NASLite Network Attached Storage

Well, I set up NASLite on a box that I am going to use for a backup server. I got everything set up and I had it connected to a KVM. Well, I switched back to the other computer and then I switched back to the box that has NASLite on it.

When I got tio the NASLite box, I couldn't use my keyboard anymore. So, I just rebooted the machine using the power button.

I then restarted the machine and it was going through saying that there were bad sectors on the drive blah blah blah. There was no end.

My question is, what happens if the power goes out? OR anything like that? Will this happen again?

If so, I don't want to use this as a backup server because I will lose all of my data then.

Before I explain the reason for what you are experiencing, I’d like to say that NASLite is a well-tested and stable solution if used properly. That said, consider this:

Just like your windows machine, NASLite has to check the drives after an improper shutdown. In most cases, if there are no remotely open files on the NASLite drive, the automatic file system check will not complain much, but rather verify all data and mount the drive. In your case however, I bet there was a write transfer in progress or an open and locked file when you powered the server down.

NASLite, as most other systems, buffers data in memory before writing a block to the drive. That improves transfer speed as well as reduces system wear and tear. If you power down the system before it has a chance or while it’s dumping a block onto the drive, the file system inode table will be incomplete, thus causing the many complaints you see during reboot.

To properly shut down, telnet into NASLite and use the admin menu from a client machine. Pulling the power is the worst thing you can do to a network server and I’d recommend you not do that if the data you store is valuable to you.

Hope that helps…

Yes, that helps.

But, I am just worried about an accidental shutdown due to a power outage, etc.

At the time, there was no one accessing the server. I had just set it up.

In almost all cases, the drive will be fschecked and remounted without a problem. There are rare occurances where a manual fscheck may be required to normalize the filesystem. That feture will be included in the next release of NASLite+

So, what do you recommend I do right now?

Since there is nothing on the drive at all, should I just start over (fdisk)?

Or should I let it go through its diagnostics that it is trying to do?

From what it looks like it is going to take a really long time.

Let NASLite do it's job. Allow it to repair the filesystem and mount it as it's designed to do...

I had similar problems due to the unexpected excessive heat in the UK over the last month or so, my NAS box was neatly stored in the loft which in hot weather was like having it neatly stored in an oven and basically it was just too hot and it shut down a couple of times, the disk checking takes ages with a 400GB disk but it will do its job and be accessible once its verified everything. My advice go and get a couple of UPS, APC do a small extension lead type one for about £35 so say $60 one on your pc one on your NAS box if you get a power outage whilst your accessing the NAS box at least you can finish or cancel what your doing and power down via telnet, incidentally the telnet for controlling the NAS box and http access for monitoring the system works so well I didn't bother with a KVM.

Oh and by the way my NAS box has been moved into my garage which is a lot cooler and has been up and running now for 2 weeks without a hitch

I found that with the floppy version, that the keyboard would not work when using my KVM switch, but when I upgraded to naslite+ i could still use the keyboard. but i dont bother no more, once the intial setup of the bios and naslite is done i only have two cables plugged in power lead and network cable.

I understand how you feel, you have to build your confidence using a new file server software. and the last thing you want is to put all your data on the drives only to lose it. I dont trust windows xp that much. once i defragged my data drive and lost all my *.exe files

My nas server was playing up last week and died, it kept locking up and i had no chice but to hard reset. yes i was worried because i was thinking if the drive dont mount or the filesystem gets damaged then its good bye to all my data. turns out the cpu was on its way out. replaced with a old 800 Duron and it booted checked the drive and mounted.

I am a new user of naslite and my trust is building.

Naslite is a great tool it does what it says it will do. the real weak link the the hardware, When ever i buy new Hard drives i dont even trust them at first, you see i used to build pc systems and a brand new 200GB would sometimes fail minutes after installing. and if i hear any noise i dont recognise i take the drive straight back, if the guy tests it there and then and says it sounds ok i simply say ok, would you stick your sage accounts on it. data is valuable just because you are building a file server out of old bits, dont use old drives or your asking for trouble.

Well, I fdisked the drive yesterday when I got home from work. I started over from scratch and did a full backup of all of my files to it last night. It was a 20 GIG transfer from my main box in my room to the NAS server in my basement.

Everything transfered over just fine. But...

I woke up today and before I went to work I went on my box in my room and checked to see if all of the files were transfered. Everything looked fine so I decided to try to open an image file from the NAS server. Well, I double-clicked the image and it took about 30 seconds before anything happened. It then came up with an error saying that I had lost connection to the box.

All of a sudden the connection just dropped. I tried to telnet into it and it wouldn't even let me do that.

I went downstairs and the screen was just black. I couldn't do anything. I had to do a hard reset.

The box started to boot and it found Disk 2. But it just stood there and it looked like it was doing some checking. I had to leave for work so I left it do its thing.

Any explanation for this?

Could be hardware failure on the nas box?

only the other day i was watching a film off my box and halfway though the film froze, i looked at the nas and blank screen. could not telnet to it.

4 days before this i installed Xp on that box to see how stable the box was and it never crashed once during some tests i ran, i therefore thought well its gonna be stable with naslite on it,

But it died cpu died. popped in a duron cpu and its stable and have put it though some tests. FTPed 6GB to it and watched some movies and not once has it caused me problems.

you could shut down various not needed settings in the Bios. use less resources.

change the location on the nic card. try another.

reseat the ram, swap around, remove a stick,

you could try to install a OS on that box like xp see if it fails.
xp is picky. then run some ram tests.

Router crashed? if u have one.

Well, I guess it was just a freak thing that happened. I got home from work yesterday and the system must have went through its drive check.

Everything was up and running just fine. I did some testing to it like opening up a few files from the server and that worked just fine.

I also did another backup of my mp3 collection and that went flawless.

Everything works great now and I love this software!