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[Nate240Z]

Did my NAS just die? 

Current Set Up is about 2 years old and consist of DNS-323 with two Sea Gate Baracuda 7200.11 500GB HDD's.  RAID-1, FirmWare 1.05.  I use this unit for Personal storage of Photos/Music/Movies and for back ups of 2 Vista Home Premium 32 bit laptops.

About a week ago I noticed a clicking sound and shut it down until I could get a new drive.

I later turned it on for about an hour worth of use and did not shut it back off... when I woke up in the morning the Right HDD light was pink.  Thinking this was the HDD fail indicator I shut it down and pulled the HDD to get SN and MN to check warranty status... good til 11/2012 .  But then I started Googling pink light and failed HDD and found that it should be Amber.  So I start to think the HDD could still be good.  I then reinstall the HDD, power up the DNS but then notice all lights are blue and then the Power Button Light goes out... slid the front cover off and verified the LED was off.  Next I notice I can't access it via the Mapped Harddrive icon... and I also can't remap the drive.  I do see it in the Network window and I can sign into it... BIG PROBLEM!!!  "HARD DRIVE INFO: Total Drive(s): 0" ... Insert colorful language.

Did I lose my data?  Did the DNS crap out on me?  If not is there a way to get the DNS to read the drives again?

Thanks, Nate

[fordem]

If you don't have a backup - you can connect one of the drives to a Windows XP system and load the ext2ifs file system driver and then copy your data off.

[Nate240Z]

Thanks.  Good info.  I have an old XP desktop in the garage that may still work...

Any idea as to what happened?  Does the DNS still sound like a functioning unit?

Reading your signature line makes me think that I did indeed confuse the two.  I thought the idea of RAID 1 was to allow you a second drive so that when a HDD failed all the data was still on the other drive... hence a backup.

How could both drives all of a sudden no longer be recognized by the DNS?  My intentions were to upgrade to 1.5 TB HDD's, but that means I have to have another drive elsewhere capable of backing that up too?  What's the point of the "disk redundancy" if I have to get another redundant drive to back up my redundandt drives?  Seems counter intuitive.

[gunrunnerjohn]

What's the point of the "disk redundancy" if I have to get another redundant drive to back up my redundandt drives?  Seems counter intuitive.

You are confusing backup with data availability.  RAID-1 is just to allow you to have your data available in the event of a drive failure.  It is NOT backup!

If you remove a file or folder from your RAID-1 array, either accidentally or on purpose, it's gone from both disks.  If an errant application or virus scrambles files/folders, they're gone from both disks.  You still need backup, even with a RAID-1 array.

[fordem]

Nate

I couldn't begin to suggest what might have happened with your unit - but as you have found out first hand, RAID1 is not a backup - not only can the unit fail, but data can be deleted or erased, and with RAID1, it's gone from both disks, it also be corrupted by a virus, etc.

It is possible that the DNS-323 has died - it might be an idea to pull the disk and then power it up and hold the reset button down and then power it off, reinstall the disks and power it back on.

Imagine a situation where you're running a small office, you and maybe two other people and you're storing data files on your DNS-323, two separate disks, no RAID1 - and just before you finish an important project, the drive fails - you were just about to print that final report and hand it over to the client, now you have to change the drive, restore the data and then pickup where you left off.

Can you meet the deadline?

Same thing - but - with RAID1.  The drive fails, a yellow light comes on on the front of the DNS-323 (which is on the other side of the room near the printer - in fact the printer is plugged in to the DNS-323), you click Print & OK and when the printer is finished churning out that stack of paper, you get up and walk over and pick it up - and that's when you notice the yellow light.

With RAID1 you stand a better chance of meeting the deadline - it'll take more than just a failed disk to stop you.

[gunrunnerjohn]

And, you can also configure the DNS-323 to email you when it's degraded so you don't even have to look for the error indication on the drive.

[Nate240Z]

Hey Fordem-

Invaluable info... Thanks!

Now hopefully I can recover the pics!  After I attempt the data recovery on an XP machine as mentioned earlier I will start to troubleshoot the 323.

I always knew and excepted the "if I delete something then it's gone" scenario... and I knew that if a drive failed I could replace it without loss of data... but I never dreamed up this scenario.  I am now sold on the idea of a Backup harddrive and I will keep it in the fire proof gun safe.

Nate

[fordem]

You're welcome buddy.

[Omega7ven]

Apparently that particular Seagate HD has a firmware issue.  I just found out from the outlet I bought mine from as one of mine failed.  There is a firmware update on Seagates website.  Go to this link and enter your serial number off of your drive and it will help you find the firmware update.  https://apps1.seagate.com/rms_af_srl_chk/

The rep said that the firmware can cause a hardware failure.

My hard drives I use are the Seagate ST31000340AS Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3Gb/s 1-TB.

The rep said it is mainly the ones that are the 7200.11 revision.  The new ones with the 7200.12 revision don't have this issue.