I have just started my old Ultra 4 NAS after some time and it was not starting correct unfortanly. So i was thinking of factory reset, but just when i was going for that i was thinking if i can upgrade the firmware at the same time with something newer. I found below article wich i was follow and now it is booting again and it seems to work. The volume is now resynchronizing and it seems to take some time.
1. I know that this is not supported and thats okey for me, but one thing that i am worried about. Is it safe to run a striped raidset on this device with this unsupported OS, i mean is it stable with this special firmware?
Is someone else running this setup and can tell me if you are happy and no crashed and reboots unexpectedly?
2. The version i have now is 6.9.5 hotfix 1 but the system want me to upgrade now to version 6.10.5, will that software/firmware work fine also on the Ultra 4? I was worried if the files i was downloaded from the above url was special written for Ultra 4. I am concerned if i accept this new updated firmware that my NAS is suggesting, that i wont start again after update.
1. I know that this is not supported and thats okey for me, but one thing that i am worried about. Is it safe to run a striped raidset on this device with this unsupported OS, i mean is it stable with this special firmware?
It is stable on my Pro-6 (currently running XRAID).
One caveat: OS-6 x86 NAS all have at least 2 GB of RAM. Legacy x86 NAS have 1 GB. There have been some folks who've run into out-of-memory conditions in their converted NAS. So I do recommend upgrading the RAM to 2 GB.
2. The version i have now is 6.9.5 hotfix 1 but the system want me to upgrade now to version 6.10.5, will that software/firmware work fine also on the Ultra 4? I was worried if the files i was downloaded from the above url was special written for Ultra 4. I am concerned if i accept this new updated firmware that my NAS is suggesting, that i wont start again after update.
You are running unmodified OS-6 firmware - there was just a small tweek to trick the boot loader into installing it. Normal OS-6 updates will work fine.
Note there is a bug in 6.10.5 that resulted in some folks getting into a login loop when they tried to log into their NAS web ui. Netgear has pushed a hotfix (which you will also get), but you should make sure that your system is configured to automatically download/install hotfixes before you upgrade to 6.10.5. Or wait until 6.10.6 before you upgrade, and skip 6.10.5 all together.
Thanks so much for this reply, it was very good answers.
I assume if the RAM become full, i just need to reboot the device. But since i dont use any apps, i think 1 GB will be good enough.
I cant see anywhere how much memory it consume at the moment.
I have now downloaded the latest longrelease firmware 6.9.6
Bad assumption. Running out of RAM can cause a lot of other problems, including a corrupt volume.
You really should upgrade to 2GB of RAM before you move to OS6.10.x. If you want to stick with 1GB (which I really don't understand, it'll cost under $10 to upgrade, and you'll also see a performance bump up), stick with the 6.9.6. We only started seeing reports of issues with only 1GB with the release of 6.10.x.
The NAS will allocate as much as it can for buffering, so there is no easy way to see how much would be free if it had not done that. And how much you have free at any specific point you choose really isn't the point. RAM can be allocated to additional tasks at any point. If you run out and the NAS crashes when the volume or a configuration file are open, really bad things can happen. If your backup jobs are originated by the Ultra, that's certainly a vulnerable area for it to occur.
Your NAS uses basic DDR2 laptop RAM, which is very cheap new for a 2GB stick and even more so on eBay and it's very simple to replace. The proper type of 4GB stick is hard to come by and much more expensive, so I recommend you stick with 2GB. Given more RAM for buffering, you'll also see an increase in speed andyou've already given up Netgear support by loading OS6. So why the hesitation?
I have some laptop memories at home, i will have a look if some of them will fit. I assume if i fit a memory that is not compatible the NAS is not booting.
Great. I have actually never upgraded my main NAS to 6.10.x, I'm at 6.9.6 on all but a test unit. I just didn't see anything in 6.10 that I needed, and there were some definate bugs in the original releases. So you may want to just stick with what you have for a bit, at least until Netgear annouces a major security or somehting else you really think you want/need.
