ReadyNas RNDP6350 won't boot

[blobby25]

Hi all, new here and already with a big problem. Have a Readynas RNDP6350 which is not booting anymore, No OS, No Recovery, No anything! Seems the internal USB disk was wiped :? Hope ppl here have a solution, been reading a lot but nothing so far seems to work, even the USB recovery stick (or am I doing something wrong?)

[RX]

To check the NAS chassis, try this: Turn off your RNDP6350 then pull-out all drives but make sure to label the drives from which bay you have pull it out. Then, turn on your RNDP6350 without any drives inside it. Check if it will boot up and if it will be detected on RAIDar as well.

Did you receive any e-mail notification that a drive/s has failed?

To further isolate the problem, try also this: Turn off your RNDP6350 then pull-out all drives but make sure to label the drives from which bay you have pull it out. Then insert another drive that is NOT a member of the existing array then turn on your NAS. Check if it will boot up completely and if you will be able to initially set it up.


- Edited

[Nhellie]

In addition, you can also try to boot up the NAS without the drives on. Check and see if raidar would detect it as no disk.

[blobby25]

Thanks Guys, tried all that but seems like the internal flash with the OS is gone. Connected a VGA break-out cable and can get into the BIOS, drives are being recognized but wont boot. So my guess is the internal flash/USB needs to be reflashed correct?

[Nhellie]

Can you still put it on tech support mode though? Might as well contact support. http://support.netgear.com/general/contact/#tab-call

[blobby25]

Nope, tried that also to Telnet into it.

[Nhellie]

If that is the case, I would say it is dead... unless there is another way to backdoor into it. Check your warranty status, you might still be able to have it replaced through support.

[blobby25]

What about USB recovery?

[Nhellie]

Yes you can probably try that one, but reading here http://home.bott.ca/webserver/?p=166 , you should be advised by support before you do it.

[mdgm-ntgr]

I guess USB Boot Recovery could be worth a try. The EEPROM may be corrupted by that though.

If you see it in RAIDar before/after the Boot Recovery perhaps PM me a screenshot of what you see.

[blobby25]

Thanks mdgm but looks like the EEPROM is corrupted? USB boot recovery starts but after a few seconds it just displays that it is booting the kernel and doesnt continue. What am i doing wrong? Should i make a bootable Linux USB stick and try with DD if= and of=??

[mdgm-ntgr]

Did you follow the link Nhellie gave to a page on home.bott.ca ?

If the EEPROM was corrupted USB Boot Recovery should have completed but on boot you wouldn't see the model name in the relevant column in RAIDar when you try to boot the NAS normally but the NAS would still show up in RAIDar.

For x86 there isn't an image you can simply dd to a USB key. Did you try more than one USB key?

[blobby25]

Yes i did, USB boots and on the monitor i can see:

SYSLINUX 3.73 2009 .....
Loading Kernel...............
Loading initrd.gz..................ready.

But after that nothing happens? Maybe settings in the BIOS?

[mdgm-ntgr]

So it doesn't auto power off?

Have you tried powering it off then powering it on normally?

[blobby25]

Yup, same result. Isn't seen by the router and/or Raidar

[mdgm-ntgr]

Is your memory properly seated?

Does the internal USB flash show up in the BIOS?

[blobby25]

Again busy for a few hours to get USB recovery working, small progress with the latest SYSLINUX.EXE. Says booting kernel now but that's it. When I look to see what's on the internal flash drive I can only see LDLINUX.SYS and that's it. Anybody know what else should be on there?

[mdgm-ntgr]

The internal flash should have much more than that. Note we use a customised syslinux boot loader for the NAS itself so the boot menu etc. will work.

There should be an initrd.gz, kernel, syslinux.cfg, root.tlz, memtest, supplmnt.tlz and version.txt on the internal flash