Ready NAS RNDP200U - Not Reading Disks

[Sandshark]

Yes, the Ultra2 will be a direct replacement for the Ultra2Plus, so long as it's still running OS 4.2.x .  If it's been updated to 6.x, you'll need to downgrade back to 4.2.x if that's what you want to continue to run.

I've seen posts that indicate that some Ultra2 units have a 1.5MHz processor while the Ultra2Plus and Pro2 have 1.8MHz.  But I've also seen posts where folks have tested their Ultra2 and it had the 1.8.  For most situations, the performance difference is likely minimal.

The only difference between the RNDU2000 and RNDU2220 is the former shipped diskless and the latter shipped with two 2TB drives.

[AmalW]

@Sandshark

Thanks for your message. I am amazed by your knowledge of this kit going back 10 years. Mine is 9 years old; how time flies!

How do you downgrade the Firmware?

Any ideas what typically might be causing the brick up of my old NAS, assuming power supply issue? Cannot login through web interface.

Do I need to start up the new temp ultra 2 with the disk in to avoid formatting data on it?

[StephenB]

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@AmalW wrote:

Do I need to start up the new temp ultra 2 with the disk in to avoid formatting data on it?

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Yes.

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@AmalW wrote:

How do you downgrade the Firmware?

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Probably best to speak to that if you actually end up with a converted NAS.  I do recommend checking out the NAS using a spare disk (that has nothing on it you need) before you migrate the disks.  Make sure you can boot up from either slot, and that you have all the drive trays (and the associated screws).  After the spare disk is installed, you can see exactly what you are dealing with - and upgrade the 4.2.x firmware if necessary, or downgrade 6.x firmware if you decide to do that.

Note you aren't limited to a 2-bay Ultra - you could also get a 4 or 6 bay Ultra or Pro.  Of course anything you buy will be at least 7 years old, as production on all the the 4.2.x NAS stopped when the OS-6 models were introduced in 2013.

[AmalW]

@StephenB 

Thanks for your response;

Presume you upgrade/downgrade through the web interface?

What do you think of my idea to use a new Cloned disk (using Macrium Reflect) to try a New-Temp-Used Ultra drive?

Is there an option for migrating from old NAS systems(Ultra2) to current models?

Any recommendations for a new Netgear NAS? Requirements - File Server; Auto Back-up; Remote Access; Possible synch with remote devices and or cloud?

Thanks

@Sandshark 

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@StephenB wrote:

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@AmalW wrote:

Do I need to start up the new temp ultra 2 with the disk in to avoid formatting data on it?

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Yes.

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@AmalW wrote:

How do you downgrade the Firmware?

---

Probably best to speak to that if you actually end up with a converted NAS.  I do recommend checking out the NAS using a spare disk (that has nothing on it you need) before you migrate the disks.  Make sure you can boot up from either slot, and that you have all the drive trays (and the associated screws).  After the spare disk is installed, you can see exactly what you are dealing with - and upgrade the 4.2.x firmware if necessary, or downgrade 6.x firmware if you decide to do that.

Note you aren't limited to a 2-bay Ultra - you could also get a 4 or 6 bay Ultra or Pro.  Of course anything you buy will be at least 7 years old, as production on all the the 4.2.x NAS stopped when the OS-6 models were introduced in 2013.

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[StephenB]

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@AmalW wrote:

Presume you upgrade/downgrade through the web interface?

Yes.

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@AmalW wrote:

Is there an option for migrating from old NAS systems(Ultra2) to current models?

x86 OS-6 systems allow you to temporarily mount your current disk(s) so you can offload the data.  But you can't simply migrate them.  The setup for OS-6 will require the disks to be formatted.  The desktop systems that support this are the RN300, RN400, RN500, and RN600 series.  Note the RN3xx and RN51x models are discontinued.  The only two-bay models in these lines are the RN312 and the RN422.

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@AmalW wrote:

Any recommendations for a new Netgear NAS? Requirements - File Server; Auto Back-up; Remote Access; Possible synch with remote devices and or cloud?

---

Any of the models above are suitable for this.  You could also consider the RN200 series (which uses an Arm processor).  Inventory is scarce at the moment, and as a result some sites have very high prices.  Though I don't recommend other vendors (since I haven't used their products), you should probably at least check prices on competing brands.

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@AmalW wrote:

What do you think of my idea to use a new Cloned disk (using Macrium Reflect) to try a New-Temp-Used Ultra drive?

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Cloning to a new disk (using any cloning tool that supports sector by sector copying) can help with failing drives, and also protects the data on the original disk.  So you can certainly do that.  

[AmalW]

@StephenB 

Thanks that great

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@StephenB wrote:

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@AmalW wrote:

Presume you upgrade/downgrade through the web interface?

Yes.

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@AmalW wrote:

Is there an option for migrating from old NAS systems(Ultra2) to current models?

x86 OS-6 systems allow you to temporarily mount your current disk(s) so you can offload the data.  But you can't simply migrate them.  The setup for OS-6 will require the disks to be formatted.  The desktop systems that support this are the RN300, RN400, RN500, and RN600 series.  Note the RN3xx and RN51x models are discontinued.  The only two-bay models in these lines are the RN312 and the RN422.

---

@AmalW wrote:

Any recommendations for a new Netgear NAS? Requirements - File Server; Auto Back-up; Remote Access; Possible synch with remote devices and or cloud?

---

Any of the models above are suitable for this.  You could also consider the RN200 series (which uses an Arm processor).  Inventory is scarce at the moment, and as a result some sites have very high prices.  Though I don't recommend other vendors (since I haven't used their products), you should probably at least check prices on competing brands.

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@AmalW wrote:

What do you think of my idea to use a new Cloned disk (using Macrium Reflect) to try a New-Temp-Used Ultra drive?

---

Cloning to a new disk (using any cloning tool that supports sector by sector copying) can help with failing drives, and also protects the data on the original disk.  So you can certainly do that.  

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🙂

[AmalW]

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Update: So it is good news and was an early Christmas Present on the 23rd December!

1. I cloned one of the original disks from my original NAS drive using Macrium Reflect(Free Version) onto a new(used 3TB Disk). It took over 24hours to clone!

2. Put the cloned disk into the original ReadyNAS Ultra2 and voila, it started up as normal with all my original files and folders intact!

So, Cloning with Macrium Reflect, must have fixed an error which prevented the NAS from going through its normal boot cycle.

Now just a question of backing up all the files and coming up with a forward plan with new kit> I now have two elderly ReadyNAS Ultra 2's. Is there a means to mirror one these old NAS's to another?

Thanks again for your help and guidance with this @StephenB @Sandshark 🙂

@AmalW wrote:

@StephenB 

Thanks that great

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@StephenB wrote:

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@AmalW wrote:

Presume you upgrade/downgrade through the web interface?

Yes.

---

@AmalW wrote:

Is there an option for migrating from old NAS systems(Ultra2) to current models?

x86 OS-6 systems allow you to temporarily mount your current disk(s) so you can offload the data.  But you can't simply migrate them.  The setup for OS-6 will require the disks to be formatted.  The desktop systems that support this are the RN300, RN400, RN500, and RN600 series.  Note the RN3xx and RN51x models are discontinued.  The only two-bay models in these lines are the RN312 and the RN422.

---

@AmalW wrote:

Any recommendations for a new Netgear NAS? Requirements - File Server; Auto Back-up; Remote Access; Possible synch with remote devices and or cloud?

---

Any of the models above are suitable for this.  You could also consider the RN200 series (which uses an Arm processor).  Inventory is scarce at the moment, and as a result some sites have very high prices.  Though I don't recommend other vendors (since I haven't used their products), you should probably at least check prices on competing brands.

---

@AmalW wrote:

What do you think of my idea to use a new Cloned disk (using Macrium Reflect) to try a New-Temp-Used Ultra drive?

---

Cloning to a new disk (using any cloning tool that supports sector by sector copying) can help with failing drives, and also protects the data on the original disk.  So you can certainly do that.  

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🙂

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[Sandshark]

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@AmalW wrote:

Now just a question of backing up all the files and coming up with a forward plan with new kit> I now have two elderly ReadyNAS Ultra 2's. Is there a means to mirror one these old NAS's to another?

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Not completely, and not in real time (no active sync).  Backup jobs can copy the data between them, but apps and configurations won't copy in the same way.  Since you now have two NAS, you may want to consider updating to OS6.  You can update one, copy the data from the other to it, and then update the other.  You can find instructions for the OS6 update in several threads in the forum.  Just look for one from this year, as the location of the files needed has changed over time.

I believe the Ultra2 shipped with 1GB of memory, and you may want to bump that to 2GB before upgrading, as there have been a couple reports in the forum of legacy systems running out of memory with OS6.10.x and only 1GB of RAM.  All current OS6 systems ship with at least 2GB.

And you are quite welcome.

[AmalW]

@Sandshark 

@StephenB 

Thanks for that, I need to research what is available and make a decision on whether to upgrade or simply get new kit. I think I will be investing in all new kit as everything is now old and I am nervous about losing anything. Recommendations appreciated.

In the meantime, having obtained back-ups and cloned disks copy of one of the original NAS disks, I decided to bravely try the original disks one by one in the drive. They both worked, and data is all there on both drives.

I then decided to put both original drives in the Original NAS and restarted the NAS. It starts up normally and all the data is there as before the meltdown!

However, I am getting solid yellow lights on the Raidar and flashing yellow Volume & Disk Lights on ReadyNAS Frontview. Please see attached below;

Are the disks just syncing; or is it because the disks are nearly full; or other reason?

Thanks

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@Sandshark wrote:

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@AmalW wrote:

Now just a question of backing up all the files and coming up with a forward plan with new kit> I now have two elderly ReadyNAS Ultra 2's. Is there a means to mirror one these old NAS's to another?

---

---

Not completely, and not in real time (no active sync).  Backup jobs can copy the data between them, but apps and configurations won't copy in the same way.  Since you now have two NAS, you may want to consider updating to OS6.  You can update one, copy the data from the other to it, and then update the other.  You can find instructions for the OS6 update in several threads in the forum.  Just look for one from this year, as the location of the files needed has changed over time.

I believe the Ultra2 shipped with 1GB of memory, and you may want to bump that to 2GB before upgrading, as there have been a couple reports in the forum of legacy systems running out of memory with OS6.10.x and only 1GB of RAM.  All current OS6 systems ship with at least 2GB.

And you are quite welcome.

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@Sandshark @StephenB 

[StephenB]

I'm glad we could help.

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@AmalW wrote:

Are the disks just syncing; or is it because the disks are nearly full; or other reason?

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Normally the second disk would also show as allocated, and that doesn't seem to be the case on your screenshot.  And is normally would say that it is syncing.

You can try hovering the mouse over the volume and disk icons (both at the bottom of the Frontview screen, and on the RAIDar screen).  That can give you more information on what is going on.  You could also look on the logs page (and maybe download the full log zip file, and look in there for errors).

Since you now have backup, you could also try removing disk 2 with the NAS running, and reinserting it.  That should start a resync.

Your disks are very full, so at some point soon you will either need to expand the storage or delete some files.

[AmalW]

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@StephenB @Sandshark 

Hovering over Volume;

VolumeC: RAID LEvel X2, Not redundant, a disk failure will render this volume dead. X-RAID2, 2599GB (93%) of 2768 GB used.

Hovering over Disk;

Channel 1: Seagate ST..... [Dead]

Channel 2: Seagate ST......[Dead]

Logs below which shows System is up? Also show that power supply failure was what caused the original meltdown on the 3rd December!

Not sure why it shows as disks Dead?

Also, what is the largest capacity drive you can put in this NAS running the old 4.2.31?

@StephenB wrote:

I'm glad we could help.

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@AmalW wrote:

Are the disks just syncing; or is it because the disks are nearly full; or other reason?

---

Normally the second disk would also show as allocated, and that doesn't seem to be the case on your screenshot.  And is normally would say that it is syncing.

You can try hovering the mouse over the volume and disk icons (both at the bottom of the Frontview screen, and on the RAIDar screen).  That can give you more information on what is going on.  You could also look on the logs page (and maybe download the full log zip file, and look in there for errors).

Since you now have backup, you could also try removing disk 2 with the NAS running, and reinserting it.  That should start a resync.

Your disks are very full, so at some point soon you will either need to expand the storage or delete some files.

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[StephenB]

Both disks show up as "dead", but you can access the files with file explorer?

If so, you might try powering down, disconnecting from the power main for a bit (maybe 10-15 minutes), and powering up again.

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@AmalW wrote:

Also, what is the largest capacity drive you can put in this NAS running the old 4.2.31?

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There's no explicit limit on the disk drive itself.  There are two expansion limits:

• You can't expand the volume over 16 TiB
• You can't expand the volume more than 8 TiB from it's initial size

So if you started over with a factory reset, you could put in 2x16 TB drives if you wanted to.  Or expand the current volume (after you deal with the current issue) up to 2x10 TB.

If you were to convert the NAS to run OS-6, there would be no volume expansion limits.

[AmalW]

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@StephenB@Sandshark 

Yes, could access files although both were shown as dead!

I have now shutdown the NAS for 25mins and restarted. Now it shows that Disk 2 is Dead! Although when I put them individually into the NAS previously, each disk was ok.

So is there a problem with the NAS not syncing, rather than the disk themselves (internal damage after power failure)?

Is it worth trying the disks in the other spare ReadyNAS Ultra2 I bought? Screen shot below.

@StephenB wrote:

Both disks show up as "dead", but you can access the files with file explorer?

If so, you might try powering down, disconnecting from the power main for a bit (maybe 10-15 minutes), and powering up again.

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@AmalW wrote:

Also, what is the largest capacity drive you can put in this NAS running the old 4.2.31?

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There's no explicit limit on the disk drive itself.  There are two expansion limits:

• You can't expand the volume over 16 TiB
• You can't expand the volume more than 8 TiB from it's initial size

So if you started over with a factory reset, you could put in 2x16 TB drives if you wanted to.  Or expand the current volume (after you deal with the current issue) up to 2x10 TB.

If you were to convert the NAS to run OS-6, there would be no volume expansion limits.

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[StephenB]

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@AmalW wrote:

Is it worth trying the disks in the other spare ReadyNAS Ultra2 I bought? Screen shot below.

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It's possible that disk 2 failed when it tried to resync.

You could power down, and remove disk 1.  Then see what happens when you power up.

Or you could just pull disk 2, and try hot-inserting one of your clones.

[Sandshark]

I once had a similar problem with the exact same drive type in an NVX.  I attributed it to a mix of drive types since I had three Seagates that came with it and one Hitachi I added, though all were 7200RPM enterprise grade drives,  But maybe it was just the drives themselves or the chassis.  Seemingly randomly at power-on, or drive spin-up when spin-down was enabled, one or more of the Seagates (never the Hitachi) would show as dead, though they clearly could not be if it was more than one.  Another power cycle or reset would not clear it.  The only solution to "resurrect" the drive to was to hot remove and re-insert the drive and let it re-sync (one at a time if more than one was involved), though that was really only necessary if I wanted good drive diagnostic data since everythinhg else worked fine.  Even a backup, factory default, and restore did not fix it.  My interim solution was to turn off drive spin-down since I rarely power cycled, but it did not cure it, it just gave it fewer opportunities for it to happen (I know this because it happened on a subsequent OS update). I ended up moving to OS6, which the NVX cannot run, so I moved them to a Pro6 converted to OS6 and the problem went away, even after adding two more Hitachi's.  So, I don't know if the different chassis or OS6 made the difference.  That NVX was never used again.  I stole the backplane from it to fix an Ultra4.

I was not yet adept enough at Linux to go in and look "under the hood" at what was going on at the Linux level, that's all the information I have.

Though you replaced the power supply, there could have been secondary damage to the chassis if the input voltage spiked too high during the failure, so trying the other chassis might help.  Unfortunately, both my experience and yours is that once the drives are marked dead, it seems a power cycle won't clear that, and so a chassis change probably won't either.  You'll have to do as I did:  Remove one drive with power on, wait till the NAS recognizes that, then re-insert and let it re-sync.  I'm pretty sure I didn't end up having to zero the drive with a PC in between since OS4.x doesn't check for a previous OS on the drive before formatting.  Obviously, your backup should be up to date when trying this, as two syncs are an opportunity for those older drives to fail.

As I believe was mentioned earlier in the thread, you should insure the OS version on the new NAS is the same as your old.  And testing each bay by swapping the scratch drive you use for that process between bays with power off, then powering on, will do that.

Or, bite the bullet now and move to OS6 on either chassis.  I believe you'll find many other enhancements to you liking.  If you are going with larger drives anyway, Thios is a perfect opportunity,  Use them in the conversion process of one chassis, then copy the data from one to the other.

[AmalW]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@AmalW wrote:

Is it worth trying the disks in the other spare ReadyNAS Ultra2 I bought? Screen shot below.

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It's possible that disk 2 failed when it tried to resync.

You could power down, and remove disk 1.  Then see what happens when you power up.

Or you could just pull disk 2, and try hot-inserting one of your clones.

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@StephenB @Sandshark 

Thanks for both your messages.

I tried what you suggested @StephenB and it would start up with each disk but with the yellow blinking light and when both disks were in it eventuallly said both disks were dead, although all the data was there and accessible!

Anyway, I decided not to do the hot swap of the disk and decided to leave it for a couple of days! The NAS was originally setup to shutdown at night and restart in the morning and it has been doing that by itself over the past few days. This morning it had started up again and logging into the Front View Status page it shows "All Green" and everything is back to normal and the way it was before the meltdown. So I am assuming now, it was a OS software issue and it has finaly resolved itself. See attached pics; not sure if the 'Smart Info' tells you anything about the disks themselves?

All good for the moment, but I am looking for new kit to replace, so any tips on Netgear solutions appreciated? Thanks again.

[StephenB]

The SMART info looks ok, other than the one bad block on disk 2.  SMART isn't the whole story though, and you might want to download the full log zip file and look for errors in system.log and kernel.log.

One recommendation is that you should put a backup plan in place (backing up the NAS to another device - such as a USB drive), so a failure won't result in disaster.  Any device can fail - and your NAS and it's disks are over 7 years old. 

Reasonable 2-bay replacements for your NAS would include the RN212 and RN422.  Though inventory has been scarce, so you should look at pricing for other models (as higher-end NAS might actually be cheaper).  Though I don't recommend competitor products (I don't own any), IMO you should research them as well.

[AmalW]

@StephenB 

Hi Stephen,

Been  a bit quiet trying to decide on a new solution.

There are a couple of options as see it now;

1. Stick with Netgear and get a new 422 with new disks. Also, upgrade one of the old Ultra's to OS6 with new drives, to use as a remote located NAS backup, rather than a cloud solution? If this is possible, it would be a cheaper and easier option to use one of the older NAS's? Or do I need to ge two new 422's.

I am unclear which is the best RAID Solution too. What is the RAID on the new Netgear 422 and OS6?

2. Other alternatives are the Synology NAS, but then I would need to get two new NAS drives. The Software and Apps are said to be better and user friendly on the Synology, but I do not know all the details and trying to research the best option.

Another issue I am having is the NAS back-up to an external USB drive; Device not located - I will do a separate post for that!

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@StephenB wrote:

The SMART info looks ok, other than the one bad block on disk 2.  SMART isn't the whole story though, and you might want to download the full log zip file and look for errors in system.log and kernel.log.

One recommendation is that you should put a backup plan in place (backing up the NAS to another device - such as a USB drive), so a failure won't result in disaster.  Any device can fail - and your NAS and it's disks are over 7 years old. 

Reasonable 2-bay replacements for your NAS would include the RN212 and RN422.  Though inventory has been scarce, so you should look at pricing for other models (as higher-end NAS might actually be cheaper).  Though I don't recommend competitor products (I don't own any), IMO you should research them as well.

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[StephenB]

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@AmalW wrote:

1. Stick with Netgear and get a new 422 with new disks. Also, upgrade one of the old Ultra's to OS6 with new drives, to use as a remote located NAS backup, rather than a cloud solution? If this is possible, it would be a cheaper and easier option to use one of the older NAS's? Or do I need to ge two new 422's.

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You can go with older x86 NAS, as long as you can convert them to OS-6.  The Pro and Ultra models can be converted.  The NVX can't be converted (as it is a 32 bit architecture).

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@AmalW wrote:

2. Other alternatives are the Synology NAS, but then I would need to get two new NAS drives. The Software and Apps are said to be better and user friendly on the Synology, but I do not know all the details and trying to research the best option.

I only own ReadyNAS, so I have no first-hand experience on this.

[AmalW]

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Thanks for your message.

Been looking around a bit more. How does the ReadyNAS 528X 8-Bay compare with the 422 in terms of performance(apart from the number of disks)? And, If it had 8x1Tb disks what would the total capacity be? 4Tb?

@StephenB wrote:

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@AmalW wrote:

1. Stick with Netgear and get a new 422 with new disks. Also, upgrade one of the old Ultra's to OS6 with new drives, to use as a remote located NAS backup, rather than a cloud solution? If this is possible, it would be a cheaper and easier option to use one of the older NAS's? Or do I need to ge two new 422's.

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You can go with older x86 NAS, as long as you can convert them to OS-6.  The Pro and Ultra models can be converted.  The NVX can't be converted (as it is a 32 bit architecture).

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@AmalW wrote:

2. Other alternatives are the Synology NAS, but then I would need to get two new NAS drives. The Software and Apps are said to be better and user friendly on the Synology, but I do not know all the details and trying to research the best option.

I only own ReadyNAS, so I have no first-hand experience on this.

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[mdgm]

I have the 528X. It's a lot faster than the 422 would be, but so is the price.

The 420 series is the low end of the Intel (x86_64) units

The 520 series is the mid range

The 620 series is the high end

It really depends on what you want to do with it as to which is best. If you don't need 10Gb ethernet and aren't doing anything CPU intensive or that needs lots of RAM then the RN520 series may be overkill.

If I were looking for a 2-bay unit there's a lot to like about the RN422 with it being the fastest 2-bay ReadyNAS yet and having a text display on the front rather than simply relying on LED lights to indicate the NAS status.

However for my personal needs I'd be unlikely to get a RN422 as I do things which benefit from a faster CPU and a 2-bay NAS wouldn't provide the storage I'm after.

The capacity depends on the RAID configuration not just the disks chosen. With X-RAID2 dual-redundancy you'd get about 5.4TB with 8x1TB disks.

[StephenB]

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@AmalW wrote:

If it had 8x1Tb disks what would the total capacity be? 4Tb?

6 TB if you are using XRAID. 

The capacity rule for single redundancy XRAID is "sum the disks and subtract the largest" - which would yield 7 TB.  But with 8 disks, the default is dual-redundancy (RAID-6), so it'd be "sum the disks and subtract the largest two".  Which results in 6 TB.

If you are using FlexRAID, then of course the capacity would depend on the RAID mode you choose.

FWIW, 1 TB mechanical drives generally aren't cost-effective for NAS anymore.  Fewer but larger disks would be cheaper per TB.  The best strategy with a 6-8 bay NAS is to start with fewer disks, and then add more as your storage needs grow.

Note that @mdgm is giving you the capacity in TiB (1024*1024*1024*1024 bytes) - which is what the NAS shows in the admin web ui.  I'm giving you TB (1000*1000*1000*1000 bytes).  6 TB is ~5.4 TiB, so we are giving you the same capacity - just in different units.

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@AmalW wrote:

How does the ReadyNAS 528X 8-Bay compare with the 422 in terms of performance(apart from the number of disks)?

Data sheets are here:

https://www.netgear.com/images/datasheet/storage/ReadyNAS_RN524X_RN526X_RN528X_DS_09Dec16.pdf

https://www.netgear.com/media/ReadyNAS-RN420-Series_tcm148-49891.pdf

The RN528 has 10 gigabit ethernet interfaces.  It has 4 GB of ECC RAM and a D-1508 processor. The RN422 has gigabit ethernet, 2 GB of RAM (not ECC) and an Atom C3338 processor. 

Both products can saturate a gigabit ethernet connection for large file transfers.  But the RN528 can deliver more speed if you have a 10 gigabit ethernet switch, and the extra RAM gives it an advantage if you are running apps (for instance plex).  The RN422 would use less power.

[AmalW]

@mdgmThat's really useful to have some first hand experience. I have been using my Ultra2 for 9 years for Home/Office for CAD and general file storage and user as a server. It has worked well.

The new OS6 on a new setup would help me have offsite NAS and possible expansion to a remote office.The only reason I considered the 528 is because, I have a possible offer of one.

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@mdgm wrote:

I have the 528X. It's a lot faster than the 422 would be, but so is the price.

The 420 series is the low end of the Intel (x86_64) units

The 520 series is the mid range

The 620 series is the high end

It really depends on what you want to do with it as to which is best. If you don't need 10Gb ethernet and aren't doing anything CPU intensive or that needs lots of RAM then the RN520 series may be overkill.

If I were looking for a 2-bay unit there's a lot to like about the RN422 with it being the fastest 2-bay ReadyNAS yet and having a text display on the front rather than simply relying on LED lights to indicate the NAS status.

However for my personal needs I'd be unlikely to get a RN422 as I do things which benefit from a faster CPU and a 2-bay NAS wouldn't provide the storage I'm after.

The capacity depends on the RAID configuration not just the disks chosen. With X-RAID2 dual-redundancy you'd get about 5.4TB with 8x1TB disks.

---

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@mdgm wrote:

I have the 528X. It's a lot faster than the 422 would be, but so is the price.

The 420 series is the low end of the Intel (x86_64) units

The 520 series is the mid range

The 620 series is the high end

It really depends on what you want to do with it as to which is best. If you don't need 10Gb ethernet and aren't doing anything CPU intensive or that needs lots of RAM then the RN520 series may be overkill.

If I were looking for a 2-bay unit there's a lot to like about the RN422 with it being the fastest 2-bay ReadyNAS yet and having a text display on the front rather than simply relying on LED lights to indicate the NAS status.

However for my personal needs I'd be unlikely to get a RN422 as I do things which benefit from a faster CPU and a 2-bay NAS wouldn't provide the storage I'm after.

The capacity depends on the RAID configuration not just the disks chosen. With X-RAID2 dual-redundancy you'd get about 5.4TB with 8x1TB disks.

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[AmalW]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@AmalW wrote:

If it had 8x1Tb disks what would the total capacity be? 4Tb?

6 TB if you are using XRAID. 

The capacity rule for single redundancy XRAID is "sum the disks and subtract the largest" - which would yield 7 TB.  But with 8 disks, the default is dual-redundancy (RAID-6), so it'd be "sum the disks and subtract the largest two".  Which results in 6 TB.

If you are using FlexRAID, then of course the capacity would depend on the RAID mode you choose.

FWIW, 1 TB mechanical drives generally aren't cost-effective for NAS anymore.  Fewer but larger disks would be cheaper per TB.  The best strategy with a 6-8 bay NAS is to start with fewer disks, and then add more as your storage needs grow.

Note that @mdgm is giving you the capacity in TiB (1024*1024*1024*1024 bytes) - which is what the NAS shows in the admin web ui.  I'm giving you TB (1000*1000*1000*1000 bytes).  6 TB is ~5.4 TiB, so we are giving you the same capacity - just in different units.

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@AmalW wrote:

How does the ReadyNAS 528X 8-Bay compare with the 422 in terms of performance(apart from the number of disks)?

Data sheets are here:

https://www.netgear.com/images/datasheet/storage/ReadyNAS_RN524X_RN526X_RN528X_DS_09Dec16.pdf

https://www.netgear.com/media/ReadyNAS-RN420-Series_tcm148-49891.pdf

The RN528 has 10 gigabit ethernet interfaces.  It has 4 GB of ECC RAM and a D-1508 processor. The RN422 has gigabit ethernet, 2 GB of RAM (not ECC) and an Atom C3338 processor. 

Both products can saturate a gigabit ethernet connection for large file transfers.  But the RN528 can deliver more speed if you have a 10 gigabit ethernet switch, and the extra RAM gives it an advantage if you are running apps (for instance plex).  The RN422 would use less power.

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@stephen

Thanks for the data sheets and info.

I was not thinking of using 1Tb drives, but a few disks were included in the offer I had.

It is used so not sure about warranties with Netgear? I do like the idea of expandability.

Would this work with having the Ultra2 as a remote device subject to storage capacity? Or will I need two 528's?

[StephenB]

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@AmalW wrote:

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It is used so not sure about warranties with Netgear? I do like the idea of expandability.

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Netgear's hardware warranty is not transferable, so you would have no warranty.

Netgear also will not provide paid software support for a used NAS.

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@AmalW wrote:

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Would this work with having the Ultra2 as a remote device subject to storage capacity? Or will I need two 528's?

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It would work remotely with ReadyCloud if you convert the Ultra2 to run OS-6.

You could use a VPN or enable rsync over ssh.