RED LIGHT CONSTANTLY ON IOMEGA HOMENETWORK DRIVE

[jamuss]

Hi

I have a 1TB Iomega home media network drvie that has stoped working. The red light is constanly on and cannot access the files. I have removed it from the origainal caddy and connectted it to my PC's (Windows 7) motherboard via SATA. When connectted and looking in disk management you can see the data sections and partitions but they are greyed out and cannat access them. I have since brought a new Iomega home network drive and swapped the HDD's to see if that would do anything but it still doesn't work and I can't access the data. I swapped them round to see if the circuit board was blown or damaged but this is not the case. Is the data encrypted becasue it doesn't like to be out of it's box. I have also tried connecting it t a USB caddy without success. I have 10 years worth of data that I desppatly need to access and not sure what I can do. Any ideas?

[Mijzelf]

Any ideas?

Yes.
First, the red led means Drive not ready/Drive Failure. As your Windows PC didn't complain, I suppose (and hope for you) that it's a hardware failure of the NAS itself.

Second, the HMNHD runs Linux, and the disk has native Linux filesystems. (ext3 for the firmware, and xfs for the data partition). To be able to read it, you'll have to connect the disk to another Linux system. You can just boot your PC from a Linux Live CD or -USB stick.

Third, you should always have backups. Any data storage system will fail, sooner or later.

[jamuss]

Thanks. Can you give me some info on your second point. If I download the CD/USB will that boot the HD if it's in my PC?

[Mijzelf]

No. It will boot your PC to Linux from the USB stick/CD (without touching your Windows installation), And that running Linux will be able to read the disk (provided the disk isn't dead). Further you will be able to read/write your Windows partitions, so you can copy the data to a Windows readable partition.

[jamuss]

Ok I think I understand what you mean. If the disck is dead is there anyway of getting the data back, would it need to go to date recvoery specalist?

[Mijzelf]

Yes, I'm afraid so. But I don't think the disk is dead. In that case Windows wouldn't have been able to 'see' the partitions.

[jamuss]

Thanks for your quick reply. Don't suppose you could do a "step by step" from when i boot from the linux cd?

[Mijzelf]

Don't be afraid for Linux. You'll get a GUI, with icons on the desktop for all found partitions. Just doubleclick an icon to open a partition. There is only one small problem, I *think* all partitions will be mounted readonly by default, so to copy files around rightclick the icon of the destination partition, and mount it read/write.

[jamuss]

So I download o CD/USB plug Iomega into computer via usb, turn on and run the CD?

[Mijzelf]

You create a bootable CD or USB stick according to the instructions, and let your PC boot from it. In most cases it's enough to have the stick/CD inserted while booting/rebooting. If not, you'll have to enter the BIOS to put the stick/CD in the boot list.

And yes, the NAS disk needs to be connected too.

[jamuss]

I have created a disc and managed to run and get into Ubuntu. I connectted the media drive (in it's caddy) but did not pick it up. Apart from rather than the light being constantly red it is now flashing red to white and vica versa. I am now loggged back into windows and will try to connect the hard disc directly to the motherboard and booting from the disc to see if it picks it up. Is my understanding correct?

[jamuss]

I have tried connecting the hard disc to the motherboard via SATA cable and booted from CD. Got into the OS but no sign of the drive. Not sure what else to try.

[Mijzelf]

Do you see your Windows disk?
Can you open a terminal and post the output of

Code: Select all

cat /proc/partitions

[jamuss]

Hi - I had to swap the windows disc with the IOMEGA as I only have one Sata cale...Will borrow another one off a friend tomoz. Before I do anything else, do you think it would be a good idea to see if the BIOS startup programme picks it up?

[Mijzelf]

Yes. If the BIOS doesn't see the disk, in most cases it's dead. (exceptions are bad cabling, bad power supply, and plugin sata cards which aren't supported by the BIOS.)

If you have only one cable, how did you see the partitions in Windows?