B3 LED blinking purple, new HDD, not booting

[nick999]

Have recently realized that I can't access my B3 (basically housing my photo database and music files). Found it blinking purple.
Unplugged and restarted it a few times - no change, purple.
Tried to re-install (w7o formatting/partitioning) - no change, purple.
So, assumed the HDD is bricked and removed the original WD 1TB HDD and threw a 2.5" 320GB Toshiba in, just to test the B3, worked all fine after full re-install, formatting, partitioning.
Removed the Toshiba agein and bought a a new HDD, a WD Red 2TB.
Installed it (it's NTSF formatted) and again the B3 is blinking purple.

What can be wrong? Is the B3 itself dead? Or have I done a mistake while installing the new WD 2TB Red?
Any hint is welcome, thx.

[nick999]

update:
have checked both the originally installed WD 1TB as well as the newly installed WD Red 2TB, both are ok. So, something must be wrong with the B3.
Any ideas? Or rather a case for return/repair?

[Gordon]

Installed it (it's NTSF formatted) and again the B3 is blinking purple.

I'm not quite following this part. Do you have a Linux desktop? Otherwise get yourself a live DVD and inspect the disk using parted or cfdisk. Chances are that if the disk was factory preformatted as NTFS it will also contain a hidden service partition that is required for Windows to handle GPT. If that hidden partition is still on there then /dev/sda1 will point to that partition and the B3 will not be able to find the kernel on that partition.

[johannes]

blinking purple means that the boot loader cannot find a disk, or that it does not find anything to boot from that disk. One possibility is bad connection between the disk adn the motherboard, which can occur if you:

1) have an old B3 (purchased before june 2013), where you need a torx screwdriver to remove the disk (on newer versions you only need a philips driver)
2) you yourself installed the disk or had it out for some reason
3) you forgot to install the front spacer (1,5 mm heat pad, which presses the disk backwards into the mobo conenctor)

It might even have worked initially, but perhaps a small bump moved the disk and caused a disconnect.

Just one possibility.

[Edit: You are of course always welcome to send it to us for checkup, under warrnaty]

[nick999]

@johannes
thx for your comments. I have tried to use the B3 with its original WD 1TB, with a brand new WD 2TB Red, with a Toshiba 320GB and finally an used WD 1TB Green.
Except one successful boot with the 320GB the unit's LED simply keeps on blinking for several hours, finally remaining purple (till being unplugged and boxed).
The unit is a preJune 2013, yes.
Have carefully checked the connections multiple times with 4 different HDDs during the last 3 weeks. Am 100% sure all HDDs are working properly, since I have checked them with USB enclosures and another NAS.
Imho the B3 is causing the issue.

Meanwhile I have also sent a support request to support@excito on Sept 1, but haven't received any reaction. So, I haven't got a clue how to proceed.

Frankly, the situation is quite frustrating, am 3 weeks w/o a NAS, have tried all self-supported actions (am an IT intermediate), am stuck w/o a solution and the Excito support team is not responsive at all.

[johannes]

Hi again,

This is strange, we have no open support tickets that fit your description now, and certainly no that has been open for so long. Is it possible that our response is in your SPAM folder?

I also did a ticket search with your email (nicolai@<xyz>.com) but no luck. Did you send from another email?

[Madnick]

Same issue here.
It all started by mysteriously loosing access to internet (LAN was still working).
After reboot the led would not turn from purple to blue anymore.
No access to B3 after reboot either.

So... A brand new WD Red 3TB in...
USB reinstall as adviced...
LED green and clearly some work going on in the new HD...
Resulting in purple blinking LED after some time. Every time!
How nice!

Any suggestions?

[johannes]

@Madnick, this could be a whole other issue, you probably have a B3 too old to support 3TB disks. This results in a successfull install, but hte bootloader does not recognize the disk and hence cannot boot.

Luckily, the fix is quite easy: http://wiki.excito.org/wiki/index.php/U ... _3TB_disks

YOu don't need to reinstall the disk after this fix, it should boot successfully after a power-cycle.

[Madnick]

Well look at that!
I have completely missed that wiki.
Thanks Johannes!

[flimflam]

Ok ashes to my head. It happened same to me. I have upgraded to 3 TB WD Green.

So know how for the next users.

1) After installing new WD I have installed new system....see manual.
2) After one hour purple was still blinking ...
3) So I removed power and upgraded to " reading 3TB disc " like on wiky ( despite the fact B3 was bought in June 2013 )
4) Really it is not needed to reinstall already installed new system. Just restart.
5) Upgraded to 2.6 version ...bingo ! One day to copy from backup in front of me

During upgrade some message appears regarding ... can not connect to server.... but 2.6 is there.