QNAP TS-259 Pro and the battle of the firmware update

Today I decided to update the firmware on a QNAP TS-259 Pro, a network attached storage device which has a ton of built in servers. It runs a version of linux so is very popular with people who want to create custom firmwares etc.

QNAP TS-259 Pro NAS

I thought this would be a simple process, but I ran into a massive issue where the web interface and the QNAP Finder were not letting the update proceed. In both cases the upload of the firmware file was taking quite a while to upload, much longer then usual at least 10mins. It would get to around 20% then fail.

Next I proceeded to the Manual update of firmware
http://wiki.qnap.com/wiki/Manually_Updating_Firmware

This requires me to get Putty http://www.putty.org/ and to connect to the device and run some commands. All good pretty straight forward and then I get the error that I am out of space somewhere in the process of the extracting of the files.

To get around this I did the following:

1. Used the 'df' command in the putty prompt it shows the details of the different folders and look for any that have a high % of data used.
2. I found the /mnt/HDA_ROOT/  file is at around 95% so I targeted this folder.
3. I manually went through each file and folder in the folder and check for large files and remove, namely any tmp files I could see.
4. Eventually I came across the .spool folder in there was a file which was around 400Mb in size!, found it removed the file (using 'rm')
5. Tried again to do the process in the wiki and boom everything updated smoothly.

So in closing check the .spool folder for any large garbage files that you can clear out and then you should be  golden. After this worked for me now the GUI web interface works as well as the QNAP finder. Seeing as this server was used as a print server it might be work clearing the print queue through the web interface before trying a firmware update as I think they use the same default storage area of /mnt/HDA_ROOT/

All in all these QNAP devices are great I have used several of them and in my experience even if there is a problem it is quite easy to find a solution as they are inherently such open devices. 

Netgear DGN2200 and the Genie

Yesterday had a firsthand experience with the DGN2200 which touts the "NETGEAR Genie^® CD-less installation"  which is 'supposed' to help detect what kind of internet connection you have by using information present in the DSL connection.

Netgear DGN2200

Client I attended had a TPG account but I thought I would let the Genie do its thing, it verifies your location and then lets me know the process could take up to 6 minutes, so I sat and watched as this thing refreshed over and over again then eventually it froze my Chrome browser. So I had to restart the process, this time in IE, I am assuming they are catering towards large support levels, but this also crashed after several minutes.

I had to resort to manual set up to get the Client up and running but for a device where they obviously put some effort into the Genie it didn't seem to cut the mustard. So I set up the TPG account manually and nothing happened, no internet, DSL connection was fine as in connected but no authentication had taken place, not even an attempt.

Remembered I had to change the ADSL type from VC to LLC and I was all set, internet on and good to go. The Genie will probably be fixed with revisions in Firmware, but that doesn't help people who are buying this today with the hopes of setting it up themselves.

Needless to say, get back in the lamp.

Computer won't Start - Disk Read Error

The worst possible screen when booting up a machine happened to me today.

Simply
Disk Read Error 
Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to Restart

The 250Gb Western Digital drive that was at best estimate 5 years old decided to bite the dust. I usually cycle my drives but this one had slipped past.

Straight away I headed into BIOS to see if the disk is still being recognised, and it was, puzzled I removed the drive and powered up my nexstar hard drive dock and checked the drive, it was working perfectly.

So i began to do what I should have done a while ago, backup the drives contents, the software of choice, Acronis True Image home, this will allow me to restore onto another drive in the future and have the thing be bootable.

Acronis True Image Home 2012


The drive mustn't be dead so it could be a Windows XP issue, (its an old machine) hopefully not as software issues in Windows are more time consuming then failed drives, Windows sort of teases you into thinking you have a chance of resurrecting your Windows install only to find that it would probably have been best to re-install and start from scratch you'll finish that install quicker then solving any lingering registry or missing dll issue you will encounter.


No biggie either way will restore backup back to new drive shortly and hope all will be good.


- Update
Yep the drive was failing only slightly enough that Windows XP couldn't boot and cried a little. As soon as I restored to a new drive Windows XP booted straight in. XP boot process could have tried a little harder to boot in my opinion, but anyways lesson learned drives don't last forever.

Again many thanks to Acronis True Image Home, made it a very simple process.