KB ID 0001381

Problem

I decided to update the firmware on my PX4-300D 16TB NAS Device, (big mistake!) I had some lunch and went to see how it was getting on, I could no longer connect to the device via web or SSH. It had done this to me once in the past when It had a failed drive, simply removing the drives rebooting and then putting the drives back in got me going last time.

So I got on the Lenovo forums, it’s full of posts with the same problem, and theres hope! They do a tool that you can load from USB that you can boot your device from and it will re-image it. But you cant download it, you need to log a call to Lenovo to get it, Which I attempted to do but a) It sends you to IBM support which is terrible, and b) I’m out of warranty and not supported.

So I could download the firmware that ‘bricked’ my “worth over a thousand quid” device, but not the tool to rescue it? No amount of searching yielded a result.

Solution

What I did find was a post with a link to the re-imaging tool for another device, but when I looked at the URL, I noticed that the filename was the same at the firmware version name, it simply had a .zip extension not a .tgz extension. Why is that important? Well what if I used the same URL but put in my firmware version and changed the file extension, that wouldn’t work would it?

https://download.lenovo.com/nasupdate/asgimage/px4px6-4.1.308.34385.zip

PLEASE BE AWARE, I LOST ALL MY DATA WHILE RE-IMAGING! But I’d rather have a working NAS than a broken one! SEE UPDATE BELOW

You get a full set of instructions in the zip file, but basically, you need a FAT32 formatted USB Drive, run the executable file, point it at the USB drive, then boot the NAS with the USB drive in it AND the reset button pressed (for 60 seconds). you will then see this;

When finished, the device shuts down, simply power it back on

UPDATE: Received 040118

Prior to having the opportunity to try your solution, I received a reply from Lenovo.  The tech sent a link to an older version of the software.  The difference is that he told me… “on your unit the OS is actually stored on the NAS and not on the HDD’s, so you can do this process without losing information, all you need to do is to remove the HDD’s while using the USB stick on the NAS, once that the process is complete you can insert the drives back. If you leave the HDD’s inside, the process will wipe them.”

I removed the drives (stacking to preserve slot order in case it mattered).  Flashed the unit.  It then shut down.  I restarted and it booted to “Insert drives”.  I powered the unit down, then reinserted the drives in the same slots they came out of.  Booted unit and NO DATA LOSS!! You can imagine how thrilled I am.  (Thanks Dennis)

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA