You can press the switch while the unit has been running for a while, it doesn’t have to be while it’s powering on (but if it works, it works!).

If a drive fails best would be to not move drives around and replace the failed drive with a new drive in the same slot. With dedicated RAID controllers there is some information about the RAID stored on the disc, so in those scenarios it’s always best to wipe the disc with something like seatools or similar if you intend to try reinsert it. Again with the RAID implementation on the Nexstar, it’s hard to say what applies, so rather play it safe. A brand new unformatted drive you can just stick in as is.

I originally turned the unit on, pressed the reset switch, held it for a while, then turned it off. I didn’t realize you meant to hold the switch WHILE TURNING THE UNIT ON. That isn’t what I understood from the various comments I read.

It now appears to be working. Steelvine is currently reporting it as Safe rebuilding (83%). Woohoo! Thanks so much.

I do have another somewhat dumb question however: If a drive fails, do you have to put the good drive in a specific slot? For instance, if I replaced one of the drives, would the unit know to mirror the drive with data and not the newly reformatted fresh one? Do you have to format the replacement drive outside the unit before you could install it?

Once again, thanks.

I would double check the dip switches and make sure you are pressing it while the unit is powered on. Only other thought is that those drives have 4k sectors, might be that the RAID on the device doesn’t understand 4k sectors, but that’s a guess on my part. Perhaps Vantec can help you out?

Not sure if anybody still is around, but I’m having a heck of a time trying to get my NST-400MX-SR to work in RAID 1.

I installed 2 drives (Seagate ST2000DL003) after setting the dip switches, pressed the reset all as instructed in the proper order. Win7 will only read them as separate drives. Windows let me format them individually, I disconnected the usb cable and it appeared that the raid was being built. However, after 48 hours of both LEDs being on and never blinking, I reattached the cable and windows still sees 2 drives.

Took the drives out and tried it again. Nothing. Installed the Steelvine software and it shows them as JBOD policy.

Any advice? Is my unit defective? Thanks for any input.

What enclosure model do you have and what firmware version did you use?

Gone for good?

Thanks!

Thanks!

-Firmware Upgrade Instructions-

Model: NST-400MX-SR ONLY

1. Install SteelVine Manager found within the file “57xxSteelVine_V5.1.24B.zip”.

2. Refer to page 78 of the “Sil57XX_Users_Guide_Rev_1.0.pdf” for how to upgrade the firmware.

3. For the step asking you to choose the firmware image file, choose “SiI5744_11596.bin”.

I just upgraded it myself and I now can see 4TB JBOD (2x 2TB). Vantec certainly does not make it easy. Why they don’t put these on their website is beyond me.