NWSP2 Disk died- starting over with new one

[mdi]

Hi guys, abruptely, my WD 2Tb disk on my NWSP2 died. The head is continuously going back and forth between the parking position and the center of the disks, without doing anything else.

I have backups for the data, so no prob, but the disk is entirely gone.

I have a spare similar disk around, formatted and empty. I put it inside the NAS, but when I turn it on, after the blue light turns on, it starts blinking red+blue.

I though I need to manually prepare the disk by partitioning it again from scratch (I think I started all this with very old versions of the firmware, so I don't think I have the u-boot installed).

Should I really start from version 11 and upgrade one by one until I can use the Console?
Is there a faster way?

Thanks a lot.

[fvdw]

When blink blue-red it means the boot loader doesn't find a disk.
What disk do you use? it should support 512 byte sector size. If it is a advance format disk with physical 4096 byte sectors without support for logical sector size 512 bytes then the bootloader cannot acces it. However almost all modern disk support 512 byte sector size. You could check if disk is accessible by connecting it to pc. Other possibility that your spare disk has an issue as well. Does it spin up when you power on the nas?
You can directly install 18.1 using fvdw-sl console. No need to go back to earlier versions

[mdi]

This is my disk. It seems ok.

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sde: 1,82 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk model: 3.0             
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 33553920 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x19481899

Dispositivo Avvio Start       Fine    Settori  Size Id Tipo
/dev/sde1          2048 3907029167 3907027120  1,8T 83 Linux


But when the console waits for u-Boot, it hangs. Even with the discovery tool the NAS doesn't get an IP, so it's unreachable on the network.
Maybe, as I said, I'm missing the uBoot? Not sure.

[fvdw]

you cannot loose uboot unless you have overwritten flash memory.

Remove the disk from the nas and try to connect with fvdw-sl console.(yes without a disk the standalone kernel should load and run)
It could be a power supply issue.
That was the reason why I asked if the the disk spins up if you power on the nas, did it spin in your earlier trials?

[mdi]

Yes, the disk spins up regularly. If I start the NAS without the disk, the led does exactly the same, starts as blinking blue for approx 1s, then solid blue for 3-4s, then red-blue blinking.
I'll try to change the power and try again..... unless you have more ideas.

[fvdw]

.... If I start the NAS without the disk, the led does exactly the same, starts as blinking blue for approx 1s, then solid blue for 3-4s, then red-blue blinking....

But can you connect with fvdw-sl console if no disk is inside the nas?
Please note the remarks in this topic.
https://plugout.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2645

[mdi]

No, I can't connect to the NAS using the console.

I replaced the power adapter of the NAS with a brand new one, I also tried disconnecting the wifi and even trying using a different laptop, in both cases using an ethernet cable to connect to the network.

Anyway I couldn't disconnect other adapters on my laptops because they are both company machines, at home I only have linux boxes and a Mac (not mine).
The only windows machines are the company ones and I just disconnected the wifi, but, apart from the physical network adapter, I also have an extra ethernet controller due to a VirtualBox installation. Anyway it is not connected anywhere, as VirtualBox is not active at the moment.

Maybe this is a dumb question: is the uBoot available from stock on a NWSP2? Because I never flashed one.

Additionally, when the uboot connection should be established with the console, during the initial blue light or when if flashes red-blue after a few seconds?

Thanks.

[mdi]

Is there any way I can directly write an updated firmware image to the NAS directly from a Linux box?

THanks.

[fvdw]

Additionally, when the uboot connection should be established with the console, during the initial blue light or when if flashes red-blue after a few seconds?

The console should connect before the red-blue flash started. The blue red flashing means the bootloader cannot load firmware from the harddisk.
This means if this happen when fvdw-sl console is waiting for uboot that the nas doesn't see the interrupt send by the console to interrupt boot and load standalone kernel.
As said this happens if you have more then one ethernet adapter active on your pc (also the virtual box interfaces should be disabled. It is very easyin network center click on "change on adapter properties" and disable all except the wired ethernet card adapter.

I just tested it with a ns2 and it just works fine.

There might be a possibility to prepare a disk via linux, which distro do you use and what cpuhas this linux pc

[mdi]

You're right, but on those company laptops there are domain rules which prevents the config to be changed, including disabling the network adapters. I tried the console via a VM, but it didn't work either.

I'm using Linux Mint at home, so its ubuntu/debian based (i have one based on ubuntu, the other based on Debian (LMDE Mint)). Both Intel CPUs.