Re: ReadyNas Ultra 4 plus stuck on booting (though boot menu is working)

waled · ‎2016-12-15

Please help 😞

readynas ultra 4 plus with OS 6.6.0

Replaced a failing disk with WD Red 3tb

now it won't boot

stops at 99% or thereabouts

boot menu firmware reinstall hasn't worked

it booted once when I skipped disc check but data showed degraded and I couldn't access anything although that may be because it was syncing the new drive.

I rebooted it 20 mins into syncing and i haven't able to boot I again

I have a back up from about 6 months ago but need access to latest documents not backed

Help!

mdgm-ntgr · ‎2016-12-15

Did you download the logs before you replaced the failing disk?

If so please send those in (see the Sending Logs link in my sig)

waled · ‎2016-12-15

I haven't been able to download the logs as it hasn't booted since the problem. The one time it did I tried to download the logs via Raider but it was hanging so tried to reboot again without luck. I suspect the FW is corrupted. Not sure if my many reboots have helped.

waled · ‎2016-12-15

One thing I did do was give the whole machine a good dusting and changed the fan for a noctua. But it booted fine after that. It was when changed the disk a few mins later everything went belly up.

waled · ‎2016-12-15

Well after p***g me around for the last 3 hours and final memory test of 26 mins
It has rebooted. Showing data is degraded and syncing the new disk.
Can see my folders but it lags if trying to access them.
I'm going to leave it over night to complete its syncing then try and get those documents tomorrow.

@mdgm-ntgr can you foresee any problems? Is it lagging because of the syncing? Does Degraded Data just means no redundancy but data is still OK and safe? Or should I be worried?
Many thanks for your help

StephenB · ‎2016-12-15

@waled wrote:
Does Degraded Data just means no redundancy

Yes.

@waled wrote:
Is it lagging because of the syncing?

Resyncing does hurt performance.

@waled wrote:
...should I be worried?

Yes, your data is at risk. But the lag and the degraded volume warning aren't surprising, and being able to see your files in the shares is an encouraging sign.

waled · ‎2016-12-16

It's been running all night.

but I cannot tell what it's doing

Display just says ' data degraded'

all 4 bay lights are solid on as is the power button.

the 'act' is on or flashing

Can sign in online but it doesn't go beyond the splash screen, seems to time out.

Raidar can see it and shows status as' Volum data RAID level 5, not redundant, 2.0TB (44%) of 4.5TB used'

The 4 hard drives are present and green ticked.

diagnostic says disk 1 has 22 command timeouts, disk 3 has 4680 reallocated sectors/events, 3/4 drives used with algorithm 2

I cannot access anything else as it hangs if I try browse. Shows the main folders but times out if trying to go into them.

How is can I tell if it's just sitting there or resyncing ?

if I switch off I may not be able to get this far again

waled · ‎2016-12-16

managed to download some logs via raidar. emailed as per mgdm link

mdgm-ntgr · ‎2016-12-16

It looks like the syncing process is stuck which is hardly surprising with disk 3 failing so badly.

This doesn't look good.

waled · ‎2016-12-16

Any ideas?
With one disk failing shouldn't it be able to carry on resyncing as disk 3 allowed reduncy?
Should I take disk 3 out and try boot it?

waled · ‎2016-12-16

I've removed disk 3 and it rebooted first time
But I now have no shares!!

waled · ‎2016-12-16

I put disk 3 back in and used boot menu to skip disk check and it booted normally.

I quickly found my documents and started to copy them over. There is only 380MB worth. I have back up of the rest. Unfortunately 15% into it stopped. Now disk 3 is flashing and it's back to its old state again 😞

StephenB · ‎2016-12-16

One option would be powering down and cloning disk 3 to good disk Then reboot again with the cloned disk in slot 3 in read-only mode.

There would still be file corruption (since bad blocks won't copy), but the hangs should stop.

If you do this, make sure you use a cloning program that does a sector-by-sector copy of the full disk.

waled · ‎2016-12-16

How would you suggest I go about cloning it?
Any suggestions of software?

StephenB · ‎2016-12-16

@waled wrote:
How would you suggest I go about cloning it?
Any suggestions of software?

It depends on what operating system you are using. The main difference in these tools is how good they are at reading (or skipping over) damaged blocks.

This would work for Windows: http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/index.htm But I don't know what settings the Easeus software has for retries, etc.

waled · ‎2016-12-16

I have a Communicator HDD docking station for cloning offline. One touch button thing.

You think that would work? Or must I use a PC?

StephenB · ‎2016-12-16

@waled wrote:

You think that would work? Or must I use a PC?

I don't know. Perhaps check the user manual, and see if the cloning section specifies sector by sector. That is the simplest method for a hardware device, so it quite possible that will do it.

waled · ‎2016-12-16

Cloning the disk now.

I still don't understand why one disk out of 3 if failing/failed should stop me from accessing my data?

I thought was the whole point of a NAS with Raid 5???

mdgm-ntgr · ‎2016-12-16

RAID 5 provides some protection against a problem with a single disk. That's all. There are other issues you can encounter that it will not protect you against.

When you leave a bad disk in a system for a long time after it is obviously failing you are more likely to run into issues too.

waled · ‎2016-12-16

So I put the clone and with a struggle it booted first time

Raidar shows 2 ticked drives and what looks like a sync symbol over the cloned one (two arrows forming a blue circle)

data degraded message is flashing on the led. And the power button is flashing

hdd icons 12 are solid and hdd 3 is flashing fast.

Is this good or bad?

waled · ‎2016-12-16

@mdgm wrote:
RAID 5 provides some protection against a problem with a single disk. That's all. There are other issues you can encounter that it will not protect you against.

When you leave a bad disk in a system for a long time after it is obviously failing you are more likely to run into issues too.

The readynas warned if a failing disk and yo be prepared to replace it. So I assumed it wasn't necessary to change it until it said do. It was often it warned me. Last weekend it said it 3 odd times in a day or two. So I decided to change it anyway. And do begun my saga.

I do most of my work from the clouds these days but there was one folder I just didn't get round to moving. Laziness I assume. I'm paying for it now.

waled · ‎2016-12-16

Cloning didn't work either. Not sure if syncing finished or not.

Still doesn't boot although once every 4-5 attempts it boots to degraded data status where upon my files are back for about 15 secs and then it hangs. Managed to get some more files off it like this.

Unless anyone one can suggest anything I suppose I have to keep going like this until I get my crucial folders and then factory reset

StephenB · ‎2016-12-17

@waled wrote:

...So I assumed it wasn't necessary to change it until it said to...

Unfortunately an incorrect assumption.

People use different criteria for disk replacement, so Netgear "warns". Personally I replace drives when pending sectors + reallocated sectors rise to the 30-50 sector range.

waled · ‎2016-12-17

So today I took out disk 3 (original failing disk)

booted on remaining 2 disks. Took three attempts

then I decided manually update FW incase it was corrupted in the flash storage as well.

Once done I put disk 3 back in just to see what happens.

It recognised the disk and LCD screen shows 'recover data '

activity light is on and disk 3 is blinking

currently it is on 42% and I can fully access the readynas front end which says disk is resyncing.

There no volumes to see.

will I see anything when fully resynced?

will it be my old data or has FW update on two discs got rid of my volumes?

anyone explain what is happening, please?

waled · ‎2016-12-17

Nope that didn't help

Resynced fully and there were no shares that were accessible

Anyway enough is enough. I'm fed up.

I put in another WD Red 6tb to go with the new WD Red 3tb, along with existing Seagate 3tb and 2tb. I have now performed a full factory reset. Gives me a useable 7.25tb. More than enough for my use.

Now for 16 hr resyncing.

Thanks for the help