.
13. Install SSD1 and SSD2 and power up.  SSD1 will be primary and SSD2 will import as secondary.

Given the complexity, you definitely will want a backup of files before you start, so just moving the files using that backup is probably simpler, and probably not that much slower.  But doing it this way does mean the files don't pass through an NTFS formatted drive, where they can lose attributes.  But if you want to preserve all attributes, you need to either use the command line via SSH (and the right options for the cp command) or rsync jobs for the copying.

If you follow this procedure and need to put the two old drives back in by themselves, that'll work, but HD2 will become primary and HD1 secondary.  Because of the swap, anything in personal folders or apps will only be accessible via SSH.

The same cautions about apps folder apply, more so because of the number of export/import/destroy operations.  Also, each user will have to log on to have their personal share re-created (though there is an SSH command to do it if you want to), then you can move their files back to their share.