Found Fixes for problems in setting up/initializing Terramaster NAS

Initialization of newly purchased TNAS or re-installation of your TNAS
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barryphox
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Joined: 04 Aug 2021, 19:42

Found Fixes for problems in setting up/initializing Terramaster NAS

Post by barryphox »

I have been having serious issues with an F2-221 and now F2-223 for a long time.
Terramaster’s Documentation, Help and Support have been of little help, at least partly due to the English/Chinese language barrier.
After a considerable amount of test, trial and error I think I have found some answers and fixes. I hope that posting here will help others. Please share additions and corrections.
1) Getting TNAS-PC (latest version) with Windows 10 (fully updated)
and a browser to start the Bootloader needed to initialise
the NAS requires a series of steps which I have not seen clearly explained.
The HDDs must be removed, then TNAS-PC run. When TNAS-PC
finds the NAS the user must click on the NAS icon and then the
Login icon (which unhelpfully is not labelled Login until the
mouse pointer is hovered over it). The first browser screen the user
then sees warns that the NAS IP address is ‘Not Secure’ and cannot be
opened. There is no option to over-ride or bypass this.
The trick is to click on Not Secure and then “Turn on Warnings”;
then try again to log into the NAS. After several tries (the number varies)
the browser then displays another page which again warns that the
IP is Not Secure but now gives the option to ‘Continue to Site’.
Clicking on this starts the Bootloader and should eventually
Walk through the initialise steps. This is all probably an unhappy side-effect of the security feature in modern browsers which look for https rather than http. But it needs explaining to the user!

2) The obligatory option (during initialisation) to create a SuperUser is bedevilled by what appears to be the absolute need to obtain a Verification code by email,
which sometimes does not arrive and sometimes takes a long time
to arrive. In fact, there is an option to Skip Verification but
this is only revealed if the user scrolls down and past the Enter
Code box; the Skip option then appears. This needs correcting.

3) Most importantly, although the initialisation process may appear
successful it may actually have failed, leaving the NAS unable to
store data reliably and remember its logon ID after a reboot.
After much trial and error I have established that this can happen if the HDDs are not ‘factory fresh’ or un-formatted with only unallocated space. It appears that once the HDDs have been fully formatted and synchronised by the NAS/TOS, any repeat initialisation process carries out only superficial checks before trying to re-initialise. So any corruption on the drives, as for instance may have been caused by bad shutdown or power glitches, is not recognised. It does not generate any error messages and does not trigger full re-optimisation with full re-formatting and re-synchronisation. Once the initialisation process has sniffed a disc that is already formatted to Terramaster specification, the process cuts corners – much like doing a quick disc format instead of full format. This creates a NAS which can still contain the original corruption and still cannot hold data.
The only cure I have so far found is to remove the HDDs from the NAS and use a utility like Windows Disc Management to delete all the disc partitions that NAS/TOS has created and re-set the HDD space as all Unallocated.
The complete NAS/TOS initialisation and formatting and synchronisation process can then be run again from its start and the NAS/TOS then appears to function correctly.
This information needs sharing.
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TMroy
TerraMaster Team
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Joined: 10 Mar 2020, 14:04
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Re: Found Fixes for problems in setting up/initializing Terramaster NAS

Post by TMroy »

{L_BUTTON_AT}barryphox

Appreciate your sharing your experience! let me come back to your 3 topics:
1. As the local IP without CA certificate, make the web browser thinks the link is not secure. we do not have a solution for it at this moment, but we are going to add some warning information in our guide about the issue "Not secure" and link blocked by the web browser.

2. We going to highlight the "skip verification" button;

3. There are some issues or corruption on your drive, and at present, in the initialization step, TOS is not able to check the corruption on your drive or reformat it, which could take hours. But you will find a raid downgrade or volume corruption notice when the sync finishes if a defective drive causes the volume fails to work. when you reformat your drive with other disk utilities, the bad sectors on your drive may be reallocated, which makes the drive work again on your TNAS. Even so, for the safety of your data, I do not recommend that you continue to use this hard drive. The above phenomena indicate that your hard disk is already on the verge of being completely scrapped.

once again, thank you for your sharing.
To contact our team, please send email to following addresses, remember to replace (at) with @:
Support team: support(at)terra-master.com (for technical support only)
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bidmead
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Re: Found Fixes for problems in setting up/initializing Terramaster NAS

Post by bidmead »

This is well worth knowing, @barryfox. Thanks for this useful information. Your point 3) is particularly worth attention, I think. I've encountered a similar issue myself. Specificially:

An installation of TOS 5 announces that a pair of drives is fit for use.The installation begins to format the drives but (for whatever reason) fails. A subsequent installation appears to succeed but fails in use. Particularly, copying files across the LAN into the NAS partially succeeds but some file copying starts to throw errors. Attempts to log into the NAS on later occasions fails completely, the NAS apparently having forgotten the admin user/pass.

I guessed from this that crucial metadata (in this case the user/pass) are being stored unreliably. Initially I suspected the system USB that Terramaster uses. But my later conjecture was that these data are being stored on the hard drives (it would be invaluable if Terramaster could confirm this) and that the drives themselves were corrupted.

How can this drive corruption pass the initial drive test? It's my guess (and again, I'd be very glad of official confirmation) that the initial drive test is only reading the SMART information. The drives are fine -- the problem is the file system.

Again, I'm speculating, but it seems possible that the initial failed installation created a damaged file system. A subsequent installation recognised the drives as having been formatted earlier but did not test for file system integrity. As the file system was already TOS 5 compliant (BTRFS, in this case) this subsequent installation would go ahead without reformatting. The result was an installation that appeared to have been carried out successfully but would be bound to fail at some point because of the undetected damaged file system.

If this is the mechanism of this particular failure mode it seems there's a step missing in the installation checks. It would be very useful indeed to have confirmation from Terramaster. Meanwhile, the workaround if an apparently successful installation results in the sort of instability described here, would be to do as @barryfox suggests and use an external utility to clear any formatting off the drives and start afresh.

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Chris
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bidmead
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Re: Found Fixes for problems in setting up/initializing Terramaster NAS

Post by bidmead »

I would really appreciate a response to this from Terramaster. The questions are:

1. Is it the case that system metadata (i.e. user/pass) are stored on the hard drives (not the system USB)?
2. Does the initial pre-installation drive test simply consist of reading the SMART data?
3. If the initial new installation detects TOS 5 compliant pre-formatted drives, does it skip the fresh formatting routine without checking the integrity of the file system?

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Chris
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TMroy
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Re: Found Fixes for problems in setting up/initializing Terramaster NAS

Post by TMroy »

Nothing is stored in the USB except the initboot.
At the initial step before the system installation, only the system partition will have a bad block check instead of the whole drive. it is not possible, it will very long time.
A new system installation will not delete the existing volume and storage pool, so your data will not be deleted even if you reinstall the system. file system integrity check happens on every system reboot, but the system needs to be installed successfully.
To contact our team, please send email to following addresses, remember to replace (at) with @:
Support team: support(at)terra-master.com (for technical support only)
Service team: service(at)terra-master.com (for purchasing, return, replacement, RMA service)
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bidmead
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Joined: 18 Jan 2021, 02:25
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Re: Found Fixes for problems in setting up/initializing Terramaster NAS

Post by bidmead »

Thanks for that, @TMroy. So it seems that my conjecture about what can go wrong here may not be far off the mark.

Preserving the existing file system on preformatted drives is going to be useful, of course, it you're transferring drives and their data from another Terramaster system. But if an earlier attempt to format raw drives has failed in the way I suggest It seems that it's possible for misformatted drives to escape detection during a subsequent installation.

Would it be worth throwing up a warning in the event of a failed initial installation to the effect that the file system may be damaged and the drives may need to be zeroed?

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Chris
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