TerraMaster Forum

Hello everyone,

I own a TerraMaster F4-210. Recently, it stopped booting properly and started asking to reinstall the disks. I tried to recover it using both:

The USB reset procedure

Manual firmware installation (to TD1296_V4.9.6)

But the NAS no longer detects any disks, even when trying to reinstall TOS.

Situation today:
I purchased a brand new TerraMaster NAS (600 €) to recover the data and start fresh.

With new disks, I created a new RAID: no problem.

I then inserted the 4 original RAID disks:

The new NAS detects the disks individually,

But the RAID volume is not recognized.

Ten days ago, these disks were still accessible on the old F4-210 (after reinstalling TOS on a clean disk).
Now:

The old NAS doesn't detect any disk anymore,

The new NAS detects the disks, but not the volume.

My questions:
I do not want to give up on my old F4-210. I want to keep it, even if it means sending it for diagnosis or repair.

Can you provide:

A diagnostic procedure to determine if the issue on the F4-210 is hardware or software?
(e.g., SSH, serial access, LED codes, etc.)

A recovery procedure for the RAID volume using the new NAS or a Linux environment (via mdadm or other tools)?

Or, failing that, how to send in the F4-210 for inspection and repair?

I am open to sending the unit in — but ideally, I’d like to understand if the motherboard, power supply, or SATA controller is at fault.

Thank you very much for your help and technical guidance.

[F4-210] Volume RAID non détecté — demande de procédure de récupération ou de diagnostic
Bonjour à tous,

Je possède un TerraMaster F4-210. Celui-ci a récemment cessé de démarrer correctement et demandait de réinstaller les disques.
J’ai suivi deux procédures :

Réinitialisation via clé USB

Réinstallation manuelle du firmware (vers TD1296_V4.9.6)

Mais le NAS ne détecte plus aucun disque, même pour réinstaller TOS.

Situation actuelle :
J’ai acheté un nouveau TerraMaster (600 €) pour relancer un RAID et tenter de récupérer mes données.

Avec des disques neufs, j’ai pu créer un RAID : aucun problème.

Avec les 4 anciens disques RAID :

Le nouveau NAS détecte les disques un par un,

Mais le volume RAID n’est pas reconnu.

Pourtant, il y a encore 10 jours, ces disques étaient lisibles sur l’ancien F4-210, après réinstallation de TOS sur un autre disque.

Aujourd’hui :

L’ancien NAS ne détecte plus aucun disque,

Le nouveau NAS détecte les disques, mais pas le volume RAID.

Mes demandes :
Je ne souhaite pas abandonner mon F4-210. Je veux le conserver, quitte à l’envoyer en réparation ou inspection.

Pouvez-vous me fournir :

Une procédure de diagnostic pour identifier si le problème du F4-210 est matériel ou logiciel ?
(ex. accès SSH, mode console, messages LED ou autres)

Une procédure de récupération du volume RAID via le nouveau NAS ou sous Linux (mdadm ou autre outil) ?

Et si ce n’est pas possible, comment retourner le F4-210 pour inspection ou réparation ?

Je suis tout à fait disposé à l’envoyer, mais je souhaiterais avant cela pouvoir tester si la panne vient de la carte mère, de l’alimentation, ou du contrôleur SATA.

Merci par avance pour votre aide et votre expertise technique.

TMaster wrote: ↑29 Jul 2025, 02:30

Which new TerraMaster TNAS did you purchase?

You'd need to buy another ARM based TNAS like the 212 series to possibly mount & read the volume; though there's no guarantee of that since the newer model is a different ARM generation to the old 210 series TNAS

Based on the price you paid, you likely bought a ×86/×64 based TNAS device.

Recovering data from the volume of your 210 TNAS, if it cannot be remounted on your compromised unit, will likely require a desktop either running Linux or another OS which has the ability to mount EXT3/EXT4/BTRFS formatted drives.

Hello,

Thank you for your response.

To answer your question, the new TNAS I purchased is the F4-224, which runs TOS 6.

I understand that this model is based on an x86_64 architecture and that the RAID volume from the older F4-210 (ARMv8, RTD1296) may not be automatically recognized due to architectural differences.

However, I can confirm that:

All 4 RAID disks from the F4-210 are detected individually on the F4-224;

The RAID volume is not automatically mounted, and TOS does not offer to import it.

I would therefore like to proceed with a manual recovery of the RAID (created originally by the F4-210 under TOS 4.x), ideally directly on the F4-224.

Could you please provide:

A procedure (via SSH or otherwise) to manually assemble and mount the RAID;

Details on which RAID format or layout was used on the F4-210 (e.g., RAID 5, layout metadata version, etc.);

Any TOS-specific constraints regarding importing older RAID volumes on TOS 6?

If recovery is not possible via the new TNAS, I’m also considering using a Linux-based recovery PC with mdadm, and I’d appreciate your confirmation of compatibility (EXT4/Btrfs layout, etc.).

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Best regards,

TMaster wrote: ↑29 Jul 2025, 14:18

Hi.
TOS6 is compatible with HDDs from older models and other TNAS devices under certain conditions. RAID from F4-210 can also be recognized and mounted on x86.
If you are certain that the HDDs from F4-210 are still healthy, you can use the following methods to continue using them on F4-424.
1. Purchase an additional M.2 SSD and install TOS6 on the F4-424 (Remove all the old HDDs, use only the M.2 SSD to install TOS6).
2. After installation, keep TOS6 running and insert the old HDDs. (Note: Do not use the old HDDs to create a storage pool/volume, as this will overwrite the existing RAID configuration and result in data loss.)
3. Open the terminal and use the mdadm tool commands to clean up the second and third partitions of the each old HDDs (Like "sda2" and "sda3", please do not modify any other partitions, as this may result in data loss).
This step is to clear the old system on the HDDs to prevent multiple systems from affecting the startup and operation of TOS6. 4. Reboot the NAS to allow TOS6 to re-recognize, initialize, and mount the storage pools and volumes of the HDDs from F4-210.
(There are related automatic adjustment operations, which may take longer than a typical boot.)
If you have any other questions, please stay in touch.

Thanks