Readynas X-Raid failure
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 4:48 am
Hi all
Let me start by explaining the setup and series of events: I have a Readynas NV+ box with 4x1tb drives in x-raid format and a couple of weeks ago I got a system alert saying:
1 - Access to the disk on channel (??) is producing I/O errors. Although the array is still redundant, please replace this drive as soon as possible, as it is likely to fail soon.
(the above message came through a few times and then:)
2 - A SATA reset has been performed on one or more of your disks that may have affected the RAID parity integrity. It is recommended that you perform a RAID volume resync from the RAID Settings tab ( accessible in the Volumes page => Volume tab in FrontView ). The resync process will run in the background, and you can continue to use the ReadyNAS in the meantime.
(followed by, because I followed the instructions)
3 - RAID sync started on volume C.
Then the system ground to a halt, couldn't access it at all, I waited nearly an hour and then pulled the plug so then
4 - Improper shutdown detected., To ensure data integrity, a filesystem check should be performed as soon as possible.
(so I did that)
5 - The paths for the shares listed below could not be found. Typically, this occurs when the ReadyNAS is unable to access the data volume.
(ok panic!)
6 - The X-RAID engine has failed to start., To ensure data integrity, please refrain from using the NAS and contact Support immediately.
(double panic and frantic research on the web. I followed some suggestions from netgear forums about booting from usb, reflashing firmware etc etc but with no joy and then when I worked out that the failing drive was the 4th drive I pulled it out, inserted a blank drive in the hope that the raid would rebuild...but no joy instead I got this message)
7 - A SATA reset has been performed on one or more of your disks that may have affected the RAID parity integrity. It is recommended that you perform a RAID volume resync from the RAID Settings tab ( accessible in the Volumes page => Volume tab in FrontView ). The resync process will run in the background, and you can continue to use the ReadyNAS in the meantime.
This is when I powered down, took the readynas box and made haste for Kroll Ontrack....Two weeks later and with a possible bill for GBP 4000 they showed me what the could recover - it was missing most of the files that I needed so I thanked them but no thanks.
Their report indicated that the 4th Drive was only imaging to 85% and seems to have "magnetic issue" rather than hardware or electronics. But the strange thing was the 3 remaining drives were absolutely fine but they were not seeing them as RAID but Striped. X-Raid is glorified RAID 5 so I thought I would give this a shot myself as I couldn't fathom why they would see the 3 drives as striped.
Got R-Studio Network (under advisement of a Tech guru friend) and started imaging the drives.
Drive 4 failed to image (as expected) using the R Studio Compressed image and so I just did a byte by byte image just for the sake of it. When I put the 4th disk in the USB cradle I did notice that the drive was read as having:
1 Empty and 4 volumes varying in size from a few kb to 500gb ( I assume that this is the way x-raid does things). Also the byte by byte image created doesn't show these volumes at all.
Then I Imaged Drive 1 and that was all fine again this showed contents as being 1 Empty and 4 volumes varying in size.
Now I am Imaging Drive 2 and this one is showing NO volumes...So this got me thinking that this disk might have been initialized and that is why it is not showing volumes, and probably why Kroll Ontrack were not able to see it as RAID.
I know I am jumping the gun as I haven't imaged the 3rd drive and tried the RAID rebuild, but I am guessing that I have to recover Drive 2 to a previous state when it had the volume information and presumably RAID info.
If anyone has any ideas, experience or advice it would be very much appreciated. I am a novice at data recovery and understanding RAID parity etc...but I am learning quickly. Also Netgear are useless at support or disclosing any info regarding their system so no help there (as many others have found).
Thanks Frank
Let me start by explaining the setup and series of events: I have a Readynas NV+ box with 4x1tb drives in x-raid format and a couple of weeks ago I got a system alert saying:
1 - Access to the disk on channel (??) is producing I/O errors. Although the array is still redundant, please replace this drive as soon as possible, as it is likely to fail soon.
(the above message came through a few times and then:)
2 - A SATA reset has been performed on one or more of your disks that may have affected the RAID parity integrity. It is recommended that you perform a RAID volume resync from the RAID Settings tab ( accessible in the Volumes page => Volume tab in FrontView ). The resync process will run in the background, and you can continue to use the ReadyNAS in the meantime.
(followed by, because I followed the instructions)
3 - RAID sync started on volume C.
Then the system ground to a halt, couldn't access it at all, I waited nearly an hour and then pulled the plug so then
4 - Improper shutdown detected., To ensure data integrity, a filesystem check should be performed as soon as possible.
(so I did that)
5 - The paths for the shares listed below could not be found. Typically, this occurs when the ReadyNAS is unable to access the data volume.
(ok panic!)
6 - The X-RAID engine has failed to start., To ensure data integrity, please refrain from using the NAS and contact Support immediately.
(double panic and frantic research on the web. I followed some suggestions from netgear forums about booting from usb, reflashing firmware etc etc but with no joy and then when I worked out that the failing drive was the 4th drive I pulled it out, inserted a blank drive in the hope that the raid would rebuild...but no joy instead I got this message)
7 - A SATA reset has been performed on one or more of your disks that may have affected the RAID parity integrity. It is recommended that you perform a RAID volume resync from the RAID Settings tab ( accessible in the Volumes page => Volume tab in FrontView ). The resync process will run in the background, and you can continue to use the ReadyNAS in the meantime.
This is when I powered down, took the readynas box and made haste for Kroll Ontrack....Two weeks later and with a possible bill for GBP 4000 they showed me what the could recover - it was missing most of the files that I needed so I thanked them but no thanks.
Their report indicated that the 4th Drive was only imaging to 85% and seems to have "magnetic issue" rather than hardware or electronics. But the strange thing was the 3 remaining drives were absolutely fine but they were not seeing them as RAID but Striped. X-Raid is glorified RAID 5 so I thought I would give this a shot myself as I couldn't fathom why they would see the 3 drives as striped.
Got R-Studio Network (under advisement of a Tech guru friend) and started imaging the drives.
Drive 4 failed to image (as expected) using the R Studio Compressed image and so I just did a byte by byte image just for the sake of it. When I put the 4th disk in the USB cradle I did notice that the drive was read as having:
1 Empty and 4 volumes varying in size from a few kb to 500gb ( I assume that this is the way x-raid does things). Also the byte by byte image created doesn't show these volumes at all.
Then I Imaged Drive 1 and that was all fine again this showed contents as being 1 Empty and 4 volumes varying in size.
Now I am Imaging Drive 2 and this one is showing NO volumes...So this got me thinking that this disk might have been initialized and that is why it is not showing volumes, and probably why Kroll Ontrack were not able to see it as RAID.
I know I am jumping the gun as I haven't imaged the 3rd drive and tried the RAID rebuild, but I am guessing that I have to recover Drive 2 to a previous state when it had the volume information and presumably RAID info.
If anyone has any ideas, experience or advice it would be very much appreciated. I am a novice at data recovery and understanding RAID parity etc...but I am learning quickly. Also Netgear are useless at support or disclosing any info regarding their system so no help there (as many others have found).
Thanks Frank