Case #16666541, NV+ stuck "Booting..."

[bedwardsnexlearn]

Device: ReadyNAS NV+ (Model: RND4000)

First off, everything is backed up 100% so I'm not worried about losing data. I'd just like to get this ReadyNAS working again ASAP.

On Saturday a new tech was familiarizing himeself with the FrontView website for our ReadyNAS NV+. He said that he was just browsing around the site, not doing anything in particular, when suddenly he lost access (IE displayed page not found). The NAS remained in a state where it would respond to pings but shares and HTTPS access did not work. He came into work this morning and rebooted the ReadyNAS, saying that holding the power button for 5 seconds did nothing so he held it for 15 seconds and it powered off after "all the lights on the front flashed several times". He then pressed the power button again, quickly, without holding it in. It rebooted, showed up in RAIDar (which said "File System Check 100%"), sent two alert emails ("Improper shutdown detected" and "RAID sync started on Volume C"), ran through a "Quota Chk" until that completed at 100% and is now stuck saying "Booting..." on the LCD. All four hard drive lights are solid green, the Activity light is flashing quickly and the power button blue light is pulsating once per second.

The emails would lead me to believe that the ReadyNAS is syncing but previously when it would sync we would have access to shares and to FrontView. Right now we have neither of those. It is reponding to pings though.

I have submitted a case to Netgear (#16666541) and am awaiting a second reply. The first reply indicated that the person was elevating the case to higher tech support.

I've thought of TFTP and USB recovery, but don't wish to do either of those without being directed to do so either by Netgear tech support or by "someone who has been there". I've read many posts with very similar issues, but nothing *exactly* like this issue. Usually the people who have problems with their ReadyNAS being stuck in "Booting..." mode indicate different disk lights flashing, no power light activity, no Activity light activity, etc. I've not come across another post where the ReadyNAS still responded to pings in this state. It is entirely possible that, yes, it is actually syncing, I just don't fully buy into that because the LCD still says "Booting..." and we have no access to shares or FrontView.

Should I maybe try the firmware reinstall via the reset button on back? I think there is a way to reload the firmware without doing a full factory reset, right? As I said previously, losing data is not a concern, it's all backed up to multiple on-site and off-site locations.

Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated. As mentioned, I am also waiting for Netgear to respond, which I anticipate within the next 24 hours (though, hopefully sooner). I just thought someone here might have some ideas in the meantime, of things I can try without screwing anything up for tech support.

TIA

[TeknoJnky]

Using RAIDAR, does it see the nas and if so what status does it show?

I would avoid doing usb/tftp recovery as those are typically not the solution.

If the drive activity light is flashing, it is doing something and not locked up, so it may well be best to wait until it finishes, the nv+ has a lower power cpu so if it is something that requires more than a minor amount of processesing it can take a good amount of time.

Do you know what raidiator firmware the device is running? I would avoid any attempt to 'upgrade' it until its back to running normally, but once it is you may want to upgrade to the recently released 4.1.8 firmware.

If the activity lights stop flashing and/or it appears completely locked, I would recommend powering it off via the power button (just hold until it says powering off) and then pulling the plug to ensure its completely off, then pull and label and test each disk on a PC with the vendor tools to see if any drives have/are failing.

You can safely remove the disks and put them back with the power off, but do not remove/replace arbitrary disks while powered up, this can cause data loss if you pull a good disk while a bad disk is still there (ie 2 disk failure).

[bedwardsnexlearn]

RAIDar sees the NAS while it is running the quota check, reporting "File System Check 100%", then loses connection as soon as "Booting..." appears on the LCD.

Checked all of the disks earlier today and all test fine. After running the disk checks I rebooted the NAS and have left it running at "Booting..." for around 9 hours now. It stores only 300gb of data. My ReadyNAS at home has 5TB and can re-sync in less time so I'm pretty sure something in the OS is fubar'd. Guess I'll wait to hear from Netgear.

[bedwardsnexlearn]

Went ahead and bit the bullet with an OS reinstall from the Reset button. Worked like a charm. The NAS is back 100%. Only now I have the problem of copying in the data that was changed on the backup NAS. 99% of what's there hasn't changed, I am certain. Does anyone know of software that would compare both NAS shares and copy only the files with newer timestamps? The alternative is deleting everything from the ReadyNAS and running a backup to copy in the data from the backup NAS overnight. Which is fine, too.

If someone from Netgear is reading this thread, I think you can go ahead and close the case. I never did hear back from them but that's OK.

Thanks for any ideas you may have regarding merging the two data sets!

[TeknoJnky]

rsync, you can try deltacopy for windows

one thing to watch out for is permissions changes, you may have to go to the share advanced settings and reset the permissions

[bedwardsnexlearn]

Thanks, I'll take a look at deltacopy, as the backup NAS is unfortunately a Windows server. I won't spend much time on this, though, as I can just copy the full data set over in about 10 hours anyway.

I went ahead and upgraded to 4.1.8, to solve some other problems we were having previously (mainly the javascript issue when browsing AD user accounts). All seems fine. I checked permissions, both in FrontView and on the files themselves via Windows Explorer, and all seems fine.

We seem to have dodged a bullet. Great example of why it is so important to have backups backups backups (never too many!). I also run full backups once per week to USB drives and take those drives offsite to underground vault storage in salt mines. Seems overkill but it sure beats looking for a new job.

Thanks for the help!

[bedwardsnexlearn]

*Exact same thing* has happened as of yesterday. Someone tried to Download All Logs, to see why a backup job failed, and the NV+ has been locked up ever since. It is currently in the same state ... blue light pulsating, Activity light rapidly blinking, all four disk lights solid green, LCD displaying "Booting..." after the unit was manually rebooted and performed a File System Check (completed 100%) and Quota Check (completed 100%). This time I am not going to just factory restore and start over, instead I would like to get this problem solved of why this happens when someone tries to download the logs from Status -> Logs. This should not happen. We do occasionally need access to those logs to troubleshoot backups because trying to view the backup log itself, from Backup Jobs, always causes the unit to hang. We have never successfully accessed logs via Download All Logs. Which is easy to forget, unfortunately. The option is there, you would think it would actually do what it says and not destroy the entire set of data.

If anyone at Netgear cares to get involved, the case number is 18488184 . I can get you access to the unit if necessary.

[mdgm]

Sounds like the logs may have got too big or something like that leading to the OS partition getting full. That would be my guess. You should put the new case number in the thread title in case a NetGear tech support rep comes along this thread.

[bedwardsnexlearn]

The fix was to use the Reset button to reinstall the OS. All of the data is still there as are all of the customized settings and backup jobs. Thanks!