Thecus N299 FAQ

How do I install the N299

Installation of the N299 is pretty straightforward.

Drive installation

Unlike it's bigger brothers, you have to take it apart to insert the drives. That means two screws and slide the lid off, then four screws and carefully lift the cage and backplane board off the motherboard. Once the drives have been slid in and mated with the SATA connectors on the backplane, the holes in the side should line up perfectly with the rails. Use the screws provided in the box. These don't need to be very tight, just firm.

Slide the backplane back into the motherboard carefully, and then re-insert the four screws, taking care not to scratch the motherboard. Replace the lid.

After booting the unit, either use the setup wizard to give it an Ip address or browse into the default IP of 192.169.1.100. It has been observed that the drives may not show up right away. Just leave the box on power for a few minutes, and they will show up. Once they have, you can create the RAID/JBOD config of your choice.

Firmware upload (important)

Once the RAID/JBOD format has finished, it appears that you need to re-apply the unit's firmware. It's unclear why, this isn't necessary on any of the larger units. But until you do it any attempt to enter any of the other config options will be met with an error box to go finish the firmware upload.

So go into the Firmware admin page, upload the f/w you'll find on the CD (which, as of March 2008, is a later version than that on Thecus website - 1.00.26b) and then wait for it to install and reboot. After this, the remainder of the config options are active and your NAS is ready to use.