I bought this thing 12 or more years ago (can’t remember now), and it has performed admirably over those years. During its lifetime I upgraded it to 4 GB RAM, installed larger drives, and moved to OS 6. It’s been running 6.10.10 successfully, but I think it’s finally reached the end for me.
Yesterday my area experienced an unexpected power outage due to some kid hitting a main pole with his car. Everything in the house came back up except the ReadyNAS. The boot process is stuck on “ReadyNAS”.
I’m thinking either the power supply was damaged, or the VPD file is corrupted. I did not know about the potential issue with the VPD, so I do not have a backup copy. It appears that there is no longer anyone from Netgear who is able or willing to fix that particular issue on these old platforms. I’d hate to go through the whole process of replacing the PS only to find that the real problem is a corrupt VPD that can’t be fixed.
Is there a quick/easy way to determine where the problem lies, and if it is VPD corruption, am I completely out of luck now?
Is there a quick/easy way to determine where the problem lies, and if it is VPD corruption, am I completely out of luck now?
If you have an ATX supply, you can connect it to the NAS (keeping it external, since it won't fit in the chassis), and see if the NAS boots.
Alternatively if you have a multimeter, you can check the voltages. That's not the best test, since you are testing the PSU under load. But it should tell you if any of the outputs have completely failed.
The display is pre-programmed with "ReadyNAS", so all it needs is 5V power (and not particularly well regulated 5V) to display that. Most likely, one of the other voltages is bad. I have never heard of the VPD becoming corrupt when the flash isn't being written to (e.g., during an OS update), so I fully agree with @StephenB. It's possible the entire flash memory was damaged, or the RAM, CPU, etc. has died; but given the issue was caused by a power outage, that's also unlikely.
The ReadyNAS power supply is not specially designed by Netgear -- it's just a supply intended for a small form factor PC. And since few of them last as long as your NAS, it's not uncommon that it finally dies. Fortunately, aftermarket replacements are available.
Thanks for the advice. I used my trusty multimeter to test voltages on the PSU. It’s putting out the proper voltages on all the pins that should have voltage. I’m actually a bit surprised - this is the original power supply, and it has been through a lot - it spent the first few years of life on US voltage, then 7 years on European voltage, then the past year back on US voltage. Given that, I would have guessed that suspecting the PSU was a good approach.
I have tried booting with and without drives, including a new (unformatted) drive. I swapped the RAM for known good. Still the same result.
Just for fun, I tried the 4.2 USB Recovery Tool with 6.10.10 firmware image(that’s the correct process for a legacy NAS upgraded to OS 6, right?). It was a bit of an adventure to even get this functional. Anyway, I don’t have a VGA ribbon cable handy, so I can’t observe the boot process details, but it my USB stick has an access LED that shows attempt to load something from USB, but after a few seconds it stops and nothing else happens no matter how long I wait.
At this point,without additional tools like a VGA connection, it appears to me that the problem may indeed be damaged flash, or damaged CPU, or damaged other critical component.
Is there anything else I can try? Is it worth it to do more?
If the problem is just the VPD, you should be able to boot into Tech Support mode via the reset button menu. But if the entire flash is corrupt, then it probably won't even boot to the menu. USB recovery is the fix to that if it's not a hardware issue. The NAS is picky about the USB drives it can use, so it is probably worth trying with another brand, if you have one.
That is even tried to access the USB tends to indicate it's getting through POST, so the CPU is fine.
If you measured the power supply voltages without a load, that's not a very good test.
It won’t go to the Boot Menu, so it’s looking more like you suggest - entire flash memory is corrupt.
I only have one small (under 64GB) USB drive. If the USB drive I have is not suitable I’ll have to see if I can get some others. I went ahead and ordered a VGA ribbon cable, so sometime next week I’ll be able to watch the POST.
Agreed that the multi-meter test doesn’t tell me whether the PSU is performing under load, but I don’t have an ATX power supply handy to do a definitive test, and I don’t really want to buy one - I have no other devices that would need one. I don’t want to order a replacement PSU for the ReadyNAS until I can reasonably assure myself that I’m not just throwing money away trying to fix a dead platform.
I alluded to my attempt at USB Recovery being a challenge - I found that the utility that creates the USB image is Windows-only, but I don’t own any Windows-based machines. I was able to source a Windows laptop to run it, and after encountering some weird errors that were only fixed by downloading Visual C++ updates onto the laptop, I managed to create the Recovery USB, which, as you noted, may not even work on my USB drive. Good times 😎
So, it seems my path forward (if there is one) is clear - connect VGA to see how far I’m getting into boot attempt, try some different USB sticks, and if I can get the platform up/running again, I’ll go ahead and buy a replacement PSU just because the PSU is old.
If that path doesn’t bring the box back to life, then I will start saving my pennies to buy a QNAP NAS, which I was going to do anyway. My plan was to eventually migrate data from the ReadyNAS to a QNAP, and then use the ReadyNAS as a backup target.
Fortunately I have a recent backup of everything that was on the ReadyNAS, in case it is truly dead.
One last question - in case I can’t bring the ReadyNAS back to life, would the hardware be of value to anyone for spare parts or whatever? My municipality charges a fee to dispose of electronics, and it just seems a bit insulting to have to pay to dispose of a dead box. If it is truly beyond recovery, I’d rather donate it to someone who can use it.
thanks for all your advice. I got a VGA ribbon cable today, and here’s the results:
The box goes through the proper boot sequence
I can get into the BIOS setup and related power-on screens
After the initial boot sequence, it halts with the dreaded “MBR H Error"
I cannot load the USB Recovery Tool, no matter what I try
It’s not the USB drive, or a problem with the USB port. I’m able to take the same USB stick and image it with the Ubuntu 04.24 installer, and then boot the ReadyNAS off that and initiate the Ubuntu install process.
I am assuming that the issue is the ReadyNAS flash memory is so thoroughly corrupt that the USB Recovery Tool is crashing out during load. This indicates to me that the box is now officially scrap.
