As of this mornig, I couldn't connect to my NAS. Looks like it was trying to reboot and it gets to 33.7% and hangs. Before it gets to that point, I can find it with RAIDer, but I can't connect to it. After it gets to the point where it hangs, RAIDer can no longer detect it and I can't shut down at that point....I have to unplug it!!! That can't be good.
Has four 750GB drives in it that are set up in an X-RAID config. Last time I looked it had about 500GB of its 2TB of capacity utilized.
I don''t have a back-up of the data. Thought I was protected from a single drive failure, but appear to be screwed by the complete NAS loosing connectivity.
What can I do?
Tried removing the drives....When it tries to boot in that config it says "Error: No Drives" but I still can''t connect.
Can I try booting with one drive removed at a time?
Also, thought about trying to do a force boot in "Skip Volume Check" mode but am afraid that might cause data loss.
Any help would be appreciated.
Can I send this to NETGEAR and pay to have my data recovered?
Based on manual (here) and my experience - OS reinstall cold help and it is not affecting the data.
See the manual, page 16
OS reinstall Reinstalls the firmware from the internal flash to the disks. Use the OS reinstall boot mode when the system crashes and corrupts some configuration files. OS reinstall boot mode also resets some settings on your unit, such as Internet protocol settings and the administrator password, to defaults.
Being in your shoes I think I will give a try to 'Skip volume check'. Your data should be safe.
Skip volume check After a system crash, the system tries to scan and fix the volume using a file system check. If several problems are found on a disk, this process can stall, causing the system not to boot. Use this option to skip the scan and let the system boot.
When I hold reset button down and start, it immediate goes into F:Reinstall Firmware mode. When it finishes that it goes into Booting... FS check: up to 33.8% and hangs.
I never get the option on the display to hit the Backup button and change modes to get to Skip Volume Check mode or any other mode.
Sticker on the back of my unit reads: P/N: RNV2-S2-0000
Does not say "V2" on the front.
Can't tell what version of firmware is installed but the unit is pretty old. Was Infrant before NETGEAR aquired them. On the "Getting Started" guide that came with it, I wrote April 2007 so that is either when I put it in service or when the warranty expired.
Was Infrant before NETGEAR aquired them. On the "Getting Started" guide that came with it, I wrote April 2007 so that is either when I put it in service or when the warranty expired.
Followiing the procedure on page 24 of that document and holding down the Power Button without holding the Reset Button, I don't ever get the "Skip Volume Check" option. The first one that comes up after about 5 seconds is "Short Diag". It then goes to "TFTP boot", then "Tech Support", then "USB boot" and finally "Memory test".
When I go with "Short Diag" it stays on that for a few seconds and then displays "Booting...." and then "Check FS" and then it still hangs when it gets to 33.8% and never boots.
So are there any other options to get this thing to boot?
Pretty frustrated that all my data may still be on the drives but I can't get the machine to boot to get access to it.
I have read about recovery software where you remove the drives from your NAS and connect them inside a workstation and then run the recovery software. Is that something that works well or is likely to work for my situation?
Do you have enough linux knowledge to be comfortable with shell commands? It is possible to manually mount the data volume on an X86 linux system (including a PC booted up with a "live" linux disk). You would need to get all the disks connected to the PC (either with USB or SATA).
I thought that was what the recovery software solutions might help with.
That is an option too, though I don't recall seeing any posts here about that particular tool. Recently several users have had success with ReclaiMe. I think the real gain is that they can often recover things if the volume is damaged (which could be the case here). Generally data recovery tools are expensive.
When I remove my four original 750GB drives and just install the new one in slot 1, the NAS will boot and I can connect via RAIDar.
I think that confirms my NAS is still okay. It does have old firmware: v3.01c1-p6 [1.00a034].
Wondering if I can turn off the NAS, add back the original drives 2, 3, and 4 in slots 2, 3, and 4 and try to reboot. Will that work without damaging any data and then rebuild the x-raid on the new drive in slot 1?
Wondering if I can turn off the NAS, add back the original drives 2, 3, and 4 in slots 2, 3, and 4 and try to reboot. Will that work without damaging any data and then rebuild the x-raid on the new drive in slot 1?
No. Trying things like that will generally result in the old disks being synced to the new (empty) volume.
Recovery software, or trying to mount the old disks in an X86 linux system are likely the best options for getting the data back.
A long shot is to upgrade the firmware to 4.1.16 with the new drive installed, and then to power down and put in the old disks in their original slots. Then the OS reinstall menu choice should show up, and the system should begin by installing 4.1.16 on your old disks even if you don't use that boot option.
However, I suggest giving @mdgm-ntgr a chance to comment on that approach before trying it. You're upgrading a system with 10 year old firmware, and I think there is a risk of something going awry (making data recovery more difficult).
Unfortunately you're running the firmware immediately prior to the first firmware that supported a low-level diagnostic mode for looking into problems like this.
So it would be best to hook your disks up to your PC (do not initialise them) and check the health of them (e.g. using SeaTools for SeaGate disks and WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for WD disks) to confirm which disk is the problem as the next step.
Be sure to label the order of the disks.
After you've confirmed which disk is bad then we could advise on the next steps.
As for the new disk I would hook that up to your PC and delete the partitions off it.
A long shot is to upgrade the firmware to 4.1.16 with the new drive installed, and then to power down and put in the old disks in their original slots. Then the OS reinstall menu choice should show up, and the system should begin by installing 4.1.16 on your old disks even if you don't use that boot option.
However, I suggest giving @mdgm a chance to comment on that approach before trying it. You're upgrading a system with 10 year old firmware, and I think there is a risk of something going awry (making data recovery more difficult).
I am not familiar with SeaTools, but I will look for a copy.
I downloaded SeaTools. The install wizard didn't seem to complete, but when I quit out of the install and ran the SeaToolsforWindows.exe file it created in a new Seagate folder, the program seems to run.
What test do I need to run on the drive(s) removed from my NAS? Short Drive Self Test under Basic Test drop down?
I didn't understand that?? Which drive would I try to clone? One that failed the Short DST test? Is that possible? Seems like sector by sector copy would have errors. What am I missing?
