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[barcusmrandt]

Hi,

I have a DNS-325 with raid 1 configuration (some 300gb of data which i cannot loose). Suddenly i cannot access any drives. When powering on the NAS, the drives seems to boot like normal, in order. However, once they have booted, they reboot. This happens about 7-8 times before it seems to have booted and is stable. All lights are static. Then all lights starts blinking - HDD lights and power light, and this is as far as it goes. I have left it for 12 hours only to come back to the same blinking lights. The web GUI starts ok and recognize the NAS and IP, but shows "none hard drives" in the Storage Status. The D-Link storage utility also finds the NAS and IP, but shows no volumes under "drive mapping". I should add that prior to all of this, one of the disks (not sure which one) made a horrible long beeping noise whenever copying data. I assumed the disk was about to fail and really was waiting for an orange light (there are no orange lights btw) so i could pull the disk and replace it - but this didnt happen. Does anyone have a clue? Greatful for any help!

[barcusmrandt]

An additional question: since both HDD lights are blinking, indicating that the drives are working with something, is there any risk of the "work" being that they are formatting, or that the bad disk is ruining the good one?

[FurryNutz]

Link>Welcome!

• What Hardware version is your DNS? Look at the sticker behind or under the device.
• Link>What Firmware version is currently loaded? Found on the DNSs web page under status.
• What region are you located?

What Mfr and model is the main host router?

Check the power supply for correct voltage and amps. Should be same at the plug in tip as stated on the sticker. Might try a new power supply as well...

[barcusmrandt]

Firmware is the latest: 1.05B03.

I dont really get the other tips/questions. What does the router model and power supply has to do with the disks blinking? Has anyone had any similar problem, or could offer some tips on what might be the cause and what I might try to fix it? Disks has been blinking now for 28 hours straight, no change.

[FurryNutz]

Seen issues with router and power supply behavior. Power supplies go bad over time and cause various kinds of issues.

Can you take the drives out keeping what positions they came from and put in a different drive. Can be something old if you have a spare drive to see if the DNS will come to ready and format the drive correctly.

[barcusmrandt]

Router is a Cisco Linksys EA4500. PSU seems fine as everything else works with the Nas. It's just no recognizing that there are disks in it.

I don't have any other drives to test with unfortunately. Maybe I have to get some?

[barcusmrandt]

Seems i didn't have the latest firmware. I had 1.03. Updated to 1.05B03. Same issue but now it says "no volume found" instead of "none hard drives".

[FurryNutz]

I would get another drive, can be something used just for testing and see...

[barcusmrandt]

Thanks. It will take me some time to arrange another disk. Does anyone have any other suggestions of things i might try in the meantime?

Thanks for your help guys!

[FurryNutz]

I would get your data backed up ASAP...

[barcusmrandt]

Ok. But how do I backup the data when i can't access the drives?

[FurryNutz]

You'll need to get into a USB or eStata drive caddy or install the drive into a PC and load Linux on the PC which can detect ext3 formatting and xfer the data OFF the drive to a normal NTFS formatted drive:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=41398.0

There is EXT3 drivers for windows as well I believe. You have to have a PC that can detect EXT3 though to begin with.

[barcusmrandt]

Ok thanks I will try that. Do I need to have a cabinet that can hold both drives in a raid1 config, or will it be enough to have a 1 drive caddy, connected with USB? Will your suggested solution be able to read from only 1 of the 2 raid1 disks?

[FurryNutz]

Not sure. Since the RAID would be broke anyways when put into a different connection type I presume you should take the 1st drive and test. I haven't done this before. I'll have someone come offer up some additional info...

[ivan]

Sorry I missed this thread earlier.

First note that RAID 1 means that both disks are an exact copy of each other - the only time that changes is if a disk has problems and then it is flagged as needing replacement.  Also RAID 1 is NOT a backup. Unless you have more than one copy of your data you DON'T have a backup.

Now from what you have said you have rebooted your NAS several times which could be very problematic to the security of your data, it may even have triggered a rebuild of the array.

First thing to do is mark the positions of the drives (L ,R) on the drives themselves then remove one of them and attach it to a USB/SATA adapter (at home I use an Anker USB 3.0 SATA Converter adapter with power supply). 
You then need access to a Linux computer or a live bootable Linux DVD - this is necessary because windows knows nothing about the Ext3/4 formatting of the drives and, is allowed access, destroy any data on there. 
Boot the Linux computer or live DVD and plug in the adapter with the disk attached.

All going well you should be able to access your data.  I not, unplug the adapter and change drives and try again.

If you are still unable to access your data you need to run the disk manufacturers disk test tools to find out the physical state of the drives.  Depending on what those tests show you may be able to recover some of your data.

All I can say is take care with each step - make sure you know what you are doing before you do anything and good luck.

Any questions or help you need please post as soon as possible, I will call in here a few times a day to see how you are going.