Transfer NAS Drives to a FreeNAS?

[rickshaw]

Hi,

I have a Patriot Memory Javelin S4 NAS with 4 drives in it. 2 Drivers were setup as Raid0 and the other 2 as Raid1. Unfortunately for me, the power supply died and I cannot find any replacement power supply for it. I am thinking. If I build a FreeNAS PC. Will I be able to transfer the drives from the NAS to FreeNAS and will be able to access the data?

Please advise.

Rick..

 

[DrKK]

Well sir, the Patriot S4 NAS was always a product that received fairly displeased reviews. If memory serves, this is a Busybox-based, very low powered CPU, and uses the XFS file system for its disks. This is not my expertise, so you should check what I'm saying...but:

*IF* those disks are, in fact, XFS, then the situation is difficult because I believe XFS is no longer supported in FreeBSD, and hence, not supported in FreeNAS, even hacking it up. If that's the case, I am not sure where that leaves you. You would probably be able to mount those disks in some kind of Linux. But as for magically using them in FreeNAS, or converting those disks to the appropriate file system for use in FreeNAS, I don't think that's going to happen.

Here are some options:

0) Are you SURE the power supply is what's dead, and not the whole appliance?
1) If you are trying to save those drives and are not going to buy new drives, then you really have no options other than to try to find a new power supply, or figure out how to mount those drives in Linux. Neither of which we can help you with. Unless:
1a) You want to post some pictures of the device's motherboard and power supply connections and whatever else, and we'll see if someone on here has an idea for how to hack in a standard power supply so that it works.
2) Buy some new drives, make a FreeNAS, figure out how to mount the old drives in some Linux distro.

No matter how you slice it, if the goal is to get at what's on those (presumably XFS-formatted) RAID arrays, this is going to require some effort and some *nix expertise, which, I will guess, is not your strongsuit, and hence why a product like the Patriot S4 was a good solution for you. So it's a tough spot.


Unless someone in the FreeNAS community sees more clearly than I do how to get out of this.

 

[Stux]

Simplest solution will be to find a way to power up the nas and get the data off. Then you can probably re-purpose the drives.

Is it an external or internal psu?

 

[Redcoat]

Is this the power supply?

If so, that doesn't appear too difficult to duplicate with 12V DC power source, especially of the plug is still serviceable. I found that photo from a link here.

Post edited to remove a poor idea for a 12V supply after @kdragon75 pointed out the issue.

 

[kdragon75]

using an auto battery and a 5 amp

This is not advisable. Most auto batteries sit around 14v and without knowing what the NASs internal filtering and regulation look like, you may fry the board. Can you solder at all? Do you have a multi-meter?

 

[kdragon75]

If your comfortable with line voltages (120v) you can use something like this
https://www.amazon.com/MEAN-WELL-or...id=1540212525&sr=8-1&keywords=6a+12v+meanwell
and wire it up. I used one to make a solid state tesla coil once.

I am not responsible for you starting fires, damaging equipment, or any for of injury to yourself or other.

 

[Redcoat]

Most auto batteries sit around 14v and without knowing what the NASs internal filtering and regulation look like, you may fry the board. Can you solder at all? Do you have a multi-meter?

Yes - I guess that's right - I withdraw that suggestion. @kdragon75 - thank you for the correction. I have a bench power supply...

Original post edited to reflect the bad suggestion.

 

[rickshaw]

Hi. Still looking for a power supply for my Javelin S4 NAS. But, I am now planning to build a FreeNAS pc. I never thought of such problem with a home grade NAS when I bought it. It worked fine but when something breaks, that could be it for your data.

Anyway, with a pc with FreeNAS. If any component of the PC breaks, one can just replace the defective part(s) right?

Also, I was able to pull data I immediately needed from my NAS hard drives using the tool UFSExplorer. Raid0 and Raid1. It was easy and it worked great!

I have spare PC hardware right now. An AMD x6 1090T with a gigabyte motherboard GA-890FXA-UD5. Will that be a good start for a FreeNAS PC?

Thanks,

Rick..

 

[rickshaw]

Is this the power supply?

If so, that doesn't appear too difficult to duplicate with 12V DC power source, especially of the plug is still serviceable. I found that photo from a link here.

Post edited to remove a poor idea for a 12V supply after @kdragon75 pointed out the issue.

Yes, that is the exact power supply the Javelin S4 is using. I have very limited knowledge about electrical but will be will to try stuff to get my NAS unit going so I can extract the data.

 

[rickshaw]

Hi there,

If I get this power supply and if I cut the original NAS power cord. I think the power cord only has 2 wires. Is okay even without the ground wire connected?

Thanks for the link.

Rick..

If your comfortable with line voltages (120v) you can use something like this
https://www.amazon.com/MEAN-WELL-or...id=1540212525&sr=8-1&keywords=6a+12v+meanwell
and wire it up. I used one to make a solid state tesla coil once.

I am not responsible for you starting fires, damaging equipment, or any for of injury to yourself or other.