Promise NS4300n Files Corrupt HELP!!!??!!

[jasonsilzle]

I have a NS4300n (for about a month now) with 4 1TB Samsung drives (Compatibility is fine - I checked) the drives have been working fine for some time now then yesterday I noticed a folder empty that shouldn't be. I told it to "Check Files System" then later I thought it was done and I told it to restart. (maybe it was still checking file system) when it came back up the system status light just flashes a red but the Drive lights are all GREEN. It also beeps twice every 10 seconds. The PASM interface says the raid is functional and idle (on the hardware side under "Raid Management") but when I look at the "File System Managmentnt" it shows the volume 1 with a YELLOW "!" and when I click on that it says raid status functional but has a "Rebuild file system" button below it. Below that it has the "Check File System" button and if I click that it starts and then about 10seconds later jumps back to that screen.

I have talked on the phone with Promise tec. support and they say the file system is corrupt and to call drive savers. Well that is 5K I don't have. I asked them if there is one of their raid cards that might mount the drives they said the TX-4310 might mount them in a Linux Red Hat environment. I don't know anything about Linux (I guess it is time to learn) anybody have any suggestions????

Even once mounted in Linux I might need some data recovery software capable of recovering from a raid 5 configuration in Linux. Anybody know any cool software for this?

Is installing linux hard?

I have lots of systems I could try it on...anything in particular I need to know first??? Minnimum RAM, CPU, HD Graphics etc...?

HELP!!!!!

Thank you in advance for your help...

 

[jasonsilzle]

??Anybody Have any help out there??

C'mon guys 40 views and no one has anything to suggest or say...

OK simple question does anybody know what file format the NS4300n uses. I think the OS is Linux based (I believe) and the file is NFS (Network File Storage) setup in Volumes but is there a specific name like Ext2, Ext3?

I am thinking about building a Linux (suSe) box and trying to mount the raid on a promise controller to see if I can recover the volume.

I have never done ANYTHING with Linux so this will be a learning process.

Thank you guys for the help,
jason

 

[BriComp]

Getting started with linux.

Hi,
I am afraid I cannot give you any info on your problem but I may be able to point you in the direction of some Linux info.

PcStats has a number of usefull guides. Here are three of them below.

Linux Part 1: Getting Familiar
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1728

Linux Part 2: Installing a PC
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1751

Linux Part 3: New Software
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1788

I am not familiar with Linux but have bookmarked these guides for when I get round to it.

Regards
Bob

 

[thiggins]

The Promise NASes use a modified ext3 filesystem. So even if you move the drives to a Linux machine, you won't be able to read them unless you use a RAID card that uses that format.

Linux isn't hard. Download the Ubuntu live CD and you can run Linux from a CDROM drive without even installing it.

 

[imjap]

Wow

I can't believe I am in the same boat! NS4300n with 3 1TB Samsung drives in raid 5 config. Mine says file system contains errors and when I run a check file system it gets to 95% complete and just hangs.......WTF

jasonsilzle any luck getting your data? I'm soooo upset over this!!!

 

[Krazy57wagon]

I am in the same boat, except for me i was first able to view my files, only after i listened to Promise Tech Support, they corrupted the file system to the point that my information is no longer readable. I have done many different things to try to recover my data, including using a promise raid controller in a Linux environment, without any luck. I will continue to attempt recovery and post the solution, however it is not looking to good.

 

[nelusr]

Hangs on 95%

OK, I am in the same boat here. Get the same problem. System LED flashes amber. When clicking on the “Locate”, 2beeps x 3times are heard. Rest oif the systems shows that everything is OK. File system management gets “stuck” at 95%!. I recently loaded the DLNA Media Server plug-in and the iTunes Server Plugin. Can it be one of them?

 

[Unregistered]

Ns4300n

nelusr; Hopefully the 'System Busy' at 95% has resolved itself for you by this time.

With the last update, they implemented a system check if the unit experiences a power loss/improper shutdown. It will sit at 95% until it checks all of the disks for errors- which can take several hours depending on the size of your array.

During this time the shares are inaccessible. This is normal behavior during the check:

http://kb.promise.com/article.aspx?id=10150

 

[ShortChop]

Posted this over at AVSForum as well

I had a power failure which resulted in my folders inaccessible. After a few days the folders disappeared then the volume was gone as well. I have been going back and fourth with Promise technical support off and on for a year now trying to get my data off. In September I bought an additional Promise NAS ns4300n box and it worked till I let tech support into it. I've lost two boxes trying to resurrect my data from system corruption via tech support. I know the guys on this side are just trying to help and I don't want to bash anything but why was this solution so easy but not prevelant in any of all the NAS box posts of and I really hope this works for you. Make sure if you follow the tutorial. Use Ubuntu 12.04 as the 12.10 doesn't have the Disk Utility it only has disk which didn't work for me. I didn't need any of the final steps after I installed the raid support, it found my array immediately. 799gb restored from two WD Blacks in Raid0. I just looked at the last file I copied was from November of 2011. Don't give up hope.

http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=160&t=51393

 

[stevech]

Tried this?
http://www.diskinternals.com/download/
Linux Recovery 3.2
Freeware Linux Ext2/Ext3 Recovery for Windows!

I've used in on win7/64 bit to read EXT4 drives. I backup from my NAS to a US3 drive. I've not had a failure/emergency need, but several times I did confirm that if I ever need the backup, e.g., NAS is stolen, goes up in flames, etc., I can get those files off of the USB3 drive(s) using Windows. I've accidentally knocked-loose the power plug on my NAS many times; so far, no damage. Lucky I guess.

 

[Laker4ever]

Hi ShortChop, I'm very interested to know your opinion.

Please explain your point about you losing the second ns4300n box....
Here is my story... I have RAID 5 vs RAID 1 that you had

I have an issue with my NS4300N unit that goes like this. It is a RAID 5 with parity consists of four (4) 500MB seagate hard drives. I have the unit since 2007-2008 or so with no issue, checked it from time to time, never any "reported" issue on hard drives or bad sectors or raid issues.
Two days ago, I lost access to it, i got to the unit and see it with red light next to power button, and none of the 4 leds next to the drives is on. I attempted to press and hold the power button to reset/shutdown, but it wouldn't do anything. I pulled the power plug and it turned off. I plugged it again, press the power button, unit started, fans are spinning, yet no beeps and none of the (green) drive lights gets on. No access to unit. I figured that something is wrong with the enclosure/motherboard, and not drives. So I pulled the drives out, attempted to connect them to Ubunto system to pull data out, but Ubunto claims it can't mount it. I also tried multiple ext3 read software on PC but none could access it. I also tried running acronis backup to try and copy the drives to other brand new drives so that i can get a replica to "play with". It wouldn't do the copy claiming the size of the source cant fit to destination (even though bother were 500GB drives) or something with wrong/bad file system.
Next, i started wondering, and i took apart the NS4300N, and decided i can try and replace the power supply...hoping that it is the culprit. The plug is standard 24 pin ATX, so i used a brand new computer PS, and plugged the 24 pin header. For some reason, i put in back drives 1,2, and 4. Drive 3 was in another room. I turned power on...and surprise, the green lights next to the drives turned on...I was so happy. then i realize that i forgot to put the drive (3). So i pressed and held the power button and turned off the unit, i put in drive (3) in and restarted. After about a minute, the unit started beeping twice every 10 seconds. I was again, happy to gain access to the unit by browser but not the share/files. When i got in the RAID properties, it showed my raid 5 but only drive #4 being member of it. While drives 1,2,3 were listed as Free drives.
I attempted to add them to the raid, but i kept getting error message that it can't do that.
I started to suspect the drives... So I put drive #1 under seagate tools under DOS, and it said it failed the short and long test. It suggested to repair a bad sector. I let it do that, then it completed successfully.
I later run same test on drive #2, it completed long test with no errors.
I now run test on #3. (it takes about 3 hours to complete)
My theory is that the power supply crapped out, and crushed the system and somehow 3 of the 4 drives got damaged???
I mean so far only 1 bad sector was found in 1 drive. Drives are fully detectable with SMART OK, and also pass the long test of seagate...
What is the chance that the failure of the Power supply damaged the main board/motherboard of the NS4300N such that the raid controller is compromised...I sort of hoping that it is the case...and if i can get a working NS4300N case from ebay or something, and simply put it my four drives, it would "start working" and i could get access to the raid data??
I also had the original firmware running on it, never updated it. Do you think it would be wise to upgrade it to latest one? And if i do that would it allow me to still access my raid or maybe even worse kill any possibility of ever getting it back?
Where exactly is the RAID info stored at? I'm referring to the Raid properties, not the data itself. Is it on the main board of the NS4300N or on the drives themselves.
Please help me.
Any advice or tip is god sent. Some of the data was not backed up, and it includes stuff that is price less to me like family photos and videos. My heart is broken over this.

I had a power failure which resulted in my folders inaccessible. After a few days the folders disappeared then the volume was gone as well. I have been going back and fourth with Promise technical support off and on for a year now trying to get my data off. In September I bought an additional Promise NAS ns4300n box and it worked till I let tech support into it. I've lost two boxes trying to resurrect my data from system corruption via tech support. I know the guys on this side are just trying to help and I don't want to bash anything but why was this solution so easy but not prevelant in any of all the NAS box posts of and I really hope this works for you. Make sure if you follow the tutorial. Use Ubuntu 12.04 as the 12.10 doesn't have the Disk Utility it only has disk which didn't work for me. I didn't need any of the final steps after I installed the raid support, it found my array immediately. 799gb restored from two WD Blacks in Raid0. I just looked at the last file I copied was from November of 2011. Don't give up hope.

http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=160&t=51393

 

[ttran55]

I used to have NS4300 and then NS4600 and they both drove me crazy. The last problem was the power supply died. I managed to get a replacement thanks Alibaba expess to but the NIC stopped working so I was stuck. Luckily my brother has one so I can borrowed and spent a week to play with it and finally got all the files out.

Anyway, you need to be patient with it and be prepare for the worst.
First, you need to turn that beep off since it's annoying.
A couple things you could try if you think I am not crazy:
- Keep doing file checking and rebooting the NAS you may leave it running for a couple day don't interrupt it
- You might unplug and plug in the drive and wait for the NAS to do drive checking. You may have to do it a couple time

I am done with the Promise and built my own freeNAS box.
Thang.

 

[Laker4ever]

Thanks ttran55,
I now completed running seagate utility on all four drives. #1 has one single (1) bad sector that the dos utility was able to repair. Drives #2,3,4 all passed with no errors. So being RAID 5, you would think that having 3 of 4 drives should let me fully recover the data (assuming drive 1 is completely dead, and it is not the case)
Today i hope to complete a backup of all the drives. I'm using ReclaiMe to make image files of the drives so that if i mess something up, even though I'm not planning to modify any data on them..., I would still have the information to work with. Also If one of the four drives decides to quit on me now...It would be nice to have a fully copy of it.
I found the link of Gondy,
http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=160&t=51393
So I'm going to try that.
Also going to try the slightly modified way of BArryT
http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=160&t=62926
The third option to try is use of ReclaiMe and/or ReclaiME Raid apps.
Interesting enough, when i made an image copy of #4, ReclaiME found an array with the exact size of my previous NAS array...So it seems the RAID info was found... But this didn't happen on drive 3, or 2. Which leads me to understand why the NS4300N only "recognized" #4 as raid member, and completely rejecting the rest of the drives from the raid, claiming they are "free drives"
I'm going to post my progress for the benefit of poor souls like me that entrusted their precious data on a NAS box believing that RAID 5 or whatever RAID is their saviour. Hoping that one day 1 single drive would fail and the data would 100% magically get restored...
Today I understand that as far as data is concerned, you should ALWAYS assume the worst case of fire that would burn down the NAS. Then having another copy of ALL important data at another site is a MUST.

 

[Laker4ever]

Good news.
I used ReclaiMe Raid Recovery and was able to build the raid into a single file. The application "Wrote" it to another 2TB hard drive. Then i using any file recovery that can read ext2/3/4 I was able to read all files from the partition created. Since i had a bad sector on drive 1 (that was repaired using Seagate Dos app) Just to be sure, I also let the Raid recovery made the single partition using only 3 of the 4 disks. It took a day and half...but it completed, and i opened that file and found out that both files are same.
So basically 100% recovery and I'm super happy!

 

[stevech]

Is this thread saying that you had a RAID5 system and one bad sector on one drive caused all this grief? That shouldn't be the case with RAID5?

And, PS: you had no backup?

"RAID is not a backup"

 

[Laker4ever]

Start from the end....

"RAID is not backup" I learned this by getting heart attack once all this happened to me. However, i got lucky and was able to recover 100% of data.
Now, yes, it was RAID5 consisting of 4 drives. What cause the RAID breakup was fried power supply inside the promise ns4300n smartstor.
As i was freaked out, i started by backing up every of the 4 drives into images. The first drive wouldn't go as it complained about a bad sector which i was able to correct using seagate dos utility. Other 3 drives passed full test.
I agree that it wasn't the bad sector that caused all the mess, but the PSU.
Still i was very disappointed that the promise box wasn't able to rebuild itself and simply refused to accept the raid. (only recognized 1 of the drives as part of the raid, and the other 3 as spare drives....)

 

[stevech]

Start from the end....

"RAID is not backup" I learned this by getting heart attack once all this happened to me. However, i got lucky and was able to recover 100% of data.
Now, yes, it was RAID5 consisting of 4 drives. What cause the RAID breakup was fried power supply inside the promise ns4300n smartstor.
As i was freaked out, i started by backing up every of the 4 drives into images. The first drive wouldn't go as it complained about a bad sector which i was able to correct using seagate dos utility. Other 3 drives passed full test.
I agree that it wasn't the bad sector that caused all the mess, but the PSU.
Still i was very disappointed that the promise box wasn't able to rebuild itself and simply refused to accept the raid. (only recognized 1 of the drives as part of the raid, and the other 3 as spare drives....)

That's why so many people preach RAID is not a backup and you must use a backup "3-2-1" strategy. RAID got over-hyped from years ago when disk drives failed more frequently than they do now. No matter, the power supply, motherboard/CPU, theft, rm *.*, something will happen. Hence, 3-2-1.