[epol]

It all started when I tried to change the password and used special characters in the new one (! and $). I could not login with the new password.

So I tried to perform a factory reset. There is more than one reference on how to do it in the user's manual and all of them are somehow different:

page 29
"If this happens, turn off the N299. Then, power on the N299 and immediately press and hold the Reset button on the front of the unit for 10 seconds."

page 30
"In this case, you have to reset the system back to default by the holding down front panel reset button for 5 seconds during boot up process."

page 81
"With the unit powered off, press and hold the reset button. With the reset button held down, power on the system by pressing the power button. You will hear the unit beep once when you turn it on, do not release the reset button until you hear the unit beep again."

- which of the above methods is the right one?
- is there a reset button on the front panel? I only found the green little button next to the LAN interface on the back.
- do I have to be pressing the reset button (front or back?) while powering up or right after?
- will I hear one beep or two?

The N299 seems to only reset to factory defaults only with the disks removed. I can log in to the factory IP (192.168.1.100) with the factory account (admin/admin). So far so good.

But then when I put the hard disks back in and power up, it remembers the changed password and changed IP!!! I can access the web interface at 192.168.0.254 (the new IP) and admin/admin is denied log in. Is the config information stored in the disks? How do I overcome this? What is the right way to do a factory reset with the hard disks in??

I have lost one night's sleep so far trying to resolve this but with no luck. I never managed to do a factory reset with the disks in. I am using a pair of identical 500GB Seagate ST3500320AS (I did check with the compatibility list before buying). The N299 firmware version is 1.00.28

The only thing I can think of doing next is trying to format the hard disks.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Elias