Found Fixes for problems in setting up/initializing Terramaster NAS
Posted: 13 Dec 2022, 19:00
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.
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.