Malfunctioning TS-239 Pro II+, how do I recover my data?

Question

I'm in a real bind here. About a week ago I bought a QNAP TS-239 Pro II+ and transferred all my important data across to it. It's a 2 TB RAID 1 array, because I really don't want to lose this stuff.

All's been going pretty well until this afternoon when I booted up the NAS and the fans just screamed for about five minutes, with nothing else happening before I decided that the thing had to be shut down before some damage was done. (It's the middle of winter here by the way, freezing and no need for fans to be going like that.)

Now when I boot up the NAS I can access it via its IP address (192.168.10.10) using a web browser and I can browse around in that window for about 90 seconds, but then I get another beep from the NAS and the browser window just stalls, any further attempts to access the NAS will not work.

I've used Firefox, Safari and Chrome across Linux and OS X computers, all with the same result.

How can I get this very very valuable data back?
Will the reset button on the back wipe the data?
Is it any use pressing it?
Can I take out the disks and install them in a Linux box?

Answer 1

How can I get this very very valuable data back?

You data is still there. Fear not. It's highly unlikely any drive was damaged. Much less both drives.

Will the reset button on the back wipe the data?

No. The reset button will reset the VLAN settings. It's used if you forgot the VLAN ID, for instance, or otherwise seem unable to connect to the VLAN. Once you reset, you are required to setup the VLAN again.

Also, if the current configuration is set to enable administrative reset, the reset button can be used to reset the NAS overall settings. Instead of just pressing it, you hold the reset button until you hear 1 beep (~3 seconds). This will reset most of the NAS setting to their defaults;

• The administrator password is reset to "admin"
• Security level set to low (which allows all connections)
• TCP/IP configurations reset to default values
• System port resets to 8080

If you keep the reset button pressed, ignoring the 1st beep, you will get a 2nd beep about 10 seconds later. This will reset the whole NAS to factory defaults (all remaining settings are reset and user accounts are cleared).

The reset button will never affect your hard drive data though.

Is it any use pressing it?

Yes. It won't hurt under the current circumstances and maybe should fix the problem. Try the 3 second reset first.

Can I take out the disks and install them in a Linux box?

Yes. Most definitely you can. You should only require one disk. But on the odd chance that disk was damaged, you may try the other since you had it configured to RAID-1.

---

Note: The beep you are hearing a few seconds after starting working with the NAS is a point of concern. I don't have the manual with me around here. But I suspect it's an heat warning.

If it doesn't go away after the reset and reconfiguration, you should recover your data by installing the disk on a computer, put it back in and then call support.

Best of luck.