Synology NAS box disk problem

I have just had a message to tell me that a disk in my Synology DS212j NAS box has failed and needs to be replaced.



Any ideas as to if there anything that I can do to check out just what has happened? The box is only 15 months old and has hardly been used. The DSM is at DSM 4.0-2219

I am new to this NAS game so please excuse simple questions?

Regardless of how much use the NAS has had for the past year and half, it was likely running all that time and thus so was the HDD which is usually what goes through normal wear and tear..

The NAS' are using the SMART information from the HDDs to determine failure and when you get notified of SMART failure, it's usually wise to act upon it quickly to avoid having a full drive failure and potential data loss.

So grab a HDD of the size you already have or a larger one and plug it in and the NAS will do the necessary work of RAID'ing the data onto it..

Do you know if it's still covered by the manufacturer's warranty? It may be possible to have them replace the defective hard drive rather than you have to do it.

From what I ave read Sinology don't send out fully populated boxes, just empty ones. The customer, or in this case Amazon U.K. fit the HDDs, so I am not sure what the situation is?

The HDDs go to sleep mode if the box is not used for a while and the disks stop. So that should cut down on the wear and tear.

The HDDs are Seagate Barracudas model ST200DM 001 and are on the recommended list from Synology. I have tried to search on the Seagate support site to see the warranty status, but neither serial number comes up as recognised? So I am a bit stymied there?

I also tried dropping the failing disk in a caddy to see if I could see it on my iMac, but it wasn't a recognised format.

It looks as if I will have to replace it, but I will contact Amazon UK tomorrow to see what they say?

Is it necessary to replace it with exactly the same model?

It's correct that you won't be able to see the data on it as it's in a RAID configuration and potentially custom setup by the NAS.

And no, not necessary to replace with the same model, similar or larger size is all that is needed..

Definitely call Amazon if they were the ones that put the HDDs in there to see what they say.

When I purchased my NAS, I bought the drive-less system and the drives from Newegg and I put them together when I got them. When one of the drive did fail, it was beyond the warranty period so I just replaced it on my own dime. I initially had 750GB drives and Newegg was having a nice sale on 1.5TB drives when I had to replace the single one so I ended up purchasing 4 new ones and then systematically upgraded the 750GB to 1.5TB's and ended up with more space overall..

Thanks for all the gen guys. Now, if I may I will ask what is a best replacement from this list? I am just interested in the 2Tb jobbies. That should last me quite a time yet?

Synology - Network Attached Storage (NAS)

The ones in there at the moment are the Seagate ST200DM001. Any help would be really great, ta!!

I'll let you know how I get on with Amazon?

I had an idea this morning. I wondered if erasing the disk would be an answer? The idea being to erase and run repair on it by dropping it into a caddy and using Disk Utilities. The idea being that if one of the base sectors had gone toes up it would allocate another one in its place?

It didn't work either in Fat32 or MAC OS Extended. But is seems to be OK in Fat32 in the usb caddy? So, I am now toying with the idea of a huge external usb disk? Not for any sensitive stuff though!!

Just waiting for 09.00 U.K. time to phone Amazon..

Amazon told me that they only have a 1 year warranty on this box, but to contact Seagate. I phoned Seagate and they have told me there is a 2 year warranty on the disk and that I was to do a more secure erase on the disk. I had only done a fast jobbie which only overwrites the library so the more secure, one pass of 0s. Looking at the Disk Utility it's going to take 15 perishing hours!!!

If it still fails in the NASS box after that they should be replacing the disk.. If they do then that's at least a dozen bottles of decent local wine saved

Sounds like you may be able to save some money. Let us know how it went.

I certainly will CH. When I was talking to the guy at Seagate I asked him where he was and he said the USA. I asked him what time it was there and he said about 5 in the morning!!! They start at 2 to sync with Europe!! He said that if the security erase was going to be about 5 minutes or so he would hag on and chat. I said the indication was telling me about 12 mins so he gave me a case number and we parted.

I checked about 10 mins later and it told me 15, fifteen HOURS!! I have just had a look and it should finish in about another 4 hours. Just as well he didn't wait? :Blushing::Blushing: The dammed thing can take its time, I am going to bed, it's gone 23.00 here and I feel as if I have had a long day..

I look forward to phoning again in the morning and asking for the same guy and telling him how long it took. Big disks ae a double edged sword aren't they.

I used to work for a small American company for 18 years. You may have heard of them? IBM?? I was a hardware service engineer on medium mainframes and used to install and set up raid systems in the mid 90s, but even though we thought them big they wouldn't equal the cache on these buggers!

I used to work for a small American company for 18 years. You may have heard of them? IBM?? I was a hardware service engineer on medium mainframes and used to install and set up raid systems in the mid 90s, but even though we thought them big they wouldn't equal the cache on these buggers!

Click to expand...

Small world. When I worked for the US government in Hawaii as a computer repair tech and ops spec, the equipment was all IBM mainframes. "Big Iron", mostly 360-50 machines back in those days.

Later on and another job for the US government this time in Texas, I was involved in the maintenance and ops of over 300 IBM PCs. Mostly PS2s and 386s. They were eventually all replaced by Compaq and afterward Dells. Am retired now and on to working for myself.

After some more checks and another call to Seagate this morning I will be getting a warrenty replacment from them. They were really helpful and friendly, both the guys I spoke to. All I have to do now is to work my way through the returns forms and get it sent away. If it hadn't been for your suggestion I probably wouldn'thave thught about chasing the warrenty?

My intro to 360s was a 360 90 at Liverpool university. It had been sold to somewhere in Africa as a 1/2 meg machine and one of the 2 1/4 meg storage cabinets had been used to service the other. Toriodal core storage, all of it. I had let it slip that I had experience of repairing the stuff when I worked for Nixdorf Confusion, sorry Computers. What a job. From there to 360 20s, followed by 370s, System 36s, 38s and AS400s. I really enjoyed my time with the Big Blue. Early retirement and if you look at my web site that's what I do now and love it..

The replacement disk arrived this lunch time and was fitted this afternoon. I ran the repair programme and that took about 8 hours and now I have a fully functioning NAS box once more.

The replacement isn't a new disk. It's a Seagate renovated jobbie which should mean it's been thoroughly checked and tested. Watch this space?

I was amaized, because it cost me over 20€ to send it to Holland by recorded delivery post and the value they have put on the replacement is 34.05US$ !!! That's a 2Tb disk!

That works out at 587371.512482 bytes for 1cent US! Who said I h ad too much time on my hands ;P;P