Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ problem.

[Shivam]

Today my Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ (4 bays) started giving problems. It was working fine and the router could detect it but I could not access the NAS on any of the connected computers. Even on directly connecting the ReadyNAS, I could just see its presence using the supplied RAIDar program however I could neither enter the setup nor access the files. I tried with computers running Windows 7, Windows XP and SuSE Linux.

Thankfully I have a backup. Now waiting to see the response of the Netgear service here in India. I have already opened a ticket for the problem with the customer service.

Meanwhile, my word of advice for those using any NAS, make a back-up if you have not yet done so.

 

[haisaikat]

Sometimes my DLink DNS 323 behaved weired in past similar to yours I fugured out one one of the cases I had turned UPnP on and also placed a large number of new files in the root directory accidentally and the NAS on bootup was trying to index all those new files and was failing to finish that. In the process the disks did not get detected. I had to remove the disks, start the NAS empty and then stop UPnp.

 

[Shivam]

This used to happen when I had movie files also on NAS and the capacity was about 60% used. At present I just have some flac files with about 20% full. I am waiting to see the customer service advice now. Will update the thread with the information that I get from them.

 

[GeorgeO]

Why not do the reset to factory default?

 

[Shivam]

I happened to have a complete backup but most of the people don't. Secondly NAS are very frequently used as backup devices. For these reasons I wanted to first access the data before doing a factory default reset.

After a long discussion with useless customer care and support groups who really knew things, I was able to access the data directly from the drive using a linux based computer. At least I know my data was not corrupt.

The problem was the firmware which had somehow become corrupt on its own. I did opt for a factory default using the hardware method (reset switch). The hard disks were wiped clean and now I'll copy the data back from the backup.

The moral of the story -
1. Netgear customer service can help but various support groups and forums are better.
2. Data can be accessed using Linux based machines provided it is just a mirror drive.
3. There is no alternative to backups.

 

[GeorgeO]

OK, so the takeaway is: for key data back it up elsewhere( which I am doing)-maybe on an external drive. And for key entertainment data(music etc), back it up with a friend!