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I have attempted on 2 occasions to get support from Netgear and am now being told that I have to purchase phone support. I must say that this has been disappointing since the unit is still under warranty and as it stands, is inoperable. There has not been made available the option to return the faulty unit by Netgear either, even though it is under warranty.
I now turn to support from the experts in the community. An expert I am not.
Before i go on the disk are listed on the recognised as compatible drives.
I have found that this NAS unit originally started to behave where the backups of the servers that were being written to it were failing. These are large files and would fail partway through the write process.
Windows servers using Shadow Protect to create backup images.
First logical step was to see if the NAS was accessible. Shares could be seen and were accessible. Then can I log into the device via the web page. This was not accessible. Ah I figure there is a corrupted firmware on-board. Let’s get the latest and install that.
Now from a previous case with another NAS unit (rack mount 4 bay), undertaking the USB firmware install was actually really straight forward and worked a treat. All data was retained and the whole process took about 10 minutes. So naturally I think this should be the plan.
Download the firmware, download the USB recovery tool, create the USB, go through the install process. First USB device failed to be read. That is fine and so create another. (this is a common problem and found that with the NAS that it did). Also note that the current firmware is unknown.
Second USB device appeared to work, well at least being read. System just hung after what appeared to be a load. System did not shutdown as expected after 20 minutes. Forced off (removed power) and re tried. (As stated in the Netgear support article) Same result. Ok and now on boot the system blinks the power LED and no HDD activity lights are seen.
So Ok I think maybe a factory restore. Data can be wiped as it is only backups that I have another copy of elsewhere anyway. So go through the factory reset procedure. Now the NAS drive unit doesn’t blink the power but still not accessible via the web page.
Start the RAIDar program and find that it reports corrupt root.
Research what to do here and find that the steps advised I have already undertaken.
So I call support (now that was a debacle in itself just getting a case setup) Eventually after email to and fro and try this and that, put the NAS into tech access mode. Netgear advise by phone that both drives have failed. However the email only speaks about one drive as being a problem. I am a bit surprised that both drives would fail, so remove both drives for further testing. Found that in fact only one drive has failed. Cross check this by putting the suspect good drive into another NAS unit and it successfully syncs up with new data on it fine. This then proves that the good drive is in fact, still good.
On testing of the suspicions drive found that yes it has failed. Not able to zero it out. Right so one dead drive.
So I order a new drive to replace it. Whilst waiting for this to occur then call up Netgear support again and am now advised that I need to pay for phone support. I say I just want to return the faulty NAS unit as it is inoperable. Netgear support refuse to help any further. Sigh, the unit is inoperable with or without drives present. Went through the process of zeroing the good disk and still not able to get any life out of the NAS. It is only ever visible on the RAIDar with a corrupt root after a factory rest or does not appear at all after a OS reinstall. To my understanding, faulty NAS unit.
So brand new disk arrives. Zero out my remaining good disk again and insert 2 fresh disks. Still not able to get into the web page of the unit and RAIDar will only ever see the unit after a factory reset and it reports corrupt root. Have retried the USB firmware upload and still no joy. Same results as previous
When I do go through the motions of factory reset, RAIDar reports “system starting up” prior to committing to the factory reset process (all LED flashing). Then when hitting the backup button to commit the process, RAIDar then reports “ installing” then when hitting “rescan” button on RAIDar (to refresh it) then “Corrupt root” The activity light will flicker from time to time on the NAS to indicate something is happening but will eventually remain solid. Have left it in this state for over 24 hours and then forced off and then back on. Then back to the old power light flashing and NAS unit completely inaccessible. No RAIDar or web page access.
So… Is there anything that can be done to salvage this NAS unit or is it in fact a failed NAS.
