Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 - won't boot

[Igor Katsman]

Igor Katsman - read post #15 above. Just scroll up. Step by step instructions.

Instructions assume connectivity. In my case, the NAS is NOT appearing fully booted - not registered on network, there's no IP assigned. Seagate tools do not see the NAS.
There is Ethernet activity (LED) that tells me that it is alive, drive initially spins up, that tells me that hardware is operational.

 

[SBMongoos]

Instructions assume connectivity. In my case, the NAS is NOT appearing fully booted - not registered on network, there's no IP assigned. Seagate tools do not see the NAS.
There is Ethernet activity (LED) that tells me that it is alive, drive initially spins up, that tells me that hardware is operational.

hmmm...I've found these to be finicky at times with connectivity. Some times reseating the ethernet and I've always disconnected power for a while also.

 

[Igor Katsman]

Got it! The drive had a small NTFS partition which was preventing the format and NAS OS boot. As I see now, the rule goes like this:

1. Black armor NAS 220 will NOT boot to network without at least one drive. Orange light - show stopper. Seagate software (reset tool, discovery, manager) will not help as any software installed on PC assumes IP connectivity, which you at this point don't have.
2. The new drive has to be "empty" - no partitions present. If blue light flashes and goes off, the boot has stopped. Again, Seagate software (reset tool, discovery, manager) will not help as any software installed on PC assumes IP connectivity, which you at this point don't have. Connect drive to PC/Mac/Linux (use USB enclosure) and use disk management/fdisk to drop all partitions (all data lost).
3. The only indication on normal progress with a new drive -- continues blinking blue that indicates drive activity. You will not get IP/ UI connectivity until that is complete
4. At some point (it took an hour for a 2TB drive), the drive will be formatted and networking will start with IP acquired and WebServer started. This is when you get UI and Seagate tools connectivity.
5. You may have a NAS that is locked to a fixed IP address (rather than DHCP) from a previous installation/configuration that your network is not allowing, leavings no access. To reset and enable DHCP: On a POWERED and booted NAS, insert pin and hold reset until LED flashes.

 

[Piggie]

Hi, did you ever manage to revive this NAS? I got a diskless 220 and though there's Ethernet activity, NAS does not register with LAN/DHCP- with or without blank Drives. I wanted to check if anyone knows: does blackarmor 220 normally boot without drives to where it starts its webserver? Or does it need NAS OS installed to new 1st disk manually? I see mention of NAS OS installer for 4-bay NAS, as well as rescue ISO, but I cannot find any docs on what and how.
Thanks.

This post is a little late but I thought it’d be nice to have a “how to remove data” from a dead Black Armor drive in the same place as the “how to replace a drive” in the Black Armor.

As to your question, Black Armor won’t boot unless there is at least one drive. If you’re not getting any activity with the existing drives, take them both out and place a new Seagate Barracuda drive in and it should partition and boot. It takes around 10 minutes. (Other drives may work, but when I called Seagate they said I had to use a Seagate Barracuda drive).

Long story, short, after 12 years, my Black Armor NAS, stopped working. Rather than replace the hard drives, I decided just to move the data into another NAS. So I needed to remove the data from the NAS, which wasn’t working. Here’s a quick summary of what I did to retrieve the data.

Download Ubuntu

• Download Ubuntu and set it up to boot from flash drive.
• See Instructions at: https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview
• (If you already have Ubuntu on a machine, you can skip this step).

Remove hard drive from Black Armor 220

1. Power off the unit and unplug the AC power cable from the power supply
2. Position the unit so you can access the rear panel, and turn it on its side
3. Remove the three screws from the back of the unit that holds the top cover to the chassis
4. Take the cover off sliding approximately 2 inches within the tracks on the bottom of the chassis
5. Gently pull the hard drive bracket assembly white pull strap forward to release the hard drive from the bay.
6. Pull the hard drive out of the drive bay while pulling forward on the bracket assembly strap.

Install Black Armor hard drive into PC

1. Attach SATA connector on your computer's motherboard to SATA connector on hard drive.
2. Attach the power cables to the drive.
3. Optional - Secure the drive using mounting screws in either the side-mounting or bottom-mounting holes.
4. OPTIONAL: If you’re booting Ubuntu (Linux) from flash drive, and you have another SATA disk, it’s easiest just to unplug that drive and plug those cables into the hard drive you took out of the Black Armor. Also, if you have other drives in your PC, you may want to unplug them. This will alleviates the risk of accidently screwing up a a good drive.

Boot Ubuntu

• Plug Flash Drive with Ubuntu into PC.
• Enter Bios and configure Bios to boot from Flash Drive.
• Boot Ubuntu from Flash Drive (you can run it from flash drive – you don’t need to install it on your desktop –– After Ubuntu loads, choose “Try It” instead of “Install It”).

Recovering Data from Black Armor in Ubuntu

• Open Disk and determine Device Name of Black Armor hard drive, which is installed on the PC. If there is more than one hard drive, it will be the Seagate drive, so look for the drive like ST31000028AS. Ubuntu will assign it a Device Name -- it will be something like “/dev/sdc” There will likely be at least 4 partitions on it. Each partition will have its own Device Name. (NOTE: The Device Name assigned by Ubuntu may change each time you reboot – so make sure you’re using the Device Name for your current session).
• Left click on the partition you want to mount and write down the Device Name. From the previous example, the drive name is “/dev/sdc” and Device Name for partition 4 is “dev/sdc4”. It’s the partition Device Name you will use for the next steps. Substitute your partition Device Name for the dev/sdc4 below.
• Open Terminal which gives you access to the command line. The command line is very specific, so if you miss a word or a space, the command will not run.
• From the command line:
• Unpack mdadm package by typing the following command:
  • sudo apt install mdadm
• Turn on Super user access by typing the following command:
  • sudo -s
• Mount raid partition by typing the following command:
  • mdadm --assemble --run /dev/md0 /dev/sdc4

Now your Black Armor raid partition should be mounted in Ubuntu and you’re ready to go.

• You can access the Black Armor partition through the File Manager.
• Select “+Other Location”
• From On This Computer select NASRAID
• And your folders and files should be there.

 

[dosborne]

I like to keep a usb-to-sata cable and a docking station around in the closet for situations like this too . Saves you from having to dismantle your pc.

 

[Piggie]

I like to keep a usb-to-sata cable and a docking station around in the closet for situations like this too . Saves you from having to dismantle your pc.

I'm going to have to buy a docking station. I have a USB-SATA cable but it doesn't work with full size drive. The USB port doesn't put out enough power. But a docking station would definitely work!

 

[dosborne]

I'm going to have to buy a docking station. I have a USB-SATA cable but it doesn't work with full size drive. The USB port doesn't put out enough power. But a docking station would definitely work!

The one I bought years ago came with a power adapter for use in that scenario, not required for laptop drives.

 

[SBMongoos]

Does anyone know if the BlackArmor NAS will play nicely with SSDs? Don't see them on the list of supported drives (https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/blackarmor-nas-drive-compatibility-list-212777en/). Haven't found anything on this searching the web.