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Business Storage Windows Server NAS - How to Replace a Failed Drive in Slot 1

NOTE: These instructions are based the preconfigured Volumes and Raid the Windows NAS is built with.

In this example the Disk in slot 1 (boot drive) is no longer detected and has been removed from the NAS.

The Disk in slot 2 has a bootable recovery partition.

  1. Connect a Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse to the Seagate Windows NAS and power on the NAS.

    It will take 5 minutes to boot from the Disk in slot 2.  On the monitor, Windows will report Getting Devices Ready, Getting Ready then it will reboot on its own. When Windows is ready it will prompt to choose a Language.
     
  2. Complete the Windows Setup.

    Windows has now booted from the disk in slot 2.
     
  3. Open Server Manager. Go to File and Storage Services and then Storage Pools.

    Under Physical Disk a yellow warning will show the failed missing drive. The Storage Pool and Virtual Disk also have yellow warnings.


     
  4. In Server Manager top right click Tools and Computer Management and then select Disk Management from the menu on the left.

    The drive in slot 2 has become Disk 0 the boot drive and the Virtual Disk is no longer connected and will need to be re-connected.



    How to re-connect to the Storage Pool

     
  5. In Server Manager go to Storage Pools. Right Click the Storage Pool and choose Set Read-Write Access.


     
  6. Choose a Server and click OK.


     
  7. Under Virtual Disks right click the Virtual Disk and choose Attach Virtual Disk.


     
  8. An Alert will prompt click Yes.



    The Virtual Disk will still be Offline.
     
  9. To bring it Online go to Disks and right click the Offline Virtual Disk and choose Bring Online.


     
  10. Read the Warning and click Yes to continue.



    The Virtual Disk is now online. Because the NAS is booting to the Windows Server Recovery
    Partition (slot 2), the Storage Pool and Virtual Disk will no longer automatically connect when the NAS is rebooted.

    How to set Windows to reconnect to the Storage Pool and Virtual Disk automatically at boot.
     
  11. In Server Manager click Tools then click Windows PowerShell.


     
  12. This step will show that the Virtual Disk is set to True for Manually Attached.
    Copy and Paste the following command at the PowerShell prompt and Enter.
    Get-VirtualDisk | Where-Object {$_.IsManualAttach –eq $True}
     
    Now Copy and Paste this command to the PowerShell prompt and Enter. This will ManualAttach to False.
    Get-VirtualDisk | Where-Object {$_.IsManualAttach –eq $True} | Set-VirtualDisk –IsManualAttach $False
     
    This next command will show that ManualAttach is now False, meaning after a reboot the Virtual Disk will connect automatically.
    Now Copy and Paste this command at the POwerShell prompt and Enter.
    Get-VirtualDisk 
     
    Close the Power Shell.
  13. In Server Manager, go to Storage Pools.

    Under Physical Disk the reference to the failed disk with the yellow exclamation mark cannot be removed until a replacement drive can be inserted into the NAS and then added to the Storage Pool.
     
  14. Insert a new un-used blank drive in slot 1 of the NAS.
    The replacement drive should be the same size or larger.

    Adding the new replacement drive in Slot 1 to the Storage Pool.
  1. In Server Manager go to Disk. In the top right corner click Tasks and Refresh.
    The new drive will be detected as Unknown.
     
  2. Right click the Unknown drive and choose to Initialize Disk.


     
  3. Read the Initialize Disk warning and click Yes to continue.



    The new drive will now show as Online.
     
  4. Go to Storage Pools. Under Storage Pools right click the Storage Pool with the yellow warning and choose Add Physical Disk.


     
  5. Select the new Physical Disk and click OK.



    In Storage Pools under Physical Disks the new drive is now listed.
    The reference to the failed drive with the yellow warning can now be removed.
     
  6. Under Physical Disks right click on the yellow warning and choose Remove Disk.


     
  7. Click Yes to remove the reference to the failed disk.



    The Remove Disk progress will complete and an Info alert will report Windows is repairing the affected virtual disk. If the operational status of the virtual disks shows "In Service", do not make changes to the storage pool. Wait a few minutes and refresh the page as needed.

    This process could take longer based on how much data is involved.


     
  8. Click OK and then Close.


     
  9. Click the Refresh Circle at the top to refresh the page or Click Task and Refresh.

    The failed disk with the yellow warning has now been removed and the Virtual Disk has been repaired.



    Note:
    In this example, replacing the drive in slot 1 (boot drive) leaves us without a drive with a recovery partition. The replacement drive was added to the Storage Pool and completely used by the Virtual Disk.