ReadyNAS 3138 Drives not recognized

[nickwl]

Hi all,

I have the ReadyNAS 214 and am just now starting to add drives to it.  I'm able to get the drives recognized in the 1st and 4th trays but for some reason trays 2 and 3 don't recognize the drives (even if I move a functioning disk from the 1/4th tray into the 2nd/3rd).

Is there anything else I can do to debug?

[StephenB]

Is it still under warranty (3 years for the original purchaser)? 

You should be able to

• power down
• remove existing drives, labelling by slot

Then do a factory install to a scratch drive (perhaps one of the new ones) in slot 1.

Then you can power down, move that drive to a different slot, and reboot.  It should boot with that drive in any slot (with the other slots empty).

[nickwl]

Thanks! But I don't think that actually solves the issue of two of the slots not working?  Unless I'm misunderstanding something.

[StephenB]

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@nickwl wrote:

Thanks! But I don't think that actually solves the issue of two of the slots not working?  Unless I'm misunderstanding something.

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If the test above passes, then the slots are working, and we need to do some more troubleshooting.

If the test fails, then the slots aren't working and you need a new chassis (since they are not repairable).  That's why I led with the warranty question.

[nickwl]

Ah, I see.  Okay.  Will try that.  Do I need to do a factory reset?  Could I power down, move a drive from one to another without doing a full reset?

[StephenB]

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@nickwl wrote:

Ah, I see.  Okay.  Will try that.  Do I need to do a factory reset?  Could I power down, move a drive from one to another without doing a full reset?

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The factory reset installs the OS on the firmware and initializes the RAID array.

You'll need to do that on the scratch disk after you remove the current disks.  If that disk is blank, the factory install happens automatically.

After the test, you 

• power down
• replace the original disks in their original slots
• power up

The NAS will boot with everything exactly as it is now.

[nickwl]

Hmm interestingly when I did that, the disk light came on then it got stuck in the boot phase.  So it seems like it recognized a drive in the slot but wasn't able to move forward...

[StephenB]

If a disk boots in slot 1, but doesn't boot when you shift it to another slot, then it's pretty clearly hardware.  So I'd contact my.netgear.com and ask them to replace your defective NAS.