ReadyNAS Pro 6 boot failure, migrate disks to new RN526X00

[mabx99]

I have a ReadyNAS Pro 6 (RNDP6000-200NAS) which is now failing to boot.  Even upon removing the disk drives, I cannot access the console login via browser.  The front panel shows "ERR: No disks detected", I can ping the network address, but I cannot login from browser without get a connection refused.  I am thinking it is time to upgrade!!

To ease my transition and data recovery from backup devices, I am wondering if I can purchase a new ReadyNAS Desktop system (RN526X00), install my 6 HDD's from the ReadyNAS Pro and still read that RAID data.  The ReadyNAS Pro was on an older RAIDiator version, 4.1.x or 4.2.x.

Thanks very much,

Mike

[Sandshark]

"ERR: No disks detected" is actually a good sign when there are no drives installed.  It means a lot of things are working as they should.  The ReadyNAS runs the OS from the disks, so it is not unusual that you cannot log in without at least one installed.  Most likely, the problem is in that OS on your drives.  You can test that theory by putting in just a spare drive containing no data you care about and seeing if it builds a volume and everything then works.

There is a process for using an OS6 NAS to recover data from an OS4.2.x volume, but you'll need external storage on which to store it and then restore it on the new NAS.  You can't just migrate the drives and end up with a usable system.

While it may still be time for you to upgrade, give some more details on what the current condition is and let's see if we can get your NAS accessible.  What does the display show?  What does RAIDar say?  Do you have SSH enabled?

[mabx99]

Thanks so much for the reply.  First off, I have ordered an RN628X so will hopefully have a replacement system available in a week or so.  But it would be great to get this one operational if possible. 

I was not aware that the OS booted off the RAID disks.  I have re-inserted them and the front panel display shows empty boxes representing each of the 6 slots, but it does not have them numbered 1,2,3,4,5,6.   And the only text on the display reads "Booting...".  RAIDar is telling me "Status: System starting up..." along with my NAS Name "nas-0E-D3-AD" and IP Address.  The Model and Firmware fields are blank.  I believe I have SSH enabled but cannot be 100% of that.  I have tried to ssh into it an am getting "connection refused" on port 22.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

-Mike

[StephenB]

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@mabx99 wrote:

I was not aware that the OS booted off the RAID disks.  I have re-inserted them and the front panel display shows empty boxes representing each of the 6 slots, but it does not have them numbered 1,2,3,4,5,6.   And the only text on the display reads "Booting...".  RAIDar is telling me "Status: System starting up..." along with my NAS Name "nas-0E-D3-AD" and IP Address.  The Model and Firmware fields are blank.  I believe I have SSH enabled but cannot be 100% of that.  I have tried to ssh into it an am getting "connection refused" on port 22.

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It's hard to say if the problem is with the NAS or if it's with the RAID array.

You could try installing RAIDar on a PC, and see if it gives more status:  https://kb.netgear.com/20684/ReadyNAS-Downloads#raidar

If you have a spare disk, you could also try removing the disks again, and seeing if you can do a fresh install on the spare disk.  If that works, then see if the NAS boots with that disk in each slot.

[mabx99]

@StephenB and @Sandshark  Thanks for both your suggestions.  Yes, I had installed RAIDar on my Mac and it was only reporting "Status: System starting up...".  After exhausting other debugging attempts (including verifying power supply voltages because I did have to replace that a couple years ago), I pulled the 2 drives from a ReadyNAS Duo which is no longer in service.  The ailing ReadyNAS Pro 6 detected those two drives and booted, although it does not mount the volumes presumably because of the NAS differences.   I then proceeded to try one of the drives in each of the 6 slots-- it would boot the system in each of the slots, but still failing the filesystem check as I would expect. 

So this raises questions about the original 6 drives in the system.  Could one of them alone hold up the boot process like this?  Any suggestions from here would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I had an RN628X on order but my distributor is claiming these were discontinued on June 1 and cancelled my order.  I was surprised since they are still shown as an active product on the Netgear site.  I'm still wanting to replace with Netgear in hopes of transferring data.

Thanks much!

Mike

[mdgm]

The Duo v1 uses a Sparc CPU and Duo v2 uses an ARM CPU. They both use different CPU architectures to the Pro 6 which uses an Intel CPU.

It could be a bad disk or a full OS partition. This can be troubleshooted from tech support mode (a boot menu option). If it won't boot into tech support mode with the disks installed then that would likely point to a bad disk or some other hardware issue.

If the problem is a bad disk or a full root volume that would remain when moving the disks to another chassis.

[StephenB]

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@mabx99 wrote:

Could one of them alone hold up the boot process like this? 

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Yes.  As could a full or corrupted OS partition.

One thing you could try is booting the system in tech support mode, and see if that works.

You could also try testing the disks in a PC with vendor tools.