ReadyNAS Duo V1 won't boot.

[rouppe]

For reasons I won't go into I turned my NAS off. Normal power-down, using front button. After a few days I went to turn it back on again.

Pushed the button, walked away to do something else. After an hour I noticed there was still significant fan noise so I went to investigate. There was no LED showing, the fan was flat out (or close to it). I waited another half an hour, no change, so I tried a power down with the front button. No response. Checked via RaidAR. Couldn't detect it which just left me with pulling the power plug. Had to go to work.

Next day I tried powering it up again. Started with the usual rush, fast flashing LED. Then the fan slowed down slightly, and the LED flashed a bit slower. Not pulsating, just slower. Walked away, forgot about it and went to bed. Next morning it was exactly the same. Fan going fast, blue light flashing. I had no option but to pull the plug again.

I should disclose that I've noticed Smart+ sector allocation errors on the drive in bay 1 creeping up. Last time I looked a week or so ago it was up to three hundred and something but appeared to have stopped increasing.

Any recommended next steps? I might try the reboot that bypasses journal check (hold power button for 5 seconds). Other than that, what?

[StephenB]

You could try powering down again and removing disk 1. Then see if it boots. Don't reinsert drive 1 with the NAS running (it will wipe it). Power down first.

300 reallocated sectors is a lot, I would definitely replace it.

[rouppe]

OK.

I've ordered a replacement drive, which isn't as easy as it sounds as it seems most on the compatibility list for the Duo are now obsolete...

I'll try pulling out bay 1 and boot again. Interestingly I replaced bay 2 only a few months ago because of the same problem.

[rouppe]

Well that worked a treat Stephen. Pulled bay 1,pushed the button and up she came like normal.

That replacement drive should come in a few days so I'll pop it in and we should be good again.

I'm surprised how quickly drives seem to be failing though.

[StephenB]

I'd make/update my backup while waiting for the replacement.

[mdgm-ntgr]

What brand and model disk?

[rouppe]

Stephen, yes I have an offsite backup portable drive, though I have been tardy in keeping it updated. I might do that overnight...

mdgm In 2008 I originally bought Seagate drives, two 1Tb ST31000340AS drives. One failed almost immediately and was replaced with a ST31000528AS I think. The other ST31000340AS was giving sector reallocation errors for the last 6 months and I managed to get that replaced under warranty with a refurbished drive I can't remember the model but it was another Seagate and on the list.

It's the ST31000528AS that is causing trouble now, and I wanted to replace it with a Western Digital or Hitachi but because the drives compatible with my old NAS are fairly limited I couldn't find a supplier here in NZ that had them so I've ended up ordering a Seagate ST1000DM003.

It's kind of made me want to steer clear or Seagate after this...