• June 03, 2024, 10:36:46 PM
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

This Forum Beta is ONLY for registered owners of D-Link products in the USA for which we have created boards at this time.

Author Topic: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?  (Read 9568 times)

phoenix316

  • Level 1 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 9
ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« on: July 08, 2011, 06:48:54 AM »

OK, i will try to make this as short and concise as possible while giving the most information possible.

March 13th i unplug my 343 which at the time had been working almost flawlessly for the previous 2+ years. Only problem i would have from time to time is lockup on startup, but a quick power cycle fixed that.

Yesterday i plug everything back in, and in this order, i do the following.

1. Plug unit in, looks like system hangs at booting screen but eventually boots. I use search utility to locate on network as the IP address previously assigned does not coincide with new network configuration. I change the IP through the utility and the device is then found. The unit currently and from day 1 has had 2x750GB Seagate Cuda 7200 series drives in Raid1.

2. After changing IP address i login via web and immediately update firmware 1.4. I guess i should have checked everything before... but i didn't. After update installs and reboots, i then have access again. I now log in. NOW my system is telling me Volume_1 is degraded, but i can't tell which drive it is as both are lit on the LED screen and both show up under drives as normal status in the web interface.

3. Install 2 new Seagate 2TB Green 5900 drives(unformatted or partitioned) and it asks what i want to do. I create a new JBOD from the 2 drives and choose Ext3 and all seems fine. It creates the JBOD and then goes to format. Format COMPLETES and then shows me that it has failed. It went all the way to 99%, then i assume completed to 100% when it moved to the next screen and said it failed. I then removed the 2 new drives and rebooted the system.

4. After still having the degraded volume message come up i decide to move off as mush valuable data to alternate sources, but now when i boot up the system it asks me what i want to configure my "newly" installed SINGLE hard drive which is the old 750GB which formed one part of my Raid1 set. I can only assume that since this drive labeled as Drive 1 is what shows up, that the drive in bay 2 is the faulty one. However, when i go to the disk status page the still both show up, except that drive 1 is hotter than drive 2, which leads me to believe that drive 2 is not running even though it is showing up.

5... I have not done anything yet, this is where i would like some advice. Here are some things i have thought about doing.

Option 1: Remove both drives from my raid set and move them around in different bays to see if the "dead" one is recognized somewhere else and see if i can get it to reconfigure a new Raid set and wipe it clean, hopefully fixing any issues it may have or have developed. Is that works, hopefully i can get the 2 new drives installed and recognized again as well.

Option 2: Assume that the drive is bay 2 is dead and try to RMA it if it's still under warranty. Just use my 2 new drives as a Raid 1 set as i need at least 1 Mirrored setup for valuable data. Eventually replace the 750 with a rma unit and the move data around and reconfigure the Raid sets again.

Can anyone offer any advice based on the information i provided and the steps i have taken. I ideally would like to have the 2x750GB in a Raid1 set and the 2x2TB in a JBOD set for less valuable media files.

Thanks,
Logged

JavaLawyer

  • BETA Tester
  • Level 15 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 12190
  • D-Link Global Forum Moderator
    • FoundFootageCritic
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2011, 10:52:12 AM »

If you remove one HDD from a RAID 1 array, the DNS-343 should still boot and show the remaining drive. I assume slots 1 and 2 contain your RAID 1 array, while slots 3 and 4 are empty.  If this is the case, then you can try the following:

(1) Backup your data
(2) Label the two HDDs in slot 1 and 2 so you know where to restore everything later
(3) TEST HDD 1: Remove the HDD from slot 2  (only slot 1 should have a HDD, slots 2-4 are empty) and reboot and see if the volume is accessible
(4) TEST HDD 2: Place the HDD that was originally in slot 2 into slot 1 and leave slot 2 empty (only slot 1 should have a HDD, slots 2-4 are empty), reboot and see if the volume is accessible.
(5) RESTORE: When you are done, you can place the two HDDs in their original slots and reboot to restore things to the way they were before this test
« Last Edit: July 08, 2011, 10:57:21 AM by JavaLawyer »
Logged
Find answers here: D-Link ShareCenter FAQ I D-Link Network Camera FAQ
There's no such thing as too many backups FFC

phoenix316

  • Level 1 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 9
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2011, 11:37:44 AM »


(4) TEST HDD 2: Place the HDD that was originally in slot 2 into slot 1 and leave slot 2 empty (only slot 1 should have a HDD, slots 2-4 are empty), reboot and see if the volume is accessible.


Wouldn't this make it not work though? I thought the drives had to stay in the bay they had been assigned to when created.
Logged

JavaLawyer

  • BETA Tester
  • Level 15 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 12190
  • D-Link Global Forum Moderator
    • FoundFootageCritic
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2011, 11:44:29 AM »

Wouldn't this make it not work though? I thought the drives had to stay in the bay they had been assigned to when created.

No, this particular case is an exception to that general rule. The DNS-343 will mount a single HDD from a RAID 1 array (regardless of the originating slot) if the HDD is placed in slot 1 of the device and slots 2-4 are empty.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2011, 11:48:16 AM by JavaLawyer »
Logged
Find answers here: D-Link ShareCenter FAQ I D-Link Network Camera FAQ
There's no such thing as too many backups FFC

phoenix316

  • Level 1 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 9
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2011, 11:53:00 AM »

Is it safe to assume then that if I manage to read data from both drives in slot 1 that I may be able to manually sync then to recover my raid set? Then I should technically be able to install my 2 new drives and configure them too right?

Would you know why it didn't recognize them at first when I initially installed them?
Logged

JavaLawyer

  • BETA Tester
  • Level 15 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 12190
  • D-Link Global Forum Moderator
    • FoundFootageCritic
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2011, 12:05:17 PM »

Is it safe to assume then that if I manage to read data from both drives in slot 1 that I may be able to manually sync then to recover my raid set? Then I should technically be able to install my 2 new drives and configure them too right?

Would you know why it didn't recognize them at first when I initially installed them?

I can't answer either question with absolute certainty. My goal here was to provide you with a means of accessing the health (and functionality) of both RAID 1 HDDs independently of one another.

Another note, Firmware version 1.04 does not support advanced format HDDs, which may have impacted your formatting efforts (if your HDDs are advanced format). The beta firmware 1.05x does support advanced format HDDs.
Logged
Find answers here: D-Link ShareCenter FAQ I D-Link Network Camera FAQ
There's no such thing as too many backups FFC

phoenix316

  • Level 1 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 9
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2011, 12:23:01 PM »

Wow. That's great news. They are indeed adv. format drives so I will search for the new firmware and update that. However the drives from seagate are supposed to automatically adjust to most situations without the need for software, one of the reasons I got them. D

Thanks again for the tips on assessing the drive health, I will post my results later tonight once I get a chance to try it out.
Logged

phoenix316

  • Level 1 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 9
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2011, 12:26:46 PM »

One more quick question. Can I reset to factory default settings without the fear of losing my RAID set data? Will it recognize the 2 drives together and individually? Thanks
Logged

JavaLawyer

  • BETA Tester
  • Level 15 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 12190
  • D-Link Global Forum Moderator
    • FoundFootageCritic
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2011, 12:42:02 PM »

One more quick question. Can I reset to factory default settings without the fear of losing my RAID set data? Will it recognize the 2 drives together and individually? Thanks


Restoring the DNS-343 factory default settings or updating the firmware should have no impact on your data or RAID.
Logged
Find answers here: D-Link ShareCenter FAQ I D-Link Network Camera FAQ
There's no such thing as too many backups FFC

JavaLawyer

  • BETA Tester
  • Level 15 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 12190
  • D-Link Global Forum Moderator
    • FoundFootageCritic
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2011, 12:44:37 PM »

Wow. That's great news. They are indeed adv. format drives so I will search for the new firmware and update that. \

Here's a link to the D-Link firmware repository: http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=39068.0
Logged
Find answers here: D-Link ShareCenter FAQ I D-Link Network Camera FAQ
There's no such thing as too many backups FFC

phoenix316

  • Level 1 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 9
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2011, 05:58:09 PM »

If you remove one HDD from a RAID 1 array, the DNS-343 should still boot and show the remaining drive. I assume slots 1 and 2 contain your RAID 1 array, while slots 3 and 4 are empty.  If this is the case, then you can try the following:

(1) Backup your data
(2) Label the two HDDs in slot 1 and 2 so you know where to restore everything later
(3) TEST HDD 1: Remove the HDD from slot 2  (only slot 1 should have a HDD, slots 2-4 are empty) and reboot and see if the volume is accessible
(4) TEST HDD 2: Place the HDD that was originally in slot 2 into slot 1 and leave slot 2 empty (only slot 1 should have a HDD, slots 2-4 are empty), reboot and see if the volume is accessible.
(5) RESTORE: When you are done, you can place the two HDDs in their original slots and reboot to restore things to the way they were before this test
Ok, seems the drive was visible but didn't pass the extensive test. I have created an RMA with Seagate as the drive is still under warrfanty and i guess as soon as the replacement drive gets here i will try to rebuild the RAID set that i had. Worst case is i set it up again as i have backed up the data already. Thanks for the help. Now to try and get the 2TB drives recognized.
Logged

JavaLawyer

  • BETA Tester
  • Level 15 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 12190
  • D-Link Global Forum Moderator
    • FoundFootageCritic
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #11 on: July 09, 2011, 05:44:30 AM »

Ok, seems the drive was visible but didn't pass the extensive test. I have created an RMA with Seagate as the drive is still under warrfanty and i guess as soon as the replacement drive gets here i will try to rebuild the RAID set that i had. Worst case is i set it up again as i have backed up the data already. Thanks for the help. Now to try and get the 2TB drives recognized.

I'm glad I was able to help. Best of luck with your 2TB HDDs.
Logged
Find answers here: D-Link ShareCenter FAQ I D-Link Network Camera FAQ
There's no such thing as too many backups FFC

phoenix316

  • Level 1 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 9
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #12 on: July 09, 2011, 08:07:40 AM »

Well....it seems as though after the format that I did that failed the first time, one of my brand new drives has completely failed. It won't spin up and "beeps" 12 times as it is trying to. I have contacted the reseller and they have issued an RMA. What a fiasco all to just get back up and running again. I am having second thoughts about Seagate all of the sudden. 
Logged

JavaLawyer

  • BETA Tester
  • Level 15 Member
  • *
  • Posts: 12190
  • D-Link Global Forum Moderator
    • FoundFootageCritic
Re: ok.... here's the situation.. any advice?
« Reply #13 on: July 09, 2011, 08:52:01 AM »

You seem to be a magnet for bad drives. In 15 years I've never had a Seagate drive fail, so I put a lot of faith in their products. I'm sure things will work out.
Logged
Find answers here: D-Link ShareCenter FAQ I D-Link Network Camera FAQ
There's no such thing as too many backups FFC