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RN104 Cannot Detect Disks

goofus
Aspirant

RN104 Cannot Detect Disks

Did my best to search for related problems but found nothing that helped.

My month old RN104 won't start. The display shows Booting..., then stops with Err: Cannot Detect Disks.

The web interface is not available though the unit is visible on the network and does respond to ping.

The power button does nothing regardless of how long I hold it down - the only way to stop the unit is to disconnect it from the power source.

RAIDar finds it, but function buttons are greyed out.

The website that can be used to set it up does not detect it at all.

Any ideas what to try?
Message 1 of 6
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RN104 Cannot Detect Disks

That error indicates that it can't detect any disks in the NAS. The NAS can't boot without disks installed.

Assuming you still have your disks installed this indicates that one of the following is the case:
1. You have some bad disks
2. The disks are not inserted properly
3. There may be a hardware problem with the chassis

Can you power down, remove your disks (label order) and reseat them, turn the NAS on and see if it comes up.

If not, try powering down, removing your disks again (label order) and see if it will come up with a different disk (must not be from your array) installed.
Message 2 of 6
goofus
Aspirant

Re: RN104 Cannot Detect Disks

Tried the reseat although I had already tried that before and no change. It feels like the drives are seating, and I can hear them spin up.

I have 2 other disks I can try however I do not know what might be on them. Assume it doesn't matter, that if they weren't setup by this unit the boot process will ignore whatever is on them and attempt to set them up as it did when I first started it with the new disks?

Tried both of them in slot 1, slots 2-4 empty. No change.

Not sure if it can run with a single disk so tried with a disk in slots 1 and 2, slots 3 and 4 empty. No change.

Swapped disk 1 and 2, no change.

Scanning the network with Fing I can see the device, and scanning the device shows having only Telnet service available. I am able to get a login prompt with Telnet, other than that the device is doing nothing. The only way to power down is to pull the plug.
Message 3 of 6
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RN104 Cannot Detect Disks

So you get that status no disks detected when you try to boot even when using a known working spare disk (must not be from your array)? The NAS can boot with just the one disk. A factory reset will wipe all data, settings, everything off the disks installed in the NAS at the time, but even if you don't do that you should still get a different error if it detects the spare disk and fails to boot.

Contact support. Sounds like an RMA is needed.
Message 4 of 6
jamjenmad
Aspirant

Re: RN104 Cannot Detect Disks

I had 'ERR Cannot Detect Disks' message too and have done the above maneuvers. Consistently when I have tried to reboot the LCD screen says 'booting...' and I hear an audible wind up sound and then a 'click' and this repeats over and over and then the 'Err Cannot Detect Disks' message appears on LCD screen. I'm certain that I have a disk issue and the 'click' is additional evidence of this (I can boot up with a spare disk and get 'used disk' msg and have 'format' option on RAIDAR front screen). My question is this, if I now want to replace a disk, where do I start? I didn't ever see any warning that any of the disks were approaching failure. I think this was sudden disk failure without forewarning best I can tell. Thanks in advance for any insight/help.

Message 5 of 6
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN104 Cannot Detect Disks

If you have access to a Windows PC, then the best thing to do is check the disks with the vendor diags (seatools for seagate, lifeguard for western digital).

 

Another option is to power down the NAS, and remove drive 1.  The boot up, and see what happens.  

 

If it fails, power down again, reinsert disk 1 and remove drive 2.

 

Repeat until it boots, or until you've tried with each disk removed.

 

 

FWIW, disks fail w/o warning about 35% of the time.  (that's per a google study conducted some years back).

 

Message 6 of 6
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