My ReadyNAS has been running flawlessly for years. I had to rewire my office. I powered off the ReadyNAS and took several days to rewire. When I powered on the ReadyNAS it hung during boot with a "Kernal error" and sat there for 24 hours before I turned it off. I've read every post herein that I think is related.
I carefully removed and tested each disk (Seagate 500GB Barracuda) with Seagate's Windows 7 based diagnostics. I'm using a USB disk cradle. Disk 4, the one that always ran a little warmer than the other 3 ... the one next to the vents ... the one with a lot of dust on it ... failed to even be recognized by the USB interface. Listening closely I hear an endless "whirr ... whirr ... whirr ..." when I power it on. An exact replacement is on the way to me.
I've read posts about replacing (in an attempt to recover) one disk. I'm frightened. How do I replace the disk without losing it all? I've not powered on the ReadyNAS again since I turned it off. I think I need a detailed step by step procedure.
I understood that the ReadyNAS would allow me to recover from the loss of a single disk. I'd rather like to see that promise fulfilled.
Most of the data that was on the ReadyNAS (all the really critical data) is backed up.
What I'd really like to know is: 1) do I stick the new HD into the ReadyNAS and power it up and expect it to recover? 2) do I power it up first and hot-swap the disk when the boot sequence fails ... and expect it to recover? 3) is there some other procedure I should be using?
If you boot without disks do you still get the kernel panic?
If not you could try powering off the NAS, putting the 3 good disks back in the same slot as before, booting the NAS, seeing if it comes up fine and if so adding a replacement disk to slot 4.
Note disk 4 may be the dedicated parity disk (has no partition on it) if you are using X-RAID. So it didn't even appear to your PC as if it were an uninitialised disk?
The normal process would be to boot the NAS with the three good disks. Assuming it boots, then hot-insert the replacement drive (with the NAS running). It would then resync.
Backups are always recommended, as trusting your data to a single device creates a lot of risk. Also, it is quite possible that you have problems on the other disks that have not yet been detected. I have had disks that pass the non-destructive seatools tests, but which fail when you run the destructive ones.
Though I'm sure mdgm has good reasons for asking, and it would be best to finish that conversation before you do anything.
<rant on> Back up procedures and processes are a topic for another venue. I worked for IBM (30 years), Compaq/HP (7 years) and did contract programming for about 2 and a half years. I managed back up processes for main frame computer rooms as well as many different kinds of small computers ... the least of which were the various computers in my own home since about 1979. I don't need to be chastised ... or even reminded ... about the reasons, the short comings and the complete failure of back up systems.
Sorry. You had no idea how many reels of half-inch tape I've shipped off to Iron Mountain, how many Iomega disks full of backups, how many TRAVAN tapes, how many DC2120 mini cartridges, how many 8" floppy disks, how many 5.25" floppy disks, how many 3" floppy disks, how many IBM data cartridges, even boxes of paper, most of which, if they were ever actually needed, failed completely to restore the data. <rant off>
If I boot the ReadyNAS NV with only 3 disks in it and it boots successfully ... is there some time limit on how quickly I need to insert the brand spanking new replacement for disk #4?
I think there should be a rant on/off tag for real... There are times I'd use it for sure. :twisted:
There are a lot posters here who are under the impression that RAID fully protects them from any possibility of data loss. You clearly aren't one of them.
There's no time limit on inserting the new drive. The volume is of course degraded until you do. I haven't resync'ed my NV+ in years, so I am not sure how long that will take. with 500 GB drives, my guess is a couple of hours at most, but that is just a guess. A 3 TB drive on my Pro-6 takes 12-24 hours to resync, depending on what else the NAS is doing.
Both RAIDar and Frontview (the web admin interface) will show you some progress indications, especially if you hover the mouse over the "ball" icons. The estimate completion times are way off, and usually much longer than it actually takes.
Thanks. I'll try booting immediately ... to make sure there's not more to the problem. And leave it up until next Tuesday when Amazon/UPS promise delivery of the HD. I'll be back next week ... if not sooner ... but I hope not sooner.
OK. It booted without the 4th disk in place. The indicator for the 4th disk is blinking. The display indicates the correct IP address and "C: 0.1/1.3T free".
Can I safely access the shares without ruining my chance of dropping the new disk in when it arrives?
Should I drop the old disk back in on the chance that it really is the parity disk and that's why my USB wouldn't detect it (I will try this only on assurances that it won't screw the chance of having the new one work if the old one doesn't)?
OK. It booted without the 4th disk in place. The indicator for the 4th disk is blinking. The display indicates the correct IP address and "C: 0.1/1.3T free".
Great.
stanleytberry wrote:
Can I safely access the shares without ruining my chance of dropping the new disk in when it arrives?
Yes. Rebuilding the parity disk requires reading all the sectors on the existing drives, to construct the parity. If you can't read the data now, the rebuild process won't work anyway. If you can read the data now, you might as well. I'd probably avoid writing to it much until the new disk is sync'd, though if the remaining disks are healthy it shouldn't matter - just an abundance of caution.
stanleytberry wrote:
Should I drop the old disk back in on the chance that it really is the parity disk and that's why my USB wouldn't detect it
I wouldn't. Windows should have installed the device driver for the disk, even if it was zeroed. Similarly, Seatools will find it, even if Windows doesn't understand the format.
I had a Seagate fail similarly a few weeks ago - the NAS stayed running in my case, but the SATA channel on the drive timed out (and eventually disabled itself). Windows didn't recognize it, Seatools didn't see it. There were no SMART alerts on reallocated sectors, etc, it just failed.
OK. I inserted the new disk late yesterday afternoon. The ReadyNAS acknowledged the insertion of the 4th disk. A minute later it indicated that it was synching the disk. Eventually the display went back to normal. The light for the 4th disk was still blinking when I went to bed.
This AM all 4 lights are on solid and the box appears to be functioning normally.
