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Home » Blog » Hardware » Upgrading a legacy ReadyNAS from RAIDiator 4.2.x to 6.2.x

Upgrading a legacy ReadyNAS from RAIDiator 4.2.x to 6.2.x

25/06/2015 by Myles Gray 82 Comments

My old ReadyNAS was in need of an update and figured i’d look back into upgrading to OS 6.2.x again, this used to be quite an involved manual process requiring you to access the VGA header on the motherboard.

As it turns out Netgear have realised people would get round this anyway and have provided an (unsupported) upgrade path.

This will allow us to use a number of features not available on our current firmware (for me I have a ReadyNAS Ultra 6):

  • AD Authentication
  • NFS v4
  • Native link bonding (without 3rd party plugin)
  • SSH access (without 3rd party plugin)
  • New plugin catalogue
  • A shiny new GUI :)

N.B: This operation will factory reset your NAS including all shares, take a backup first!

http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=161&t=78265

So, first things first, download R4toR6_Prep_Addon.bin and R4toR6_latest-beta.bin from the above link.

Log into your ReadyNAS admin interface and navigate to Add-ons -> Add New, Select the R4toR6_Prep_Addon.bin extension we downloaded earlier and click Upload and verify image...:

ReadyNAS Add-On Installation Screen

If the installation prep file was successfully uploaded and verified you will see the below:

ReadyNAS RAIDiator 4.2.x to 6.2.x upgrade

Click Install to commit to the OS.

Next up we need to upload the OS R4toR6_latest-beta.bin itself via System > Update > Local:

ReadyNAS Firmware Upgrade to 6.2.x

After the firmware has been uploaded and verified click Perform System Update and reboot when prompted:

YOLO

Now we pray to the computing deities and hope that the completely unsupported software upgrade we did on our NAS has not fudged the entire box…

As the box gets reset to factory defaults it will now have a DHCP address – connect to this new address, login with admin and password and set it back up with bonding, AD auth, set up some shares and private Time Machine, etc:

Netgear OS 6.2.x

I installed Pydio on mine, it’s an awesome cloud file sync platform that you forward through your firewall (enable IPS on your firewall now if you have it!).

So there it is, nice and easy, updated to the latest RAIDiator.

Worth holding your breath during the upgrade for? I think so…

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Filed Under: Hardware, Just For Fun Tagged With: netgear, RAIDiator, readynas

About Myles Gray

Hi! I'm Myles, and I'm a Dev Advocate at VMware. Focused primarily on content generation, product enablement and feedback from customers and field to engineering.

Comments

  1. Stephen Monro says

    05/11/2015 at 00:17

    Have you had any issues since doing this? Did you have to copy all your data back to your NAS and were there any performance issues afterwards?
    Cheers,
    Steve

    Reply
    • Myles Gray says

      05/11/2015 at 22:45

      Steve, no performance issues to report, using it as a host for 30 VMs (only lab) at the moment, little latency, nothing crazy though, for normal day to day, should be fine.
      Myles

      Reply
      • Stephen Monro says

        05/11/2015 at 23:49

        Fantastic. I may get around to doing it one day then. Cheers.

        Reply
  2. Don says

    20/05/2016 at 18:57

    I’ve tried this on my Ultra 2 Plus and it works, but I have to manually install app (vice using the graphic interface) Did you have the same problem? Should I reinstall or have I missed a setting?

    Reply
    • Myles Gray says

      21/05/2016 at 08:35

      No I just used the UI and it worked

      Reply
      • Don says

        23/05/2016 at 19:18

        I performed the factory reset and rebooted the box. The Ultra 2 Plus now performs as you described. All functions in the GUI work as if the unit was sold with the 6.5 (Current) IOS. Thank you for the follow up.

        Reply
  3. Yann K. says

    12/06/2016 at 11:06

    Hi guys,

    Thanks Myles for leaving your experiments here. I have an old Ultra2 with an old Debian 4.x something.
    My disks are full of 20+ years of emails and pictures. I’m fed up with the old Debian. I wanted to change the release. I didn’t find a clear statement of what needed to be saved ? On my older ReadyNAS Duo, there were no extra disk for the system. Same here ? Cheers. Yann

    Reply
    • Myles Gray says

      12/06/2016 at 11:31

      Hi Yann, The upgrade will wipe everything you’d need to backup or migrate all data off. M

      Reply
      • Lee says

        12/06/2017 at 05:16

        Going to try this this weekend , my question where or what would be the best place to save 2tb of info to

        Reply
  4. Yves says

    22/09/2016 at 14:11

    Hi!

    Thanks for your article, did you upgrade to the latest updates (like 6.5.2) since then without problem?

    Cheers, Yves

    Reply
    • Myles Gray says

      22/09/2016 at 15:17

      Yep and they worked seamlessly.

      Reply
      • Yves says

        22/09/2016 at 16:02

        Glad to read that.

        Unfortunately I just tried upgrading my ReadyNas Ultra 2 from 4.2.30 to OS6 following your instructions but it fails on step 1, saying it ‘couldn’t extract files properly’ from the “R4toR6_Prep_Addon.bin”…

        Njo chance here

        Reply
        • Yves says

          22/09/2016 at 17:13

          UPDATE: I did a Factory Reset after a backup, and now it’s upgrading to OS6. Yipee!

          Thank you very much for this article!

          Reply
          • Myles Gray says

            22/09/2016 at 17:14

            Not a problem Yves!

            Reply
  5. Ricardo Arredondo says

    25/09/2016 at 10:09

    Work was getting rid of a ReadyNAS 2100 v2 decided it would behouve me to use this since my FreeNAS box was acting bonkers. Did the upgrade as explained and its working fine for me.

    Reply
  6. Ahmet Özcan says

    10/10/2016 at 06:47

    Thank you very much, a great job.
    I did the update on my ReadyNAS 2100. Every thing work fine, so it seems…

    Two things:
    1. The USB devices will not get mounted. Any advise?
    2. Movies are no longer played smoothly

    Reply
  7. german811 says

    24/11/2016 at 02:43

    Hello, you think it will work on my readynas Ultra 4 with 4.2.30?? i have 4 disks of 2tb each.
    Regards

    Reply
    • Myles Gray says

      24/11/2016 at 20:20

      Probably just expect it to wipe the box

      Reply
  8. nvgoldendog says

    28/01/2017 at 09:42

    Do you know if this firmware will work on the original Silver color ReadyNAS NV+ RND4425-100NAS? I was reading somewhere that this model has a Sparc processor, but maybe the firmware you are talking about is for a Sparc processor? Just want to make sure before I brick my old ReadyNAS NV+.

    Reply
    • Myles Gray says

      28/01/2017 at 09:51

      I have it installed on my Ultra 6, which uses an atom x86 proc, would be surprised if it worked on SPARC

      Reply
  9. Frank Hall says

    07/02/2017 at 01:55

    Thank you!!!!!!

    Reply
  10. Vasanth says

    29/03/2017 at 00:02

    Do we have similar file for RND4000v2 since this works only for x86 architecture.

    Reply
  11. Petter Straumsheim says

    08/06/2017 at 19:36

    Will this work on the ReadyNAS NVX RNDX4210?

    Reply
    • Myles Gray says

      08/06/2017 at 20:09

      Should work on any ReadyNAS with an x86 CPU

      Reply
      • Petter Straumsheim says

        25/06/2017 at 02:22

        Is there anyway you could send me the files i need? I cant seem to find them anymore since the netgear site redirects me to they’re homepage.

        Reply
      • Petter Straumsheim says

        25/06/2017 at 02:30

        Or i found them, but this seem to appear..
        https://i.gyazo.com/ea7f3e0e4bedb571422c4073c89c30fd.png

        Reply
    • Andrew says

      18/04/2019 at 07:03

      The NVX has a 32-bit processor but you need a CPU with 64 bit support for ReadyNAS OS 6 so sadly we cannot uprade our NAS :(

      Reply
  12. Sandshark says

    08/07/2017 at 21:28

    ReadyNASOS6.x is 64 bit and the NVX and 2100V1 have 32-bit X86 processors and cannot be upgraded. All the information and files needed are located on the Netgear ReadyNAS forum. I’m running OS6.7.5 on several legacy NASes without a hitch. There is no chance it will ever be available for the NV or Duo (SPARC or ARM versions).

    Reply
  13. Jack says

    29/07/2017 at 12:34

    This was really what i needed to refresh an old NAS. I was looking for a way to update to maybe a 3rd party firmware and your blogpost came up. In the end i followed this guide:
    http://netgear.nas-central.org/wiki/OS6_on_Legacy_x86

    But it was your blogpost that got me onto the update. So thanks very much!

    Reply
  14. Nis says

    06/09/2017 at 19:11

    Where has the download-link gone ??

    Reply
  15. Arie says

    03/10/2017 at 18:32

    Hello everyone,

    has anyone tried this upgrade on RND2210-100?

    Thank you,

    Reply
  16. Groodles says

    05/12/2017 at 13:09

    I have encountered the same USB mounting issue. USB HDD are detected by the OS but are not auto-mounted and are therefore not visible (or selectable) in Frontview.

    Reply
  17. vIII says

    08/03/2018 at 19:48

    just ran my upgrade – 4.2.31 > 6.9.3
    went fairly smoothly.
    backed up – ~4TB wasn’t fast but have other NAS Storage so got that done.

    once prep and upgrade were performed still had to do manual factory restore – but all working currently

    just removed default Raid-X array and recreated my R10 Array and back up and going – slow sync but that is expected anyway.

    Currently migrating data back…

    only issue I have is how I migrate back my iscsi lun that I backed up – not sure how to recreate that but not that major as the data wasn’t in use anyway!

    Still much happier to have AD Integration on my shares now!!!

    Much happier with this unit at the moment – giving it new life!

    Reply
    • shynel prasad says

      09/06/2018 at 03:07

      HI , sorry I guess I arrived to the party bit late.Got hold an a Netgear ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition and its currently running version 4.2.9, I wish to update using above info but has not worked so far..

      1st of , according to info above I should be able see addon tab via GUI , I cant see , rather just see it system >Firmware update

      I dont need to backup any data on this , so I did perform a factory default , after which i tried to go to system>firmware update and point to PREP4TOR6_0.1-x86.bin file and click on update and verify . after few short minutes it comes back and says invalid file format. I also tried the same for R4toR6_6.3.5.bin to no success.

      I also got similar files from this link but ended up with same result
      http://netgear.nas-central.org/wiki/OS6_on_Legacy_x86

      Is there anyone out there that can be of assistance please , would really appriciate it

      Reply
    • Daniel says

      10/08/2018 at 16:53

      Does anyone still have the files for this upgrade? They are no longer accessible from the netgear community site. I am trying to do the upgrade and can not get the files.

      Reply
      • Richard Suttill says

        14/08/2018 at 06:20

        Hi Daniel I also cannot find the files, have you had any luck yet as I would appreciate a copy of them too?

        Reply
        • Daniel says

          14/08/2018 at 14:12

          Richard I did get them.
          https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FlKNZ1qgMo33Q2Uix2cQLj2ihCpKKF9y

          I will leave them there for people who need them.

          Reply
          • Gabe says

            10/10/2018 at 23:29

            Thanks a ton for the files, I was looking all over for them. :)

            Reply
          • Wilfredo Perdomo says

            22/11/2018 at 06:28

            Thank you very much, these files can not be found around, Netgear removed them from their webpage same as the original article.

            Regards,

            Wilfredo

            Reply
          • Brian Miles says

            05/04/2019 at 15:41

            Thank you Thank you!

            Reply
          • Mira says

            24/11/2019 at 19:12

            Hello i search for this prepr4tor6_0.1-arm.bin Anyone have it? is it possible to share it?

            Reply
  18. !TiT says

    26/09/2018 at 07:45

    Hi,
    did anyone try to update ReadyNas Ultra 2 to 6.9.4. Currently my device run on 6.9.2 and I wonder if update to x.x.4 can cause any problems.

    Reply
    • Raf says

      23/10/2018 at 10:54

      Don’t do it ! it crashes my NAS ! Now i’m trying to backup my datas manually. F—ING HELL !

      Reply
      • Rainer Brand says

        08/11/2018 at 11:16

        Same here! I backed up my data but after the update i cant get it back to work. Tried Factory Reset and OS Reinstall, but nothing happens.

        Reply
  19. Jeff says

    15/11/2018 at 15:12

    Hello Myles,

    Thank you for your great tutorial, am successfully migrated to OS 6 :)
    Readynas Ultra 6 4.2.24 to OS6 6.9.4

    Best regards,
    Jeff

    Reply
    • Wilfredo Perdomo says

      22/11/2018 at 06:45

      I confirm that 6.9.4 is working good in a Readynas Ultra 2 after a fresh upgrade from os4 to 6.9.3 and a self update.

      Cheers!

      Reply
  20. Walter Cox says

    30/03/2019 at 12:33

    Just wanted to say thanks updated Ultra2 without errors!

    Reply
  21. Brian Miles says

    05/04/2019 at 15:38

    Is it possible for you to send links not in the netgear community for these 2 files? The links are dead, Netgear removed them from their site obviously to stop us from upgrading our Readynas devices.
    Thanks.
    Brian

    Reply
    • Brian Miles says

      05/04/2019 at 16:22

      Not needed thanks to Daniel! You the man! I will share on torrent as well cause it was damn hard to find!
      Updated my Pro4 and it is running great! Now I can reload Plex and all my computers will be backed up now. Awesomesauce!

      Thanks again for all who posted here, you guys rock!
      Brian

      Reply
      • Daniel says

        06/04/2019 at 02:00

        Glad I was able to help. Took me a week to find them when I was trying to do this and it was only someone on this forums kindness that saved me, so pass it on.

        Reply
        • Tobias says

          07/06/2019 at 15:40

          Hi Daniel, could you email me the files as well? Thanks in advanced, Tobias

          Reply
          • Daniel says

            07/06/2019 at 18:14

            These are still hosted here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KMejl_hAGJEanRFuOwUBg_2Kk0wnxP91?usp=sharing

            Reply
      • Tobias says

        07/06/2019 at 15:42

        Hi Brian, Where can I find the files? Did you share an torrent? Thanks, Tobias

        Reply
        • Daniel says

          07/06/2019 at 18:15

          These are still hosted here:
          https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KMejl_hAGJEanRFuOwUBg_2Kk0wnxP91?usp=sharing

          Reply
          • Wai-Man Wan (@WMW888) says

            09/11/2019 at 09:12

            Thank you!

            Reply
  22. Marco says

    20/06/2019 at 14:37

    It is available for readynas duo v1 (RND2000v1) version 4.1.16?

    Reply
    • marcocontardoNarco says

      02/07/2019 at 16:38

      Ok, no, thx

      Reply
  23. Daniel says

    06/08/2019 at 16:07

    Hi

    Just want to say thanks for the info, your guide worked like a charm for me. My 7 year old Ultra 2 is up’n running 6.9.3.

    A question, I got an automatic pop-up asking if I wanted to update to 6.10.something. Is this something recommended or should I just stick with the current version?

    Best regards, Daniel

    Reply
    • Hoofdcoach says

      25/03/2020 at 17:19

      Worked on my end with a ReadyNas Ultra 2

      Reply
    • P says

      20/05/2020 at 07:26

      I can confirm its working, upgraded 6.9.3 to 6.9.6

      Reply
  24. Mark the IT Guy says

    01/09/2019 at 13:57

    I’ve tried this twice now on my ReadyNAS NVX Business Edition.
    Everything works until it reboots. Then I just get the dreaded Booting…. and stuck.
    Had to perform a USB Recovery. Found that nothing had been lost from the disk partitions.
    On second attempt entered boot menu and used the Factory Default option.
    Still stuck at Booting… after 1 hour. Time to perform USB Recovery again.

    After bit of research found that NVX and 2100v1 are not supported.

    Reply
  25. Steve Snipes says

    12/11/2019 at 01:45

    Will this work on an NVX running RAIDiator 4.2.31

    Reply
  26. DrawsACircle says

    18/11/2019 at 22:42

    Just updated my ReadyNas Ultra 2 from 4.2.31 to 6.9.5 :-)

    Reply
  27. DrawsACircle says

    23/11/2019 at 13:35

    I just upgraded my Ultra 2 to OS 6.9.5 – no problems :-)

    Reply
  28. Mira says

    24/11/2019 at 19:20

    Hello i search for this prepr4tor6_0.1-arm.bin Anyone have it? is it possible to share it?

    Reply
    • Mangrove says

      18/01/2021 at 22:46

      There is no ARM version of this. It’s Intel only, and x64 only at that — older 32-bit devices are not supported even if they are Intel.

      Reply
  29. murkfeitsma says

    06/12/2019 at 09:12

    I did this quite a while ago and was very happy with it.
    Now my system shut down after a crashed disk and wont boot again. Cant acces the boot menu either.
    Any idea how to recover it?

    Reply
  30. Lyubomir Krastanov says

    08/01/2020 at 15:30

    try to find way to upgrade my old readynas duo v1 rnd2000 from 4.1.x any chance

    Reply
    • Mangrove says

      18/01/2021 at 22:42

      No, it’s a very underpowered SPARC based device, which also doesn’t support larger HDDs than 2TB.

      Reply
  31. Frank Becker says

    11/01/2020 at 18:13

    Thanks, I also upgraded the BIOS as explained here: https://www.admin-enclave.com/en/articles/linux/484-upgrade-the-bios-from-an-readynas-device.html while I performed the upgrade :D

    Reply
  32. Hoofdcoach says

    25/03/2020 at 17:09

    Just upgraded my ReadyNas Ultra 2. Worked as described. Took some time to boot, but as long as the powerled is blinking it’s probably doing something, Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  33. P says

    29/04/2020 at 11:28

    Hi,

    is it safe to upgrade ReadyNas Ultra 2 from 6.9.3 to 6.9.6 ?
    Can someone please confirm if its working?

    Reply
  34. Alexei Jolkin says

    30/04/2020 at 22:06

    Great write up, thanks for sharing! However, there is one fundamental thing you may need to add to the very beginning of the process:
    While you are still on 4.2.x, before going any further, check the BIOS version of your devise.
    This info is available if download Log files in ZIP format. Inside the ZIP archive there is a file bios_ver.log
    Compare the current BIOS date of your unit with the latest version available for your unit.
    For example, the latest available BIOS for RNU 4 is dated 08.23.2011
    If the current BIOS version of your unit is older that the available, you may want to update the BIOS while still on 4.2.x, it is A LOT EASIER than fiddle with the SSH in OS6.
    Best whishes!

    Reply
  35. Jamie Campbell says

    02/09/2020 at 15:58

    That worked beautifully on my ReadyNAS Ultra 2. The files on the Netgear site have moved to https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyNAS-Storage-Apps-Current/ReadyNAS-OS-6-9-3-Run-on-existing-x86-4-2-notsupported/m-p/905258?_ga=2.76499029.1562795803.1599055477-531921868.1597505483#M11113

    The filenames have changed to R4toR6.9.5.bin and PREP4TOR6_0.1-x86.bin

    Now running 6.10.3 and the iscsi settings all work wonderfully on RAID 0 for performance backup only, after the unit is 10 years old and only cost me about $40!!!!

    Reply
  36. nick CASAGRANDE says

    12/09/2020 at 03:43

    after the install of v6, can it be upgraded to the latest FW? really need to get my readynas pro 6 to v6 so i can disable smbv1 ty!

    Reply
    • macartain says

      26/09/2020 at 14:38

      any joy wih this, nick? am thinking about acquring an old Pro 6 …

      Reply
      • Mangrove says

        18/01/2021 at 22:44

        There will be no problem upgrading versions afterwards.
        However, I would recommend not running OS6 — the device behaves very badly when filled up (BTRFS issue). I tried running OS6 on my Ultra4 for a couple of years but the bizarre bugs, lousy performance and space waste by BTRFS made me wipe the device and go back to OS4.

        Reply
  37. Daniele says

    19/11/2020 at 16:03

    You are a blessing! Thank you very much man!

    Reply
  38. Michael says

    10/12/2020 at 19:34

    MYLES, Thank you very much!

    Reply
  39. endor says

    30/12/2020 at 16:52

    It worked, great guide and thanks to the active sharing people who left comments with links to the files.
    I updated bios on my ultra 2 and then the update to v6, auto update to latest version and now good to go.

    Reply
  40. MatthiasR says

    08/01/2021 at 17:35

    Thanks for the guide.
    Upgraded my ReadyNASUltra2 to 6.9.5 and then automatically to 6.10.4 without any errors.
    Now access to the box using SMB is working again (as old 4.x only used SMB1 and newer Windows only support newer SMB-versions).

    Reply
    • Mangrove says

      18/01/2021 at 22:58

      You can activate SMBv1 in Windows, it’s in Control panel/Programs/Turn Windows features on or off.

      Reply

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Myles Gray

Hi! I'm Myles, and I'm a Dev Advocate at VMware. Focused primarily on content generation, product enablement and feedback from customers and field to engineering. Read More…

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