TS-673A + TR-004U: Folder becomes unreadable (can't create files, data vanished)

English Storage
1

Hello community,

I have a TS-673A with a TR-004U-N483 (FW 1.2.0) connected via USB. The TR-004U runs in software-controlled RAID 5 mode (administered by the NAS), with 4×10 TB HDDs (WD Red Plus) and one Thick Volume (26.86 TB), encrypted with AES 256. System is running QTS QTS 5.2.3.3006.

Setup:

  • Volume: archive-10
  • Folder structure:
    /share/archive-10/04_Archived/ with subfolders: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
  • Each subfolder contained approx. 3,000–15,000 JSON files (100–500 kB each)

What happened:

  • Yesterday I copied 15,000 ZIP files (~250 MB each) into the 2024 folder (approx. 4 TB total).
  • Today I noticed:
    • Folders 2023 and 2025 are suddenly empty.
    • I cannot create new files in those folders (touch via SSH returns “Input/output error”).
    • Other folders (2022, 2024) are still writable.
  • I rebooted the NAS and TR-004U yesterday before copying the data, but I didn’t checked all folders afterwards.

Diagnostics:

  • No warnings/errors in QTS GUI.
  • RAID status: :white_check_mark: Healthy
  • SMART status: :white_check_mark: All disks green
  • However, when I try to create a file:
# touch /share/archive-10/04_Archived/2025/test.txt
touch: cannot touch 'test.txt': Input/output error

Additional note:

A few weeks ago I lost the entire file system on the same setup (same hardware, also with TR-004U). At the time I thought it was just a faulty initial setup and re-created everything from scratch. But now, with a second major issue in such a short time, I’m starting to seriously doubt the reliability of this setup.

Any ideas or similar experiences?
I would be grateful for suggestions on:

  • How to further investigate what’s going on
  • Whether this could be a USB/TR-004U issue or something else
  • How to create a reliable setup

Thanks in advance!

2

Best to open a ticket, so QNAP can investigate. I cannot see why this would happen, based on the the described setup.

3

I’ll try that, thanks!

4

do you use 3rd party memory :grimacing: :grin:

5

As the TR00x units have their own RAID chip (no matter if software or hardware controlled) bad NAS RAM should not kill your data on the external DAS.

6

I have seen many weird issues from bad ram, so I would not rule it out.

7

Yes, I do :see_no_evil:

8

Just an update: One day later, the data was magically back - but the volume in read-only mode due to file system problems. I found this warning in the logs:

Warnung 2025-04-04 03:04:17 --- --- localhost --- Storage & Snapshots Volume [Storage & Snapshots] Set volume "ABC" to read-only. Storage pool "5" is full. Ensure the pool has 32.00 GB of free space.

This might be the problem. When I created the volume, I set the volume size to “Max.”. Instead of that I should have kept some GB for meta data. (I don’t ask why there is a button “Max.” when it’s risky to use it…) However, I will set it up again.

And yes, I do use 3rd party RAM. I never hat problems on my TS-673 or TS-673A, but I had several times problems with a TR-004U :thinking:

9

blessed who belive

The TR-004U runs in software-controlled RAID 5 mode

use memtest for 3 party memory

10

What are you trying to say here ?

11

I used the three DIP switches to set the TR-004U into this mode (3x ON):

Software Ctrl Mode
Use this mode to control the RAID configuration from your NAS or computer.

12

The internal operation of the DAS is the same no matter if hardware or software set.

13

Do you know this

When its parent storage pool is full (that is, when the storage pool has less than 16 GB unallocated space)