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How do I format a NAS drive?

loncell

loncell

TK Veteran
I got given a Seagate 4tb NAS drive (SRN21C) off a relative. It had lost its partition so I recovered all of his data for him in a docking station and at the end he said keep it. I'm just wondering, how do I format it ?, in the caddie or in the PC's docking station and how EX-FAT FAT NTFS and how do I do it either way ?. I think the last 4tb I did with diskpart it only showed up 2tb. I want to use it back in the NAS caddie. I'm only asking because Ive never had one
 
Well I just discovered the root of why it went t*TS up, power supply dicky. Luckily I had another 12v and it powered up but it doesn't show in my network or PC via the usb socket.

I did try to format but it wouldn't let me. I also tried reset button power on 20 seconds nothing.It must be the Cloud software/password blocking.
So basically I have the NAS , hard drives ok, checked and it fires up but that's as far as I can go.
 
Normally for Seagate NAS appliances the procedure would be:-

(The reset button is located on the back of the NAS)

1. Power off the NAS using the power button on the back of the device.
2. Insert a paper clip or slim object into the hole on the back of the NAS and press down the
reset button. Do not release the reset button.
3. Power on the NAS.
4. Wait for a minimum of 20 seconds, and then release the reset button.
5. The LED will blink red. Wait while the device resets to factory settings.
(Do not turn off the NAS while the LED is blinking red.)
6. Wait for the LED on the top of the device to show a steady, non-blinking white light.
7. Set up your device.

The factory reset is not data-destructive, but that ship might have already sailed from your above comments.....
If there is any existing data it gets moved to a folder called "Recovery" in the Public Share area as part of the process.
Performing the above steps resets the network settings and requires you to go through the initial setup process afterwards.

Usually the desired/default disk format would be EXT4. I imagine that if the disk is currently formatted NTFS or VFAT, then the device will be having trouble seeing it, or making sense of things.
 
Ok thanks, the only thing he wanted was his camera pictures everything else can go and I recovered and saved them using easUS.

I tried the reset button 20 seconds it doesn't blink red. When I looked using partition magic it sees about 5 partitions and one big one. But in the PC it just says do you want to format.
I've been busy over the past few days so I might have another try today and report back
 
Ive just had my last attempt but its not looking good. Ive found an exact power supply and connected the NAS drive to both the PC with the usb socket on the NAS and Ethernet to my router and both dont connect (I check in my router). If I take out the hard drive out the NAS housing and place it in my docking station I get 2 local disk, one that needs formatting and another that is 511mb.
There are files on the net regarding at Seagate you can add via your cloud to reset it but like I say I cant connect to it while the hard drives in the encloser. There's nothing that needs saving but I'm thinking the NAS drive housing is fried.
 
Before you throw-in the towel, it might be worth trying to reflash the NAS firmware, or even just flashing it with something else like Debian for example
 
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