[Help] TerraMaster F4-220 NAS - Hardware Failure - Upgrade path to recover data

[jimmyb]

It looks like my TerraMaster F4-220 NAS has a hardware fault. The device powers ON (The power light is Green and can hear the fans) but the LAN 1 light stays off and the 4 HDD drive lights stay red. Internal fans are working.

I've contacted support via the online chat and have followed the advise on the provided link I suspect that TNAS may have encountered a hardware problem, how can I confirm it?

The device doesn't beep on startup so I proceeded to remove the battery and short the terminals. Power on again there is still no beep. The page suggests the device is damaged.

1. Is anything I should try or is the TNAS dead?
2. If so can I get a newer model (F4-425, F4-425 Plus) and install the drives and recover my data? Is there any compatibility issues I need to be aware of?

The 4 2Tb drives were setup in RAID 10 configuration in the existing setup.

[Gremlin]

It may depend on what version TOS is installed. Generally any intel based Tnas will do (as long as it has enough slots ) and BIOS levels permitting. If running TOS4, that may complicate the issue.

[jimmyb]

It may depend on what version TOS is installed. Generally any intel based Tnas will do (as long as it has enough slots ) If running TOS4, that may complicate the issue.

I always kept the TNAS updated but don't recall the version, the F4-220 is an old model now was there a max version the TOS supported this model? Is there anyway I can find out now? I realise this is a tricky issue due to the hardware failure.

[CursaYang]

The TerraMaster F4-220 supports up to TOS 5.1.X as its highest compatible system version, which requires an 8GB system partition.
You can purchase a new NAS device, which typically comes with TOS 6 pre-installed as its boot system. Install TOS 6 on a brand-new hard drive, then insert the four drives to access the data stored on them.

[Gremlin]

Or, if you upgrade to a model with Nvme capabilities, Install the new TOS version on the nvme. That way you could make your choice from any of the available/suitable F4-???? models.
Conceivably, you could verify the size of the operating system partition using third party disk management software.

[jimmyb]

The TerraMaster F4-220 supports up to TOS 5.1.X as its highest compatible system version, which requires an 8GB system partition.
You can purchase a new NAS device, which typically comes with TOS 6 pre-installed as its boot system. Install TOS 6 on a brand-new hard drive, then insert the four drives to access the data stored on them.

Is there a typo in this reply? If a new NAS had TOS 6 pre-installed then do you mean to install a different version of TOS. Also it would help to understand the what is meant by "Install TOS 6 on a brand-new hard drive". Does this mean the the boot drive for the NAS? I assume this is different to the drives in for the raid array?

[jimmyb]

Further update;
I've recovered the USB memory stick from the NAS to determine the version of TOS it was running because I understand TerraMaster warns not to upgrade to TOS 5.1 unless you repartition manually due to the 2GB system partition, which is not something I have done.

I suspect the USB is corrupted as it is only has a boot partition, not the OS partition.

How I have diagnosed this with help from copilot:

• Linux Reader only shows the bootloader
• Windows 11 Disk Management only shows 59 MB RAW
• Partition Wizard shows one Ext4 partition
• No root filesystem
• No /etc
• No TOS version files
• No mdadm config
• No OS at all
• Your USB DOM shows UTOSBOOT-X86-S64, which is used only in TOS 4.x.

So based on the fact the F4-422 was probably was using TOS 4.x what are my recovery/upgrade options

• Is it possible to replace the USB and rebuild with TOS 4.x?
• what modern F4 model will allow using TOS4 and would this invalidate any warranty?

[Gremlin]

Every drive in the TOS eco system has allocated space for a Boot Partition, an Operating system partition and a Swap partition. In TOS 6 -> only 2 drives can actually utilise this space, but the space is preserved so that migration of the o/s between drives can take place without touching the actual data. The space is small in reality and is commonly referred to as the "8GB system Partition" which is the primary item. It is actually reported as something smaller, in the 7.5GB range, but all 3 partitions together are somewhat bigger.

Essentially, you cannot fit a TOS version requiring an 8GB system partition on to drives that were installed with the smaller 2GB system partition without destroying the data partitions. (Well, technically you could, but that is a much, much more involved subject.) This is the reason that on some systems you cannot progress Tos versions beyond very early TOS 5, when the change came into effect.

NONE OF THAT has any relation to the "TOS# pre-installed as it's boot system". The "boot system" referred to is a separate usb/chip (USB earlier, USB-DOM today in some models, maybe an embedded chip in the future - who knows?). This is the system the hardware looks for if it cannot find an installed operating system on the drives. This is often mentioned as "init-boot". Every model today comes with a an init-boot system of differing TOS varieties depending on when it was produced. As a side effect TM issued various init-boot varieties and instructions so that users could update their init-boot device(s) to use a later TOS version as it's default (or, at worst, utilise a replacement usb).

I was typing this as you did your follow up. What you find on the USB is not related to what you find on an installed system drive.

[crisisacting]

… what are the recovery/upgrade options

Is it possible to replace the USB and rebuild with TOS 4.x?

Yes, you can make a new one, but the initboot is used to initialize a system; on an in-use TNAS, the script on the USB will detect the existence of a system partition on the storage drives & proceed to boot off them.

which modern F4 model will allow using TOS4 and would this invalidate any warranty?

You'd have to purchase a F×-221, F×-222, F×-421, or F×-422 TNAS unit for TOS 4.× as those were all available with those builds. A F×-223 or F×-423 might also work as those became available during the TOS 5 beta builds, so they should be able to load a TOS 4.× build.

But if your data on the 220 TNAS was not encrypted (by default , it's not) on whichever previous TOS build it was using, you can recover the data with almost any modern live Linux distribution with the drives mounted into that PC to see the data & move it into another external drive (preferably formatted as FAT32, NTFS or EXT3/4) if you'd like to reuse these drives for a new installation (securely erase them prior to use); this option will allow you to buy any current TNAS models and just require you to do a full re-configuration to get it back to the last usable configured state of the failed 220 TNAS.

[EriChan]

Based on your troubleshooting results and feedback, it is very likely that your F4-220 has suffered a hardware failure.

For the best overall performance and long-term experience, we recommend upgrading to the F4-425 Plus paired with TOS 7.

You are welcome to contact our online technical support team via the link below to get a tailored upgrade plan and important pre-migration tips. Once your new NAS arrives, our engineers can schedule a remote technical support session to assist you directly with the data migration：
https://salesiq.zohopublic.com/signatur ... 97d0be8892