Factory reset & keeping all data

Questions about SNMP, Power, System, Logs, disk, & RAID.
Post Reply
User avatar
Yeroon
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:40 pm

Factory reset & keeping all data

Post by Yeroon »

I had some troubles with my NAS. (after doing some reckless commandline things with chmod -R..)
I decided to install the newest firmware 3.1.2 but this didn't solve my problems. All my data is still available on my RAID5 (3disks) volume and i could access it last time i checked. so far so good.

I decided to restore my factory default settings to get rid of some weird SMB access problems. I planned to use the 'Reset System' to factory default button in the webgui but is seemed a bit dangerous so i decided to physically remove all my disks first, and after that i did click this reset option to restore factory defaults. My system has rebooted and now i got this initial setup wizard where i can enter my IP-config stuff.
I like to finish this initial setup without configuring any disks yet, because the system wants to format all my disks. later i want to add my RAID5 disk and recover them in de GUI. But this wizard is not allowing me to continue without disks..... the option 'Start Installation' is greyed out when no disk is connected.

What should i do?
wizard.JPG
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by Yeroon on Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Rats live on no evil star
TS-509 - FW 3.4.0 Build 0212T- 2x2Gb Kingston KVR667D2S5K2
User avatar
Yeroon
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:40 pm

Re: Factory reset & keeping all data

Post by Yeroon »

I succeeded to finish the initial configuration by using another harddrive i used before. after a reboot the volume on this drive becomes visible. (single disk volume)

I decided to insert my 3 RAID disks also. After some time the system seems to detect my disks. (they are all inserted in exact the sames slots they always resided in)

But the QNAP isn't seeing the RAID5 volume that should be on these 3 disks.

Please help me out here, it seems there is RAID configuration data lost that was somewhere in my Flash memory. By going to factory default settings this data is lost.
In my opinion it still should be possible to mount my RAID5 volume without losing any data. and i think a QNAP owner should be able to do this by himself. Is there any manual or tool around which helps me doing this?
Volumes.JPG
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Rats live on no evil star
TS-509 - FW 3.4.0 Build 0212T- 2x2Gb Kingston KVR667D2S5K2
User avatar
Yeroon
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:40 pm

Re: Factory reset & keeping all data

Post by Yeroon »

After googling some Debian fora is figured out how i can re-assemble my RAID volume.
REMARK: if you are planning to give your QNAP a factory reset by webGUI and use this info: i tell you DON'T do that!!This a fix for users that already have done that and ran into trouble.

Prereq: your RAID disks needs to be intact and not corrupt.
The following statements i added to my autorun.sh
(you should look up for yourself how autorun.sh is created, but you have to create a temporary mount to the flash drive for that)
WARNING: DON'T CREATE a RAID volume, just ASSEMBLE (mdadm -A option) an existing one, else you risk to lose data.

----
# every time your NAS starts you need to execute these statements
# to assemble your RAID volume.
# so put hem in your autorun.sh

# create a directory to mount the RAID volume to
/bin/mkdir /share/MD0_DATA

# change the permissions on this directory
/bin/chmod 755 /share/MD0_DATA

# the big trick: tell mdadm to re-ASSEMBLE
mdadm -Ac partitions /dev/md0 -m dev

# mount this assembled md0 device to this directory
/bin/mount /dev/md0 /share/MD0_DATA
----

after running this autorun.sh you should be able to access /share/MD0_DATA by commandline and see all your data.

In de WEBGUI however there is still no RAID-volume available, therefore you can't manage it.
So you will have to copy your data from /share/MD0_DATA to another location, recreate your RAID volume and copy it back.

QUESTION to QNAP: please teach us how we can fix this without copying to another location. it should be possible for technical expirienced users to fix this themselves. I really like to be able to restore my RAID config in the QNAP webgui.
Rats live on no evil star
TS-509 - FW 3.4.0 Build 0212T- 2x2Gb Kingston KVR667D2S5K2
mrleung88
Starting out
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:17 am

Re: Factory reset & keeping all data

Post by mrleung88 »

For my case I;ve reset the QNAP via the web UI(actually I just want to reboot the QNAP).
5mins later I found the QNAP is formating the system.
I then press the QNAP front "Power" button, the display panel of QNAP shown "the system is shutting down", 20,30 seconds later QNAP shut down.
Since the formating status just performed for 5mins, is there any chance to reterive the data?
User avatar
Yeroon
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:40 pm

Re: Factory reset & keeping all data

Post by Yeroon »

i'm afraid not, when you formatted your disks partially it's as far as i know impossible to recover your data. In my case i did remove the disks before choosing this option to be very sure that the system could not erase them.

In my opinion: This option is far too dangerous to be in the GUI-menu on such an easy to-click-on spot. it's far to dangerous. It should be buried far away in some advanced section and with multiple 'are you very sure about this' dialogs...

QNAP did promise in another thread to build an option to re-assemble existing RAID-volumes in firmware 3.2.0. so after factory reset it should also be possible to re-assemble your volumes instead of formatting them.
but i'm afraid this will come to late for you since your QNAP did format the disks already.

I feel sorry for you, please write an complaint to the QNAP-team. they must secure this option in the menu for incorrect use of unaware users in the near future.
Rats live on no evil star
TS-509 - FW 3.4.0 Build 0212T- 2x2Gb Kingston KVR667D2S5K2
mrleung88
Starting out
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:17 am

Re: Factory reset & keeping all data

Post by mrleung88 »

Thanks for the advice.
I was thinking it should be a chance to recover the MBR as it only 5, 6 mins HDD formating.

I chose "Reset" as I wanna to restart the system. I was simply asked press "Apply" to proceed the "Reset". The wording is "Reset", not "Reset to default & system format". There is a paragraph of warning(in red actually) shown, I did not read it as I'm in hurry and I think it's just some kind of standard clause.

I found the "Restart" opion is under the power management menu, but as a lucky consumer, QNAP let the "Reset" is much easier to access than the "Restart" opion.

I paid the NAS and the 4x1.5tb HDD is for securing my data. As a newbie of NAS and a layman, I never think just 2 clicks will destroy the entire system/data.

That's my lesson learnt, I really paid for it.
mrleung88
Starting out
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:17 am

Re: Factory reset & keeping all data

Post by mrleung88 »

To faciliate the rescue of my Raid 6 array, anyone knows the QNAP's standard Raid 6 settings?

QNAP TS-419P Raid 6 's standard configuration under default settings, 4x1.5Tb HDD, ext.4

1. Raid Type: "Reed-Solomon" or "Vertical Xor" ?

2. If "Reed-Solomon" blocks order : "Left Synchronous(standard)" or "Left Asynchronous(continuius)" or "Right Synchronous" or "Right Asynchronous" ?

3. If "Vertical Xor" blocks order: "EVEBODD" or "RAID DP" or "X-Code(2)" or "X-Code(3)"

Such Information is crucial for rebuilding of the correct array, pls provide if you know, thanks in advance.
Post Reply

Return to “System & Disk Volume Management”