Author Topic: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help  (Read 4854 times)

ntracing

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LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« on: January 09, 2019, 09:38:57 AM »
Before I went on a long vacation, I decided to shut down my LinkStation.  Did clean shutdown in admin screen.
On return, I turned on my LinkStation and it seems to be stuck in boot... 

All disk LED's solid green
Power LED continuously flashing white
Function LED is dark
Network LED flashing
No network access, not even able to ping the device,  NAS navigator not finding anything.   After letting it sit for a few days in this, tried to cycle power a few times and it goes back to the same mode. 
ANY SUGGESTIONS?

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2019, 10:45:45 AM »
it sounds like it's failing to load the boot files but is getting far enough in the attempt that it doesn't throw an error for either the drive being dead or failing to find the boot partition which would result in flashing red lights.

one quick thing you can try is to switch the order of the disks so that a different drive is "drive 1". assuming whatever is wrong is only affecting the first drive this should allow it to pull the boot files off a different drive. you'll also be re-seating the drives in the process which couldn't hurt (though if on wasn't seated properly I'd expect you wouldn't have green lights for all 4).

If that doesn't work there are additional things that can be done as well.


Eastmarch

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2019, 05:08:40 PM »
This.

This is almost always caused by one of those drives having bad sectors and making it unbootable.
**A single copy of data, even on a RAID array, is NOT a backup! Hard drive failure is not a question of IF, but WHEN! Don't take my word for it, take Google's!**

ntracing

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2019, 05:06:45 PM »
Thanks for the replies...
I am configured with two RAID 1 pairs. 
Drive 1&2 
Drive 3&4
I re-seated all drives; no change.
I pulled drive 1; no change
I pulled drive 4; it booted!

I surely would have thought it would have been smart enough to continue boot process if one of the drives had a problem in a RAID configuration.  Does this really imply that the drive I pulled is bad?  It is only about 4 months old... can I hot / insert the drive and have it check the drive and see if it can pair and report any issues?

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2019, 09:44:41 PM »
it basically boots from the first partition of the first drive it manages to initialize. If drive 1 fails completely or is missing it will move on to drive 2 but if drive 1 is recognized it's the only drive it will try to boot from. It basically ignores the fact that the partition is part of a raid array and just reads the data from the filesystem.

There are scenarios where this can happen without there being a problem with the drive but I would assume there is a problem until you can prove otherwise. Particularly if the drive is under warranty you should consider exchanging it.

I typically would connect the disk to a linux system and do a full read/write test with badblocks and then look at the smart data afterwards (some problems don't show up until you write, then read a failing sector). If you see any relocated sectors or other smart warnings you should return the drive. I think there are windows utilities that do the same thing.


ntracing

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2019, 08:05:50 PM »
Thanks for the reply.... running diagnostics now...

ntracing

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2019, 09:22:36 AM »
I completed the extended diagnostics on the drive that I removed and found no problems.
Tried wiping it to put it in fresh and has the same issue, it would not complete the boot cycle...

Before returning the drive, i went ahead and purchased a brand new drive; installed that and seem to have the SAME ISSUE
It will not complete the boot cycle with any drive in the #4 bay.  Do I assume my LinkStation is bad some how?

Other suggestions?


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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2019, 10:53:23 AM »
This would make more sense to me if you were talking about bay1 rather than bay4 but either way I would think you're issue is that the drive(s) in question still don't have the boot/system partitions setup. You should be able to remedy that by removing those drive, boot up with the drives that are working, then insert the drives and initialize/format them which will add them to the boot/system arrays. after that the system should be able to boot off those drives.

ntracing

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2019, 10:26:48 AM »
I booted the system with #4 drive removed and then tried a hot install of the brand new drive. 
The system does a "Disk Scan" job and disk 4 shows "Failed"
In the drives menu I tried "Rediscover Disk" (Only Option) and it still only shows Disc 4 as failed.
This is the same with the original drive and the brand new drive.   

Other ideas? 

Thanks

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2019, 10:46:45 AM »
hmmm.

That makes a little more sense in terms of the boot failing, It's probably hanging because it detects the drive but hangs forever trying to read/initialize it or something like that.

It sounds like there could be something wrong with that bay. I've never had that happen so I don't have much advice on how to troubleshoot. I'd recommend:

physically unplug the device for a couple of minutes and try again (if you haven't already)
grab a flashlight and see if you can see any issues with that connector.
try blowing out the connector with a can of that compressed air duster



Texturtle

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2019, 11:07:02 AM »
Is the device still under warranty?

ntracing

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #11 on: January 21, 2019, 09:27:50 PM »
No longer under warranty... only 90 days...

ntracing

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #12 on: January 21, 2019, 09:34:04 PM »
One of the first things I tried after it failed was took out all the drives and cleaned it all out...  I may try again and give it a closer inspection, but it is strange that it was working fine before I shut it down while on vacation, then came back to this problem...   Not sure what I want to do... kills me to think about buying another chassis for one drive bay... if it only has such a short warranty...


hmmm.

That makes a little more sense in terms of the boot failing, It's probably hanging because it detects the drive but hangs forever trying to read/initialize it or something like that.

It sounds like there could be something wrong with that bay. I've never had that happen so I don't have much advice on how to troubleshoot. I'd recommend:

physically unplug the device for a couple of minutes and try again (if you haven't already)
grab a flashlight and see if you can see any issues with that connector.
try blowing out the connector with a can of that compressed air duster

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #13 on: January 22, 2019, 01:10:40 PM »
Yeah, that is kinda weird though reboots are a great way to uncover previously undetected issues in all sorts of electronics.

is it on a level surface? i recently found that my ls421de won't boot if I tip it on it's face (I was trying to observe the fan speeds). If you were doing something strange like that then the drive coming somewhat loose might also explain what you see.... but I'm guessing you wouldn't do that.

I assume you've also tried the other "known good" drives in that bay and confirmed that the issue persists no matter which drive.

I've got a pretty high-res photo of the ts1400d sata connectors and surrounding components posted if you'd like that to compare to see if a resistor might have broken off or something. (I can take one of the ls441de if you'd like)
https://static.miraheze.org/buffalonaswiki/8/8b/Ts1400d_board4.JPG

Actually, I suppose you could try re-seating that board. I think the odds of that connection being loose are pretty slim but it's something to try if you're comfortable with that kind of thing.

You could also try reinstalling the firmware and force-reinstalling the bootloader as part of that process. There is an almost zero chance that u-boot isn't initializing that bay like it should that could be resolved by reinstalling it. I guess.

I can think of a couple of other things you could look at if you install Debian on it first, basically by manually enabling/disabling the power to that bay and seeing how far it gets into discovering/initializing the drive.

If all else fails it could still be good for a 3-drive RAID5.

Texturtle

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Re: LS441DE Not Finishing Boot - Help
« Reply #14 on: January 22, 2019, 02:00:07 PM »
No longer under warranty... only 90 days...

That unit only has 90 days phone support, but the warranty is two years. If you have your original receipt and you've had it less than two years you can still get email support.