What format do I need to initialise NAS Drive?

[DeonH]

Hi and thank you for your reply.

WD MyBook Live Duo: 2 x 3TB RAID1

Drive B of NAS failed and I replaced it with a 4TB drive since I couldn't get another 3TB drive.

This is what I have done:
Even though Drive B failed, the RAID1 is intact and good.
Drive A: 3TB: good drive and left in Slot A
Drive B: 4TB: in Slot B

I fired up the NAS and left it for 120 hours - 5 days. The LED remained Red. This morning I checked and the new 4TB is still shown as BAD. So nothing happened. The RAID was not rebuilt. I read that the NAS will do all formatting and so on when I start the NAS

I removed B: (4TB) and inserted it in a HDD docking station I have. On Explorer it shows as USB Drive (F but it is not accessible. The same is tru for drive A:, the good one. I cannot access the good drive with my data on it. I have also tried installing it in my Windows 11 PC with the same result. The BIOS picks it up and shows in Disk Manager but cannot access it.

For as far as the new 4TB drive … should it not be initialised/partitioned first? If so, as what? I have, at this stage, nothing to lose. It feels, based on what I also do with other drives, is to at least partition it.

Please advise what I can do.

The NAS is 10 years old but worked till about one month ago before the one drive failed. I don’t have the budget for a new one. I need to revive this on.

Thanx for your help.

 

[EmmanuelGoldstein]

Those things ran embedded Linux, so using a Windows machine is useless… try it with Ubuntu

 

[DeonH]

Those things ran embedded Linux, so using a Windows machine is useless… try it with Ubuntu

Thanks. Any idea how to try it with ubuntu with a Windows 11 machine?
I read in the manual that it will rebuild itself but it doesn't.

 

[EmmanuelGoldstein]

Thanks. Any idea how to try it with ubuntu with a Windows 11 machine?
I read in the manual that it will rebuild itself but it doesn't.

use the mount command but you will need to use fdisk and gparted to see what the situation is there

 

[InvisibleJim]

Hi and thank you for your reply.

WD MyBook Live Duo: 2 x 3TB RAID1

Drive B of NAS failed and I replaced it with a 4TB drive since I couldn't get another 3TB drive.

This is what I have done:
Even though Drive B failed, the RAID1 is intact and good.
Drive A: 3TB: good drive and left in Slot A
Drive B: 4TB: in Slot B

I fired up the NAS and left it for 120 hours - 5 days. The LED remained Red. This morning I checked and the new 4TB is still shown as BAD. So nothing happened. The RAID was not rebuilt. I read that the NAS will do all formatting and so on when I start the NAS

I removed B: (4TB) and inserted it in a HDD docking station I have. On Explorer it shows as USB Drive (F but it is not accessible. The same is tru for drive A:, the good one. I cannot access the good drive with my data on it. I have also tried installing it in my Windows 11 PC with the same result. The BIOS picks it up and shows in Disk Manager but cannot access it.

For as far as the new 4TB drive … should it not be initialised/partitioned first? If so, as what? I have, at this stage, nothing to lose. It feels, based on what I also do with other drives, is to at least partition it.

Please advise what I can do.

The NAS is 10 years old but worked till about one month ago before the one drive failed. I don’t have the budget for a new one. I need to revive this on.

Thanx for your help.

If you are rebuilding a RAID 1 you don't usually need to format the replacement drive - when you rebuild the array, it will replicate all the data from the existing drive including the file system.

According to the manual for your NAS you can use the WD Drive Utilities to rebuild the RAID Array (page 69) - given that your NAS is quite old and out of support, if you don't already have the utilities installed, I don't know if you will have difficulty obtaining a compatible version or running it on a recent version of Windows.

Good luck. Hope that helps.

 

[DeonH]

Hi and thanks for the reply.
I have downloaded and installed WD Drive utilities but it doesn't pick up the drives in the NAS.

The attached screenshot is WD Drive Utilities, but it doesn't pick up my HDD.

This is a huge disappointment.



Thanks for reaching out. I will will ons asking in the hope that someone can assist.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Just tell the NAS to format it?

 

[DeonH]

I tried. After 120 hours it has done absolutely nothing.

 

[DeonH]

If you are rebuilding a RAID 1 you don't usually need to format the replacement drive - when you rebuild the array, it will replicate all the data from the existing drive including the file system.

According to the manual for your NAS you can use the WD Drive Utilities to rebuild the RAID Array (page 69) - given that your NAS is quite old and out of support, if you don't already have the utilities installed, I don't know if you will have difficulty obtaining a compatible version or running it on a recent version of Windows.

Good luck. Hope that helps.

Thanks very much for the reply. I don't have the model of the manual you mention. I have the My Book Live Duo. I think mine is the older version.

 

[Mike Angelo]

Could possibly be a hardware problem with the drive controllers, especially if the drives are not being detected?

 

[Dimpie (JIGSAW)]

What do you see on the NAS web interface when you go to configure drives ?

From the WD support page, they actually state this :

If the device is no longer under warranty, or you wish to purchase a drive as a spare. Be sure to get a drive with an identical model number to the drives included in your enclosure. This includes the information in the suffix of the model number (For example if the model number was WDM0D31NUM83R-0000 both the the WDM0D31NUM83R and 0000 numbers should be identical.)

IMPORTANT: Replacement hard drives must be an exact Model-for-Model match with the hard drives originally shipped with the device from the factory.
For example: A WD Green model WD30EZRX-00SPEB0 must be replaced with another WD Green model WD30EZRX-00SPEB0 to function properly. Exchanging the hard drive with a different model or capacity may cause unexpected behavior, such as data loss or damage to the operating system and will void the warranty.

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