plugout.net

So my 5big network v2 is not being responsive. NAS was up with 1 drive red. I was busy copying data off the drives and let it run overnight. When I came back I was able to pull up the web server but wasn't letting me log in. Seemed frozen. I pulled the power. I then tried to replace the bad drive and when I booted up all drive were blue. But I could no longer access the NAS's web server. It had a static address and was not working. I tried putting it on its own router with a 192.168.1.x network and nothing via DHCP. I had seen another person who had a similar issue. I downloaded the rescued onto a bootable USB. I have a bunch of USB to sata adapters to connect to the 5 disks. However, I have no linux experience. Any help to steer me on what I should do to insect the drives using the rescued and see if the array could be accessed so I can pull my data off cause the backup I was attempting did not complete.

which firmware are you using, lacie or fvdw-sl ?

I would imagine the firmware is Lacie. from what I read it seems to use fvdw-sl I would need to use a windows machine and access the Lacie via the lan1 port. The issue is I can get access to the lan1 port. The NAS was originally working static on 192.168.1.60. When the NAS got power cycled that was it. No more access on this port or even lan2 for that natter. I tried seeing if either pulled DHCP and nothing shows on the router DHCP table.

What I did last night was copy the systemrescuecd from my USB into a VM on my mac. I happen to have 2ea SATA to USB adapters. I then labeled each drive, for the corresponding slot and inserted 2 of them. I ran startx and looked at gparted for the partition info. I found some info online on how to run the smart disk check and ran smartctrl -s on -t long /dev/the drive. So disk 4 was totally shot. Hear the noises when trying to power up. The smartctl on disks 3 and 5 threw a read error when I checked after the first couple of min, even though I knew that it would take like 4 hrs to run. I then put disks 1 and 2 in this morning and were running still after an hours when I left. So not sure if disks 4 & 5 are shot or could still possibly get the raid up and get off any data I can.

I was running a backup, only music files on the NAS, when I saw the red light on the NAS. But, it appears it didn;t fully complete copying, since I see a bunch of grey's out folders on my mac. So just trying to see if I can recover any of that info off of any of these disks.

The only other bit of info that I just relazed is that when looking at the drive in Gparted, I found the partition that was about the size of the drive but not all the drives showed that partition as raid. I just realized that this Am when I looked. One drive showed Raid and the other showed EXT3 I believe. Not home now to check. But wasn't really looking at this info on the other two drives, which threw the read error during the smart test, so not sure what they said

I also answered your post on nas central. The fact that your nas doesn't get an ip an can no be accesed via lan port is because the lacie firmware failed to load. So the NIC is not activated.
The standalone kernel is able to run from RAM and will activate your lan port so you can talk to the kernel using a telnet client. Yep you need a pc running windows to upload the standalone kernel.
What you describe of testing the disks sounds not good. But investigating individual disk that were part of a raid array is no very useful. It will be impossible to retrieve data from individual disk without assembling the array. The standalone kernel and some additional programs that can be uploaded when this kernel is running can try to do that for you. When the arry is assembled then it can be mounted and data on it can be accessed.

So I need a fvdw-sl for dummies. :)

I tried looking on the forums but didn't see clear step by step instructions on what/where I get the download and what I need to do to use fvdw-sl. Also, how then do I connect to the NAS to even us fvdw-sl if you are saying the lacie firmware is not loading and thus can't access the lan port. That is what I am confused about since I'm thinking I then have no way to even use fvdw-sl. With telenet wouldn't the lan port on the NAS be needed? Thats why I didn't think it was an option.

Yes you need a guide. ;)
And you will need to spend time to read the post with similar problems to gain understanding.
First you need to accept that your lan port is no working because no driver is loaded for as the lacie firmware doesn't load. See it as a mac that fails to boot, also then the network port of the mac won't work!
Now how does the booting of the nas works. There is a bootloader in flash memory that loads a kernel and mounts a root file system and then the kernel initiates boot scripts to bring the system up including the network card. The kernel and boot scripts are on the disks. If these fail to load then booting fails and so network card remains inactive.
What the fvdw-sl console do? It interupts the bootloader before it tries to load a kernel and let it enter a mode that you can upload and boot a custom kernel. This is possible because the boot loader check for a certain signal before continuing normal boot proces.
When the fvdw-sl console succeded to upload the standalone kernel the bootloader will be instructed to boot it. This standalone kernel contains a mini root file system which is loafed in ram and activates the network interface and starts a tenet server enabling you to connect ti the nas using a telnet client. When you do that you get linux command prompt and talk to the kernel and investigate the system and disks.

Your first task is to upload the standalone kernel and get telnet access. The help files of the fvdw-sl console contains al the info you need to do thar.You will need a pc running windows, if you cant do that then it ends here, sorry for that

Thanks I have have been looking in the interim and reading some of the guides right now.

Windows in not an issue. I have XP running in a VM on my mac and I can always bring the NAS to my office, which are all PC's still running XP.

Just need a little hand holding to walk through this.

From you post, I see that fvdw-sl console interupts the bootloader so that you can boot and load a custom kernel. The part I am not able to wrap my head around is how is that accomplished i.e. how does one make a physical connection from windows machine running fvdw-sl console to the NAS? I assume this is via ethernet. But without drivers, as you stated was the issue, I wasn't sure how its possible. Unless its done another way and I am overlooking it.

I did look at fvdw-sl general info: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1271

I see that for a the 5big Lacie v2 that only the 1st disk should be installed. However, what is not clear is what disk should be used. What I mean is that I'm guessing it shouldn't be any of the disks that were originally in the NAS, which contained the RAID 5 array and should be some other old unneeded or brand new disk. Is that right?

the pc running the console will broadcast continuously a signal on the LAN when the action load standalone kernel is started and wait for the nas to respond. The broadcat signal is send to all devices connected to the LAN.

The bootloader of the 5big2 (connected with a lan cable to the LAN) will activate the network card and listen for a few seconds if this special signal is there which included an IP address to set. If yes it switches to netconsole mode sets the ip addres and also starts a tftp client address and sends a signal to device that has send the broadcast, that is detected by the fvdw-sl console and this t then makes a connection to the nas using netcat and starts a tftp server, then it instructs the bootloader (u-boot) to upload a the standalone kernel using the tftp client in the nas and tftp server running on the PC. After that the console instructs the bootloader to load and start the kernel.
To make it work your VM must have access to your network card and traffic must not be blocked by a firewall, alsonot for the tftp server started by the the console and later the telnet client.
Furthermore don't use wireless connections, used wired for PC to lan
Easy, piece of cake :-D

I see that for a the 5big Lacie v2 that only the 1st disk should be installed. However, what is not clear is what disk should be used. What I mean is that I'm guessing it shouldn't be any of the disks that were originally in the NAS, which contained the RAID 5 array and should be some other old unneeded or brand new disk. Is that right?

No, this is when you want to install the fvdw-sl firmware.
If you want to investigate the raid array then keep all disk in and just load the the standalone kernel

OK so steps seem:

1) Download fvdw-sl Console 5.5 correct.
2)Re-install all the current drives back in the Lacie is the original order. (i.e. way it was when crashed)
**Do I just remove the one disk that I know makes noise and seems dead? or put them all back in anyway.
3) Connect a LAN cable from port 1 to my router. Leave NAS powered off.
4) On the XP machine run FVDW-sl console
5)Once connection is made to the console (assuming no firewall) I then choose action and "standalone kernel load and start"?
6)?

Now do I need to be on a specific lan for this to work? My IP address scheme at home is 192.168.17.x. If I need to I can find an older router and set that to 192.168.1.x or 192.168.0.x if necessary.