[GUIDE] Debrick a MyBookLive DUO

THANKS TO ALL THE USERS IN THIS THREAD FOR THEIR FEEDBACK!

THIS GUIDE IS PRETTY SOLID NOW BUT PLEASE KEEP THE FEEDBACK COMING

 

GUIDE 1 WILL NOT DELETE YOUR DATA

PLEASE SEE STEP 1 FOR HELP WITH BACKING UP YOUR DATA TO BE SAFE

 

Myself and fusecat have been working together the last few days and have finally been able to debrick a MBL DUO with a modified debrick script provided by michealcell at the mybookworldwiki forums based on the original script by dan kvelstad

 

I will try my best to support this guide but without access to a MBLDUO it is hard

I will be more than happy to make changes to the guide based on user feedback

 

GUIDE 1 is confirmed working by MKranjc  if you are running a RAID1 array

GUIDE 1 is also confirmed working by dj_kenzo982 if you are running Spanning

The drive will rebuild the RAID1 array when you boot up your MBLD after the debrick

This process can take 15+hours for RAID1

This process takes about 10 minutes for Spanning

Check Storage Settings in your dashboard to get a % complete on the array build

 

GUIDE 2 is confirmed working by fusecat but WILL DELETE YOUR DATA

This is the guide you want to follow if you are putting new drives in the enclosure

You can also follow this guide if you have all of your data backed up to another drive and want to start fresh

 

GUIDE 3 Herokolco has also put together a guide to install 2 new drives into the MBLD enclosure

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live-Duo/GUIDE-Debrick-a-MyBookLive-DUO/m-p/556074/highlight/true#M4108

As always you use this guide at your own risk… Any loss of data or damage to your drive is YOUR responsibility

 

If you run into any issues with the script, see this post by dj_kenzo982

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live-Duo/GUIDE-Debrick-a-MyBookLive-DUO/m-p/558108/highlight/true#M4200

 

POWER DOWN THE MBLD AND PULL DRIVE A OUT OF THE NAS

 

GUIDE 1

This guide is for people looking to keep their existing data

Your DataVolume will rebuild at boot (Spanning or RAID1)

Please follow step 1 and backup your current data so it is safe

 

STEP 1 (DATA BACKUP/RECOVERY)

At this point if you would like to pull your data off the MyBookLive Duo for safe keeping, download Disk Internals Linux Reader for Windows http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/ and install the program. Hook up the drive to your computer or a SATA dock and copy your data to another drive with enough space on your computer.

If that doesn’t work try using R-Linux http://www.r-tt.com/free_linux_recovery/Download.shtml

 

dj_kenzo982 wrote “Backing up with Linux Reader and R-linux doesn’t seem to work if your RAID0 is busted as much as mine was. I tried an mdadm create/assemble to try and get the data but it didn’t work.

 

Both programs are free and have been proven to work

 

STEP 2 (DEBRICK PREPARATION)

 

Download 7zip from  http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Download SystemRescueCd from  http://www.sysresccd.org/Download

Download the debrick script from http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?sy3mf53i0vcy886

Download the latest MyBookLive DUO firmware from http://download.wdc.com/nas/ap2nc-024006-048-20121206.zip

 

Unzip ap2nc-024006-048-20121206.zip and you should end up with ap2nc-024006-048-20121206.deb

 

Install 7zip and point it to your MyBookLive DUO firmware “ap2nc-024006-048-20121206.deb” and double click and you will see “data.tar” where you will again double click and be presented with a “.” Double click the “.” then double click “cache volume”  then double click “upgrade” and then highlight  “rootfs.img” and hit extract.

 

Next burn the SystemRescueCd ISO to a blank CD
Use 7zip or WinRAR to extract the debricking script “debrick.sh” from the “debrick_mbld.zip” file you downloaded above
Format your thumbdrive to FAT32 (4GB or larger)
Copy “debrick.sh” and “rootfs.img” to your thumbdrive

 

STEP 3 (PREPARING TO BOOT THE SYSTEM RESCUE CD)


Make sure your thumbdrive containing the two files is plugged in, your MyBookLive hard drive is hooked up to your computer via e-sata to sata or sata to sata cable and you disconnect any other hard drives to ensure you don’t accidentally delete data on those drives

 

STEP 4 (BOOTING THE SYSTEM RESCUE CD AND DEBRICKING THE HARD DRIVE)

 

Now we want to boot off the SystemRescue CD you burned above. When the system menu comes up select to “directly start the graphical environment”
Once you get to the desktop, open gparted and check to see where your MyBookLive shows under. In my case it shows up under /dev/sda
The drive should contain several EXT3 partitions and a rather large EXT4 partition
If your drive shows up under sdb, sdc, sdd etc.  just substitute the proper name for the drive when getting to
./debrick.sh rootfs.img /dev/sda
Now in gparted check to see where your thumbdrive shows up. In my case it shows up under /dev/sdb1
If it shows up under sdc1, sdd1, sde1, etc.  just substitute the proper name for the drive when getting to
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
Terminal should already be opened on the screen, if not open terminal and type the following commands.
Bold text indicates that you should use the changes from above for that particular part of the command if your devices show up under gparted differently than they did for me…

 

STEP 5 (DEBRICKING DISK A)

 

Open Terminal and type

mkdir /mnt/usb
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
cd /mnt/usb
mdadm -S /dev/md0
mdadm -S /dev/md2
mdadm -S /dev/md3
./debrick.sh rootfs.img /dev/sda

Now shut down the System Rescue CD and unplug the debricked hard drive

Now drop Drive A back in the enclosure and power up

Your drive should start rebuilding the Span or RAID1 array automatically (RAID1 can take a long time to complete)

Check Storage Settings in your dashboard to get a % complete on the array build

Once completed, a reboot should get both drives to display GOOD in the MBLD dashboard

If you get a smart fail error message in the dashboard then run these commands to fix it AFTER the array is done rebuilding.

Thanks for the heads up on this Herokolco and stevevev

smartctl -s on /dev/sda
smartctl -s on /dev/sdb
reboot

When your drive is in a state that everything above have been done you have a solid green LED:

Re-create your users from the MBLD Dashboard (Thanks  MKranjc and dj_kenzo982)

If your shares are still listed in the MyBookLive dashboard but are not accessible, rename the shares and then rename them back to get them linked properly again. Example: Movies > Movies1 > Movies
If your shares are missing in the MBLD dashboard, recreate them in the dashboard and you will be able to access your data again.

A reboot is required to get the share and drive usage totals to reflect the actual data usage after these changes

Done

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

GUIDE 2

This section of the guide is for folks who want to start fresh or want to install 2 new drives in the MBLD enclosure

 

This WILL DELETE all data on your disks

 

Follow steps 1-4 above

STEP 5 (DEBRICKING DISK A AND B)

This step needs to be done one drive at a time

1st debrick disk A with the commands shown below (Remember the drives in bold may differ so refer to step 4 in Guide1)

When it’s done, shut down the System Rescue CD and disconnect the drive and set it aside

 

mkdir /mnt/usb
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
cd /mnt/usb
mdadm -S /dev/md0
mdadm -S /dev/md2
mdadm -S /dev/md3
./debrick.sh rootfs.img /dev/sda destroy

Hook up disk B and again boot up the System Rescue CD

Again run the commands below (Remember the drives in bold may differ so refer to step 4 in Guide1)

 

mkdir /mnt/usb
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
cd /mnt/usb
mdadm -S /dev/md0
mdadm -S /dev/md2
mdadm -S /dev/md3
./debrick.sh rootfs.img /dev/sda destroy

Once the script finishes, shut down the System Rescue Cd

Remove disk B and drop both disk A and B back into the enclosure and power on the NAS

Once the MBLD has booted up go to the dashboard and do a quick factory restore

 

Now we need to SSH back into the drive to setup your swap partition (Thanks for testing this fusecat)

mkswap /dev/md2
reboot

If this command complains that /dev/md2 is missing you will need to create the array manually through SSH

mdadm --create -e 0 --verbose /dev/md2 --level=raid1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3reboot

After the drive has fully rebooted try the following command again

mkswap /dev/md2
reboot

Once the MBLD reboots, SSH back into the drive and check to make sure your swap is active

swapon -s

It should look something like this

Filename Type Size	Used	Priority
/dev/md2 partition	500544	896	-1

If you get a smart fail error message in the dashboard then run these commands to fix it

Thanks for the heads up on this Herokolco and stevevev

smartctl -s on /dev/sda
smartctl -s on /dev/sdb
reboot

Done!

Thanks to dan kvelstad and michealcell for the script

Thanks to fusecat, MKranjc, Herokolco, widowmaker, stevevev, and dj_kenzo982

Without their hard work and testing, none of this would have been possible

24 Likes

At this point I will make changes to the guide as needed from comments posted in the thread

Guide updated 2-24-2013

Guide 1 is still untested so if anybody ever gets to the point that they brick their drive and want to post some feedback, that would be great.

1 Like

I am a not too proud owner of the bricked MBLD 4T (power outage during the firmware upgrade process). Currently I am doing the backup of my data from one of the NAS disks with IcyBox and Total Commander Disk Internal Reader plugin to one of my old USB disks. It will take several hours to complete, but that is the way it is.

I will try the Guide 1 path once I have my data backed up. The way I see it I can still go down the alley no. 2 if the first one does ends well. I will post the results of the process here if it is OK with you.

This is a short diary of my steps in the attempt to recover bricked MBLD. I hope that somebody that will find him/herself in similar situation will be able to make some use of it.

BACKGROUND
The problem started when there was a short power interruption while I was updating the firmware of my MBLD to the latest version. (I know, I should have had an UPS, but I did not. Maybe now I will buy one.)

When the electrical power has returned the MBLD was starting up with the white LED on (it might seems to be violet) and it was not accessible at all (bricked). I have tried with several reboots, but nothing has changed. (sigh) I was kindly pointed to this thread and I have decided to give this option a try.

STEP 1 (DATA BACKUP/RECOVERY)
A friend borrowed me a Icy Box IB-110StU3-B docking station. I have connected it to my laptop, plugged in one of the SATA drives and fired up DiskInternals Reader plugin for Total Commander. I could have used the programs suggested in STEP 1, however I am used to do all of file manipulations with Total Commander. I had to copy around 700GB of data to old external USB drives and it took me several hours to finish STEP 1.

STEP 2 (DEBRICK PREPARATION)
I have had 7zip already installed on my computer, so I have skipped that step.
I have downloaded SystemRescueCd and burned iso to new DVD (it is small enough to fit on CD).
I have downloaded debrick script from Mediafire.
And downloaded LATEST MBLD firmware (as of 3 March 2013) from  http://download.wdc.com/nas/ap2nc-024105-034-20130215.zip

Afterwards I have extracted “rootfs.img” as suggested (Hint: The extraction of the “rootfs.img” might take a while, so be patient) and put the debrick.sh and rootfs.img on a newly FAT32 formated 8GB thumbdrive.

STEP 3 (PREPARING TO BOOT THE SYSTEM RESCUE CD)
I have prepared thumbdrive with rootfs.img and debrick.sh and connected the IcyBox SATA dock, to my laptop. I did not unplugged the laptop drive (I have to be careful, I know).

STEP 4 (BOOTING THE SYSTEM RESCUE CD AND DEBRICKING THE HARD DRIVE)
I have booted from System Rescue CD without problems and started gparted. It showed following drives:
SATA disk /dev/sdb
USB thumbdrive /dev/sda

STEP 5 (DEBRICKING DISK A)
I have used the device labels as were detected by gparted, and the debrick.sh script finished without any problems. Very nice job!

Then I have put the SATA disk back into MBLD, and started ssh session without any problems (admin password was reset, but all the data seems to be on the disk).

Then I have tried to recreate RAID 1 array and run into first problem:

MyBookLiveDuo:~# mdadm --create -e 0 --verbose /dev/md3 --level=raid1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdb4
mdadm: super0.90 cannot open /dev/sda4: Device or resource busy
mdadm: /dev/sda4 is not suitable for this array.
mdadm: super0.90 cannot open /dev/sdb4: Device or resource busy
mdadm: /dev/sdb4 is not suitable for this array.
mdadm: create aborted

I have checked if there might be a rebuild process already running and there was one (as it is stated in the User manual). The MBLD is now currently in the process of rebuilding the array which ought to last for 7 to 15 hours. LED is green and blinking. Data on public volume is all there and I will have to recreate the users and their shares, but this will not be a problem if the rebuild process finishes successfully.

It seems that GUIDE 1 is viable option, but I will be able to confirm this tomorrow.

Great job nfodiz! Thank you!

Thanks for the reply, it looks as though the MBL might just rebuild the array on its own with no loss of data. That was my thinking, but I wanted to cover my behind as I don’t have a unit to test with. Let me know how you make out and I will amend the guide to take out the step to create an array in Guide 1

Rebuild of RAID 1 array has finished over night. LED is solid and green and after the reboot both disks are in good condition. The data is on the disk, but I will have to recreate the users and shares (that’s not a problem).

I can confirm: GUIDE 1 is a viable and great way how to debrick MBLD and retain the user data.

@nfodiz: BIG thank you for the script and great tutorial! 

1 Like

Thanks again MKranjc and please let me know if recreating the users and shares gives you any problems. It works flawlessly on a MBL but I am only guessing it SHOULD work on the DUO too.

I will update the guide after I get your final feedback

1 Like

No problem at recreating users and shares either.

However, after the fresh install of the system other settings have to be set again (time zone, workgroup name, email for alerts and notifications, time machine backups and so on). But this is not a problem :slight_smile:

Just curious if someome who has run the script with the DESTROY flag could post output from the following command in PuTTY

swapon -s

There was an issue with the MyBookLive script. When it was run with the destroy flag, it breaks the drives SWAP

You could also SSH in and issue
top

If the swap shows as 0 and the swap used shows as 0 (top left) then we need to fix the issue. With the MBLD the command to fix SWAP may be different

My guess is
mkswap /dev/md2
followed by a reboot should fix this issue but I need someone to verify /dev/md2 is a raid swap

Guide updated

fusecat confirmed that the swap wasn’t working after a DESTROY debrick

He tried my suggested commands and they worked

Thanks again fusecat!

Hi,

I want to install the MBLD OS on a new empty hard drive and I have some basic questions.

  1. Is it ok that my new hard drive is empty and formatted to NTFS?

  2. Do I need SystemRescueCd if I can connect hard drive via SATA to Linux PC?

  3. Can I use steps described in GUIDE 2 to install the OS on this new empty hard drive?

  4. I know that MBLD is working even with one drive connected (tested myself). So should I first install OS only on one drive then connect it to MBLD and switch the unit on? Or should I install OS on both drives then connect them both to MBLD and switch the unit on?

Thanks

Herokolco wrote:

Hi,

I want to install the MBLD OS on a new empty hard drive and I have some basic questions.

  1. Is it ok that my new hard drive is empty and formatted to NTFS?
    The script SHOULD repartition the drive but if you get errors I would delete the NTFS partition so you just have UNALLOCATED space
  1. Do I need SystemRescueCd if I can connect hard drive via SATA to Linux PC?
    No, as long as you know what you are doing with your Linux PC, you can go that route. The commands might differ slightly though.
  1. Can I use steps described in GUIDE 2 to install the OS on this new empty hard drive?
    You can but ONLY if you don’t have any data you need on disk B because the Quick Factory Restore step will wipe the data volume clean.
  1. I know that MBLD is working even with one drive connected (tested myself). So should I first install OS only on one drive then connect it to MBLD and switch the unit on?

If following Guide 1 with a raid data volume I would say that is the way to go as it wil rebuild the data volume

Is there data you want to save on disk b? Is your data volume in RAID or SPAN mode?

 

  1. Or should I install OS on both drives then connect them both to MBLD and switch the unit on?

This is untested by anyone as far as I know and I don’t own a DUO so I can’t test

Thanks

Please keep this thread updated with any progress you make and I will make changes to the guide as needed. You may also want to contact the other posters in this thread via PM for some help as well.

As a last resort, I also have some virgin images of a MBLD for both disk a and b that you could dd copy back to the drives. You would then have to upgrade back up to the current firmware.

i’ve just debrickted MBLD

but swap dont want to work

MyBookLiveDuo:~# mkswap /dev/md2

/dev/md2: No such file or directory

and if

MyBookLiveDuo:~# mkswap /dev/md3

/dev/md3: Device or resource busy

I closely followed the manual

I believe /dev/md3 is your datavolume so don’t try to make a swap there.

I’m guessing you followed guide 2?

1 Like

You may need to create the swap raid array from SSH and reboot

mdadm --create -e 0 --verbose /dev/md2 --level=raid1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3reboot

 After reboot see if you can make swap on /dev/md2 now

mkswap /dev/md2
reboot

 If not what do you see if you type?

mdadm --detail /dev/md2
1 Like

nfodiz wrote:

You may need to create the swap raid array from SSH and reboot

 

mdadm --create -e 0 --verbose /dev/md2 --level=raid1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3reboot

 After reboot see if you can make swap on /dev/md2 now

mkswap /dev/md2
reboot

 If not what do you see if you type?

mdadm --detail /dev/md2

 

Thank you man! I don’t know how to please you. Thanks again for your help!!!

PS yes i followed guide 2

Thank you for answering to my questions.:wink:

I took out and formatted both of my MBLD hard disks to NTFS, so they are perfectly clean now and I don’t want to save any data on disk B. But at the moment I am writing both disks with zeros (full erase) using WD Data Lifeguard utility to have RAW space on them as you suggested. My data volume was in RAID 1 (mirrored) mode, but does it matter now?

I basically want to know if I install MBLD OS on one RAW hard disk and then connect it back to the unit will MBLD work? So when I connect the second disk later should MBLD initialize it automatically? Or do I need to write OS on the both hard disks and only then connect them to MBLD at the same time?

Thank you.

But at the moment I am writing both disks with zeros (full erase) using WD Data Lifeguard utility to have RAW space on them as you suggested. My data volume was in RAID 1 (mirrored) mode, but does it matter now?

No, but you may need to format the drive again and delete all partitions. I should have said unallocated space, my apologies. All you have to do is use disk manager to delete all partitions on the disk and you should be good to go.
I’m not sure how the script would handle RAW space

I basically want to know if I install MBLD OS on one RAW hard disk and then connect it back to the unit will MBLD work?

Not sure on this, but if you try this, please report back your findings

So when I connect the second disk later should MBLD initialize it automatically?

It will if there is an OS on the second drive for sure. I’m not sure if it will initialize a blank hard drive or not, but again if you try this, report back your findings

Or do I need to write OS on the both hard disks and only then connect them to MBLD at the same time?

Yes, this is the route I would go at this point


At this point I am gonna say yes, let’s write the os to both disks following guide 2, then put them back in the enclosure and boot up. Once booted up, do a quick factory restore. Post back once you have completed these steps and tell me if everything is working. If not, we may need to manually create some arrays for your datavolume and swap as shown below…

To create a datavolume array in raid1 (Note you MAY need to do a quick factory restore after this command again)

mdadm --create -e 0 --verbose /dev/md3 --level=raid1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdb4

  OR to create a datavolume array in span mode (Note you MAY need to do a quick factory restore after this command again)

mdadm --create -e 0 --verbose /dev/md3 --level=linear --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdb4

 To create your swap if it is missing

mkswap /dev/md2
reboot

If this command complains that /dev/md2 is missing you will need to create the array manually through SSH

mdadm --create -e 0 --verbose /dev/md2 --level=raid1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3reboot

After the drive has fully rebooted try the following command again

mkswap /dev/md2
reboot

Once the MBLD reboots, SSH back into the drive and check to make sure your swap is active

swapon -s

It should look something like this

Filename Type Size	Used	Priority
/dev/md2 partition	500544	896	-1

 To check the status of your datavolume array

mdadm --detail /dev/md3

widowmaker wrote:



Thank you man! I don’t know how to please you. Thanks again for your help!!!

PS yes i followed guide 2

Thank you for reporting back, it is because of users like you that I am able to update the guide should other users run into similar problems :slight_smile: It’s very hard for me to support this guide without the help of other users because I don’t have a MBLDUO to test on, so I am using my knowledge from the MBL and from serveral users here to help out the best I can.