Disappearing Network Attached Storage.

[studiot]

I have a Netgear NAS unit with 4 large drives in it as my backup/offline storage.

This has performed fine for several years now.

However just recently I can't access it.

Most of the references have disappeared in Windows File Explorer and I can't access the one that is left.

 

Any idea please ?

[Sensei]

You have provided very little information, missing model id of the NAS, whether the drives are SSD, NVMe, 2.5" HDD, 3.5" HDD, etc. What changed throughout the network between when it was working well and when it stopped working? Operating system/software updates? New devices on the network? (e.g., IP address conflicts?)

I would try unplugging the drives and manually connecting them to the computer (if you are able - which may be difficult if you are trying to connect a 3.5" HDD to a modern laptop - this requires special USB cables with external power. NVMe and SSDs will also require interfaces suitable for them via a USB cable. Do you have them?)..

Once you've verified that the data on the drives is intact, try repairing the NAS.

 

Regular diagnostics of a network device are: what is/was its IP address, whether pings arrive and respond (did they arrive and respond ever in the past? Devices typically respond, unless ICMP traffic is blocked in some firewall settings - people/admins disable it for security). Does the NAS have a network interface or SSH, for example? That depends on the missing information, i.e. brand and model name.

 

I see people on the web saying they have a web interface on their NAS via http://192.168.x.y:5000/

Check the brand and model name for details about your device.

 

 

 

 

Windows (which version?) uses protocol SAMBA/SMB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_(software)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Message_Block

It operates on ports 137, 138, 139

 

I would use Kali Live Linux pendrive (https://www.kali.org/get-kali/#kali-live ) with penetration tool Wireless Shark ( https://www.wireshark.org/download.html ) (built-in Kali) to see if there is transmission to/from your NAS at these ports and the proper NAS IP address.

 

 

When I was using Windows, 20 years ago, often devices on the LAN were not accessible if you specified them by name, such as. \\Laptop\C, but were still accessible if they were accessed via a direct IP address, e.g. \\192.168.0.1\C, etc.

 

 

NETGEAR ReadyNAS Remote Access has cloud support. Did you configure it? Does it work? Did it ever work? There is interface via web browser, via Android and via iOS apps.

Do you have such admin panel?

 

 

Edited November 8 by Sensei

[studiot]

Thanks for the links and the interest.

I have since found this but have not managed to fix it yet.

https://www.gaasen.com/gaasen-blog/nas-servers/51-readynas/50-loss-of-access-to-readynas-admin

 

My ReadyNas is the older type (NV+) as in the bottom two in the picture which is from the article.

[Sensei]

Ancient. From 2007. Normally devices with a web interface use no encryption, just work via http:// no https:// which is problematic on some modern web browsers, which refuses to open HTTP and force HTTPS.

You don't need to configure entire Firefox the way from the article. Just make shortcut with --profile PROFILE-DIR-NAME.

On Linux have this command or so:

mkdir -p my-new-profile

firefox-esr --profile my-new-profile

(and then disable TLS like in the article)

 

In the OP you talked about the inability to open directories ("references") in Explorer, not about problems with the web interface / admin panel.

 

Edited November 8 by Sensei

[studiot]

18 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Ancient. From 2007

It has been working perfectly since around then.

~Except that I don't use firefox for this

Why would I ?

 

Here are a couple of screenshots from Windows explorer

firstly the med on nas is indicated in the network places but reprts and error

 

Attempting to open via the workgroup reports a second different error

 

The account I am using is an administrator account but I have forgotton how to get the service or services running again or even which ones.

 

[Sensei]

1 minute ago, studiot said:

It has been working perfectly since around then.

~Except that I don't use firefox for this

Why would I ?

A web browser is used to access the device's administration panel. Without it, we don't know if there is communication between the NAS and the desktop computer.

The article you linked to above is about how to make it available again in modern web browsers..

You need to find its IP address. Then ping and connect from a web browser on the appropriate port for your device. If you are able to open the admin panel, take screenshots.

8 minutes ago, studiot said:

Here are a couple of screenshots from Windows explorer

firstly the med on nas is indicated in the network places but reprts and error

 

Attempting to open via the workgroup reports a second different error

I think this is just from history, not a fresh discovery of a working device. I've seen it many times.

Try to access via IP address.

 

i.e., where you have the address bar with "My Computer", type \\IP\

where IP is the IP address of the NAS device.

 

If you are entirely clueless how to figure out an IP address, start by running ipconfig /all and arp and take screen-shots.

 

 

[studiot]

Yeah it's suddenly all working perfectly again.

No idea why though.

[Sensei]

50 minutes ago, studiot said:

Yeah it's suddenly all working perfectly again.

No idea why though.

When it is working check NAS's IP address by:

cmd.exe; nslookup Nas-01-fc-3b

and then try \\IP-from-NAS\ in explorer.

it should work the same as \\Nas-01-fc-3b\

and make shortcut somewhere.

The later, if/when issue will happen again, you will have it at hand.

This way you will verify if it is LAN UNC domain resolving issue and IP address conflict.

 

And try if you can execute:

ping IP-from-NAS

 

[studiot]

Thanks.  +1

That may work but not sure if my router will always assign the same local IP to the Nas unit.

 

Edited November 8 by studiot

[Sensei]

24 minutes ago, studiot said:

That may work but not sure if my router will always assign the same local IP to the Nas unit.

This is the whole problem with old routers and DHCP - sometimes they assign the same IP address to several devices, such as a cell phone that is frequently disconnected/connected to the same network. This happened to me several times this year, until we forced a static IP address on some cell phone. The surveillance cameras were disconnected by it.