RN104 - Stuck "Booting..." after automatic 6.4.0 upgrade.

[elfworks]

Went to Boot Mode.
Tried OS Reinstall.
Tried Factory Reset.
Pulled out the drives.

Always end up stuck on 'Booting..."

Please give us instructions on how to do a USB Recovery.

Please don't send it in a PM, because that's all we see in the Google searches...

Thanks.

P.S. I don't care about the data on the drives.
I just need to get the RN10400 into a bootable state.

[kohdee · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you've bricked your chassis during upgrade, you can do the USB boot recovery tool from this KB article:

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29952

Review our KB for the steps. 

Put the ReadyNAS 6.4.0 firmware into the marvell folder, insert a USB less than 8 GB and format it fat32, then open the tool and select the drive letter, click format again, then drill down to the RN100 series and execute the tool with 6.4.0 selected.

Then during boot of your ReadyNAS, hold the backup button for around 10 seconds. Then the unit will blink repeatedly for some time and when it was successful, it will just shut off. Then remove the USB and try to boot normally again.  

The RN104 will tell you on the LCD that it is in USB recovery mode. 

I'll update the tool later for the new ReadyNAS units. 

I just updated the tool to include RN2xx series devices. It might take time to replicate on our CDN though. 

[kohdee · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you've bricked your chassis during upgrade, you can do the USB boot recovery tool from this KB article:

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29952

Review our KB for the steps. 

Put the ReadyNAS 6.4.0 firmware into the marvell folder, insert a USB less than 8 GB and format it fat32, then open the tool and select the drive letter, click format again, then drill down to the RN100 series and execute the tool with 6.4.0 selected.

Then during boot of your ReadyNAS, hold the backup button for around 10 seconds. Then the unit will blink repeatedly for some time and when it was successful, it will just shut off. Then remove the USB and try to boot normally again.  

The RN104 will tell you on the LCD that it is in USB recovery mode. 

I'll update the tool later for the new ReadyNAS units. 

I just updated the tool to include RN2xx series devices. It might take time to replicate on our CDN though. 

[sanman969]

Just an FYI I ran into the same issue on my RN102 trying to upgrade to 6.4. Used the upgrade process prsented in the browser.

At this point, like you, I just want to restart new.

Thanks NETGEAR for linking the tool!

[kohdee]

Updated the tool. Hope this helps. 

[kohdee]

One more thing to note on: Upgrading to 6.4.0 can be taxing on the RN100 series, since now 6.4.0 supports Quotas, in which the file system needs to now go calculate existing data and determine the existing quotas in use. This is probably a huge part of the process in upgrading your ReadyNAS 100 series devices. Also, we upgrade all your snapshots to the latest version. As such, upgrading an RN100 series device may be time consuming. Your startup will actually say "startup failed" if there is a problem with the actual boot. I recommend leaving the unit in the state for some time if you have just upgraded your unit and are experiencing the problem. It seems possible that elfworks' case that the upgrade to 6.4.0 specifically had a problem since not able to factory default, but in most scenarios, the upgrade will take some time. 

[elfworks]

Thanks for the link! I was able to follow your instructions and successfully recovered the RN104!

One caveat for others trying to recover: I had trouble booting from three different SD cards in three different USB adapters. I was finally able to boot using a dedicated USB memory stick.

[kohdee]

Use a flash memory instead of USB-to-SD card adapters. The USB boot recovery application on the ReadyNAS doesn't account for getting into the SD card portion.

[sanman969]

Quick question about recovery on my RN102 (no display). 

When I hold down the 'backup' button during boot both lights (power / backup) continuously flash. If this is the recovery process how long should they continue to flash until the unit shuts down?

Confirming the recovery USB disk goes in the front USB port?

Thanks!

[kohdee]

The boot menu comes up pretty quick on the ARM boxes so you still want to continue and hold for 10 or so seconds, but at least 10. If your USB has an activity LED, you'll know when it starts to access the USB. If your USB has actiivty but then the unit never shuts down, there was a problem with the USB.  It's a little harder to diagnose on the 2-bay unit since there is no LCD, but try a few USBs until it works. I have this problem myself, finding the right USBs laying around to get through the boot recovery.

I would personally recommend using the front USB port.

It depends on the speed of your USB, and it varies per unit. The RN100 series will take drastically longer than a rackmount or a more powerful unit.  

I've also done it with USB 3.0 but have better luck with USB 1.0/2.0 sticks.

It basically takes the firmware file from the USB, extracts it, replaces files, syncs, unmounts, and shuts down the chassis. 

[elfworks]

Both lights alternated flashing for about 2-3 minutes while it booted from the USB drive.

I used the front port, which allowed me to see the activity light on the USB drive.

If you can't see any activity on the USB stick, try another one. (I had trouble booting with an SD card in a USB adapter. I had to use a USB drive to get it to boot properly.)

[alexshab]

Hello! I have the same problem with RN 2120. I've made the repare USB flash disk, but there no instructions how to boot the RN 2120 from USB! Please, help!!!!!

[kohdee]

For the RN2120, prepare the USB the same way for in marvell and then press and hold the reset button during boot. It should also be around 10 seconds of boot for it to USB recover the device. 

[sanman969]

After trying 3 different USB drives I was able to get the recovery started. After the recovery the system successfully upgraded and my (encrypted) volumes mounted fine.  

[alexshab]

Thanks! I've been able to boot from USB recovery drive. The recover process completed with powering off the RN. But the situation is the same!((( The device is not visible neither by IP (the DHCP server is configured to lease the specific IP address to RN by MAC) nor by RAIDar. I've tried different virsions of FW (6.4.0 6.2.4)...... The result is the same((((

One note: my device is RN2120v2

[falcon115]

I have a brand new RN102 and powered it on with new 1TB drives, all looked good but once the 6.4.0 upgrade installed yesterday it never came back online after the reboot.  The message said Not to power the unit off but to call Netgear Tech support so that's what I did. They had me try the factory reset, and USB recovery tool several times with no success. RAIDar could never see the unit either - it was getting late so never got any further last night.  Called support again tonight and got escalated to next level but after trying various things the guy determined the chassis was bricked and the unit needed to be replaced.  Didn't want to give up and pay the shipping back to N3w3gg so gave it one last try.  The instructions say you need a USB flash drive less than 8GB and I only had one 2GB drive and several 32GB drives. 2GB didn't work, tried partitioning the 32GB USB 2 to a 4GB partition but that didn't work, tried the same on a 32GB USB 3 drive (also partitioned to 4GB) - tried front ports, back ports, no success. Finally last ditch effort took my 32GB SanDisk because that one has an LED (that showed activity when trying it with the 4GB partition but even though I left it 20 min nothing happened).  I dumped the 4GB partition, reformatted the full 32GB as FAT32 and installed the 6.4.0 firmware using the usbrecovery.exe tool and voila - the system restored the firmware and powered down - only took a couple of minutes. Wanted to post this so others with the same issue don't give up to easily.  Try several different flash drives till you find one that works (seems like the 8GB ceiling is non-issue).  On the RN102, I had to hold the backup button while powering up or it would never start the power and backup lights flashing if I tried to push it after I powered on.  Hope this might help someone else.

[m_ax_ec]

Hi there,

I´ve got the same problem on a RN104. Will this USB method delete any information on my four 4Tb drives?

Thank you!!

[StephenB]

---

@m_ax_ec wrote:

Hi there,

I´ve got the same problem on a RN104. Will this USB method delete any information on my four 4Tb drives?

Thank you!!

---

USB boot recovery reloads the flash memory in the NAS that is used for booting and OS reinstall.

It will not affect the data on your drives, and if you wish you can execute the procedure with the drives removed.

[m_ax_ec]

Thanks for the answer!!

How longo should it take for it to boot after USB Recovery? I've used ps6-recovery-tool to create a 4Gb usb flash, started ReadyNAS 104 pressing Backup button, both Backup and Power lights starts blinking for a couple of seconds, then screen shows a Booting... message that changes to a 'ReadyNAS USB Recovery' message. I'm there since more than 20-30minutes... Should I wait more?

Thanks!!

[falcon115]

on my RN102, once I got a flash drive that the system would read ok, it only took a couple of minutes. If it is taking that long, it probably is not reading the USB drive. I left mine overnight the first night thinking it might just take a long time but it shouldn't take very long at all. The biggest issue I had was finding a flash drive that it reads properly - took me 3 different ones. I recovered mine with the drives out.

[kohdee]

I updated my original post with the link to our KB.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29952

The 8 gb recommendation is purely a personal suggestion. It should work up to 32GB as FAT-32 supports 32 GB. 

[falcon115]

Excellent kohdee, if I'd had those excellent detailed instructions earlier, I would have saved several hours of frustration. Thanks for posting the updated link 🙂

[kohdee]

You're welcome. 🙂

[popster]

After building a larger freeNAS box to meet demand, I decided to back it up with a RN104 that's been sitting in the closet for a year or two. I installed WD Reds and the unit started without any problems. I noticed there was a newer firmware version available. I clicked the automatic update button and after an hour, knew the update failed. I attempted to perform a factory reset/OS install but the boot menu will only give me one option: Normal.

I did a Google search and saw that many folks were having the same problem, so after reading through a few threads and posts, I d/l the USB recovery tool and following instructions, have attempted to fix the brick. I have used three different types of USB flash drives (all brand names) and have loaded each update from 6.2.x - 6.4.0. Nothing works. At start, the 104 goes into USB boot mode (the blue backup and power button lights rapidly flash) for a couple of minutes, then to "Booting...." (the two lights stop flashing), then to USB recovery mode (the small disk activity light flashes for a couple of minutes, then stops), and that's as far as it gets.

So I can't access the boot menu at startup and the 104 refuses to accept a USB rescue. Is there anything else to try before this thing gets thrown in the trash?

[elfworks]

Does the text on the LCD actually change to "USB Recovery Mode"?

I had a lot of trouble booting from different USB drives, and it only worked when the LCD display went from "Booting..." to "USB Recovery Mode."

If you do throw it in the trash, remember to use the steel handle on the back to get the full hammer throw power stroke... 🙂

[popster]

Yeah, the LCD changes to USB Recovery, but it never powers off. If I remember the instructions...if the unit hasn't powered off within 20 minutes, the update didn't work.

That handle is definitely there for a reason and I think you figured it out! 🙂