Help Needed: External Drives Not Recognized on ROCK After Power Failure (No Physical Access to NUC GMKtec G5)

Cesar_Mejias · February 4, 2025, 9:57am

Hi everyone,

I need some help recovering access to two external hard drives connected to my ROCK server. After a power failure, Roon no longer recognizes them. Unfortunately, I do not have physical access to the device, so I can only troubleshoot remotely.

System Details

Hardware: GMKtec Mini PC N97 (Intel Alder Lake N97, 12GB DDR5, 256GB SSD)
OS: ROCK (Running on this Windows-based NUC)
Roon Server Version: 2.0 (Build 1497) – Early Access
External Storage: Two hard drives (previously working, now unrecognized)

What I Have Tried So Far

Accessed the ROCK Web UI – the drives are not listed under “Storage.”
Checked Windows File Explorer (\\ROCK\ via SMB) – no access to the drives.
Verified network connectivity – I can ping rock.local and access the web interface.
Restarted ROCK server via Web UI – no change.

What I Can’t Do

I do not have physical access to the NUC, so I can’t unplug/replug the drives or reboot manually.
I can’t connect a monitor/keyboard to check the file system directly.
SSH access is not enabled by default on ROCK.

Questions & Help Needed

Is there any way to check if the drives are mounted remotely from a Windows machine?
Can I force ROCK to re-scan the USB storage without physical access?
Any method to check for disk errors (remotely) and attempt recovery?
Would reinstalling Roon Server help, or is it likely a file system issue?

This issue started immediately after a power failure, so I suspect either the drives were not properly remounted or there is some file system corruption.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help.

This should make it clear that the issue started after the power failure. Let me know if you need any further refinements before posting!

Geoff_Coupe · February 4, 2025, 10:01am

External drives are not listed in the Web UI, so you won’t see them there anyway.

But you are getting access to the ROCK/NUC’s file system, yes?

Cesar_Mejias · February 4, 2025, 10:38am

Yes. I can see the file system, but not the hard drives.

Geoff_Coupe · February 4, 2025, 10:40am

What format was used for the drives? E.g. exFAT, NTFS…

Cesar_Mejias · February 4, 2025, 11:15am

They are both formatted in NTFS, they were both working properly before the unexpected shutdown of the server

Geoff_Coupe · February 4, 2025, 11:18am

That’s probably the cause of the failure then. NTFS is problematic with ROCK; much better to use exFAT. I’m afraid that you will need to have physical access to your system to repair the issue. See:

Cesar_Mejias · February 4, 2025, 11:20am

Additional info:This is the last log

02/04 06:41:53 Info: [1] Starting RoonServer v2.0 (build 1497) earlyaccess on linuxx64
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [1] Local time is 02/04/2025 06:41:53, UTC time is 02/04/2025 06:41:53
02/04 06:41:53 Trace: [1] [roondns] loaded 17 last-known-good entries
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [1] Init DefaultBackingApi: HttpWebRequest
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [1] [easyhttp] default backing API HttpClient -> HttpWebRequest. This may cancel all in progress http requests
02/04 06:41:53 Trace: [1] Checking if we are already running
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [1] get lock file path: /tmp/.rnsems0-
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [1] GetLockFile, fd: 61
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [1] GetLockFile, res: 0
02/04 06:41:53 Trace: [1] Nope, we are the only one running
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [1] Is 64 bit? True
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [1] Command Line Argument: -watchdogport=46407
02/04 06:41:53 Trace: [Worker (1)] [realtime] fetching time from NTP server
02/04 06:41:53 Warn: [Worker (1)] [realtime] failed to get time: Name or service not known
02/04 06:41:53 Warn: [.NET ThreadPool Worker] [orbit] init failed due to Invalid Type: 10, reiniting
02/04 06:41:53 Trace: [1] [ipaddresses] enumerating addresses
02/04 06:41:53 Trace: [1] [ipaddresses]    FOUND   lo 127.0.0.1
02/04 06:41:53 Trace: [1] [ipaddresses]    SKIPPED eth0: no ipv4
02/04 06:41:53 Trace: [1] [ipaddresses]    SKIPPED tailscale0: no ipv4
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [1] [broker] starting 9925a9da-abe1-4d6c-9aa0-ede9eb9f4495
02/04 06:41:53 Trace: [1] [httpcache] loaded 13753 cache entries from /roon/data/RoonServer/Cache/httpcache_2.db, current: 127mb / 128mb
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] add storage location 
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] adding storage location: Internet:Name=Internet Media:Id=e268f098-04c4-4e65-af3f-38ba3c3fcecb
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] media availability: Internet:Name=Internet Media:Id=e268f098-04c4-4e65-af3f-38ba3c3fcecb is online
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] add storage location 
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] adding storage location: MetadataService:Name=Metadata Service:Id=13769258-b70b-4243-b1d6-bd46e8257ba8
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] media availability: MetadataService:Name=Metadata Service:Id=13769258-b70b-4243-b1d6-bd46e8257ba8 is online
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] add storage location 
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] adding storage location: Offline:Name=Offline:Id=f1e4b43f-f643-47ba-b875-fd93b32a6006
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/migration] start, propname: loc_29bdcae6b5fdd66627bfa1f6afceabac
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] Migrating UUID based storage location, id: loc_29bdcae6b5fdd66627bfa1f6afceabac, version: 2
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/migration] start, propname: loc_9a4d7098ff804682bbf7cfb0c270aeb5
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] Migrating UUID based storage location, id: loc_9a4d7098ff804682bbf7cfb0c270aeb5, version: 2
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/migration] start, propname: loc_86aa835aca254207a5d1d9d7b5eec553
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] Migrating UUID based storage location, id: loc_86aa835aca254207a5d1d9d7b5eec553, version: 2
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/migration] start, propname: location_automounts
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] load pre 1.3 automounts, strlist: 
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/directorystoragelocation] initializing FileBrowser.Entry:  Maxtor, Seagate M3 Portable : /Música César, drive availability is: False
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/directorystoragelocation] drive is not available so disposing resources (if they exist): FileBrowser.Entry:  Maxtor, Seagate M3 Portable : /Música César
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] storage location backend (Folder:Name=:Location=FileBrowser.Entry:  Maxtor, Seagate M3 Portable : /Música César:Id=9a4d7098-ff80-4682-bbf7-cfb0c270aeb5) offline reason changed to: DriveNotReady
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/directorystoragelocation] we'd like to keep this volume mounted: mounted:/roon/sys/storage/mounts/Maxtor_Seagate_M3_Portable_NM13AZKM_4A90196990195D2F-p1
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] created enabled location, FileBrowser.Entry:  Maxtor, Seagate M3 Portable : /Música César
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] adding storage location: Folder:Name=:Location=FileBrowser.Entry:  Maxtor, Seagate M3 Portable : /Música César:Id=9a4d7098-ff80-4682-bbf7-cfb0c270aeb5
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/directorystoragelocation] initializing FileBrowser.Entry:  Elements, WD Elements 25A2 : /Cesar, drive availability is: False
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/directorystoragelocation] drive is not available so disposing resources (if they exist): FileBrowser.Entry:  Elements, WD Elements 25A2 : /Cesar
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] storage location backend (Folder:Name=:Location=FileBrowser.Entry:  Elements, WD Elements 25A2 : /Cesar:Id=86aa835a-ca25-4207-a5d1-d9d7b5eec553) offline reason changed to: DriveNotReady
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations/directorystoragelocation] we'd like to keep this volume mounted: mounted:/roon/sys/storage/mounts/Elements_WD_Elements_25A2_57584C314141354459313950_CEBAFD61BAFD468D-p1
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] created enabled location, FileBrowser.Entry:  Elements, WD Elements 25A2 : /Cesar
02/04 06:41:53 Info: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] adding storage location: Folder:Name=:Location=FileBrowser.Entry:  Elements, WD Elements 25A2 : /Cesar:Id=86aa835a-ca25-4207-a5d1-d9d7b5eec553
02/04 06:41:53 Debug: [Broker:Misc] [broker/locations] write pre 1.3 automounts, strlist:

Cesar_Mejias · February 4, 2025, 11:26am

Ok, I wil do that when i get physical access to my server and let you know if it works.
Thanks!

mjw · February 4, 2025, 11:59am

If NTFS isn’t shut down correctly, the filesystem is marked with an unclean filesystem flag. ROCK doesn’t include the tools to peform an integrity check, so it isn’t mounted.

noris · February 4, 2025, 10:20pm

Hi @Cesar_Mejias ,

It doesn’t look like your unit is responding to diagnostic requests at the moment for some reason, but I would concur with @Geoff_Coupe 's post that this is most likely the case:

Do let us know how it goes when you’re able to regain physical access to the unit!

Cesar_Mejias · February 7, 2025, 10:19pm

Solved! It has worked. Now I’ve formatted my hard drive to Exfat in order to avoid the same problem in the future.
Thanks a lot for all your help

connor · February 11, 2025, 12:04am

Hi @Cesar_Mejias,

Glad to hear, please reach out in a new topic thread if anything else comes up!