Replaced failed HDD and now told to "remove inactive volumes to use disk", can't register device
Good morning.
I have a ReadyNAS 2120 (firmware 6.8.1) that is used for storing backups. Earlier in the week, Drive 4 failed, so I ordered new drives. When they arrived, I replaced the HDD, but now I'm being told to "Remove inactive volumes to use the disk. Disk #2,3." Additionally, the ReadyNAS no longer recognizes that Drive 1 exists.
The device is no longer under warranty, so I know and am willing to purchase support to try and recover the data that is on it. Yes, the backups can be recreated, but I found out after the fact that there are a couple of directories where users have been storing critical data that is not found on any of my servers. So, said data is lost if the volume cannot be recovered.
Beyond the frustration this has caused as far as potential data loss is concerned, I've also had a heck of a time communicating my issues with Netgear support. If I'm not mistaken, I need to register the device and submit a support ticket. However, I'm told the unit has already been registered, so I am currently stuck.
How do I go about registering an already registered device so that I can submit a support ticket, pay for recovery support, and attempt to resolve this?
Re: Replaced failed HDD and now told to "remove inactive volumes to use disk", can't regis
NETGEAR Support only provides support to the original owner. If you are the original owner, you can login to the MyNETGEAR account you have registered this product to and should be able to open a case after obtaining a support contract. If you give me the serial number, I can look into the registration details. You may also be able to use the Contact Us form to open a case and additionally purchase a contract for your needs. http://www.netgear.com/support/contact.aspx
Re: Replaced failed HDD and now told to "remove inactive volumes to use disk", can't regis
I am the original owner in the sense that my company owns the device. When it was purchased, however, someone else in the IT department at the time must have registered the serial number.
Re: Replaced failed HDD and now told to "remove inactive volumes to use disk", can't regis
Did you hot insert the new drive (best method) or do it with power off? If done with power off, have you tried booting with just the 3 original drives?
Re: Replaced failed HDD and now told to "remove inactive volumes to use disk", can't regis
Sandshark,
I did not hot swap the drive. Upon noticing the failed drive, I powered off the ReadyNAS for fear of a second drive failing. When the new drives arrived, I replaced Drive 4 and then powered the device back on. I also tried running without a drive in Bay 4.
The volume was fubarred when Drive 4 initially bricked. If I'm not mistaken, the array should continue to function in a RAID 5 if a single disk fails. The fact that it was not leads me to believe there is failure elsewhere. I'll remain optimistic for the time being as I'll be purchasing support this morning and seeing what, if anything, Netgear can do to help.
Re: Replaced failed HDD and now told to "remove inactive volumes to use disk", can't regis
Hello CRPearce,
There is a possibility drive 1 is dead or fall out of the raid configuration together with drive 4 who initially failed, since we have 2 drives that are dead that will bring the volume down. Worst case scenario the concern may fall to data recovery and cloning drive 1 or 4 or both to rebuild the volume. I just found out based on the serial number that the device does have support contract. I would recommend to contact support so they can escalate the concern to higher tier or to our engineering department.
Re: Replaced failed HDD and now told to "remove inactive volumes to use disk", can't regis
TL;DR - My ReadyNAS 2120 is back online and I experienced no data loss.
The initial issue that I saw was Drive 4 failed. In RAID 5, the volume should have been degraded with a single disk failure, but it showed as offline instead. As it turned out, Drive 1 and Drive 4 failed. So, I purchased a data recovery support contract, which is very reasonably priced IMO, and began working with Netgear to get things back up and running.
We started by powering of the ReadyNAS, removing all of the drives with the exception of Drive 4, and then booting it into Tech Support Mode. I installed a new drive into one of the empty bays and then Netgear cloned Drive 4 to the new disk. Once that process had completed, I powered down the unit, removed Drive 4, inserted the cloned disk in its place, reinstalled Drives 2 and 3, and then booted up the ReadyNAS normally. Once online, I then inserted a second new disk into Bay 1 and let the unit resync overnight.
Upon reviewing things the next day, I was still having trouble accessing the shares and discovered that Drive 2 unfortunately failed during the resync, thus screwing with permissions. So, we had to essentially do the same process again. I powered down the unit, removed all of the disks with the exception of Drive 2, inserted a third new disk in an empty bay, and let Netgear clone the drive with the unit in Tech Support Mode. Afterward, I powered down, replaced Drive 2 with the cloned drive, reinserted Drives 1, 3, and 4, and powered the ReadyNAS back up normally. The original resync started over again and eventually completed successfully with no further errors.
At this point, I had replaced three out of the four disks, so I decided to hot swap Drive 3 with a new disk. That obviously forced another resync, but it, too, completed successfully. I'm now back up and running again.
And so ends the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad two weeks. Many thanks to Netgear Support for all of their help throughout this process.
