Buffalo Forums
Products => Storage => : pelicanmedia February 23, 2015, 04:45:54 AM
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Hi,
My LinkStation has just decided that there is a new firmware update. Currently running 1.31-0.92 but apparently now there is a 1.34-0.95 update (skipping the 1.32 and 1.33 versions).
I have tried from the web gui, that looks as if it runs through the process of downloading and installing. But then just goes back to the homepage saying still running 1.31-0.92. Even after a reboot.
Also tried the Mac and Windows LSUpdater but keeping getting a failure message 'Partition not found. Aborting firmware update'.
I have seen on a few other posts about removing drives and formatting them ? That will not be possible in my case. Please can you tell me what I need to do to upgrade the firmware without removing and/or formatting drives.
Thank you.
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If you get 'Partition not found. Aborting firmware update', you will have to format them. Sorry, you can do the force update steps and set "noformatting = 0" to = 1 and this will format the whole unit and drives. Best bet. back up your data and proceed.
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I tried to update my LS421DE as well...to v1.89.
I get the UI that shows me the technical information but when I click the UPDATE button it attempts the update then says it cannot find a Linkstation attached.
How can it NOT find a Linkstation attached when it read the IP and Subnet information directly from the Linkstation?
I have screen shots but cannot figure how to attaché them to this post.
Regards!
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The latest FW version for the LS421 is version 1.80 and that was just posted today. Where did you get a 1.89 version?
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Probably hit the 8 and 9 together.
Regards!
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Sounds like a network problem. Is it possible you may have something with duplicate IP addresses on your network?
Try connecting the LinkStation directly to the computer and assigning both of them a static IP and see if that works.
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OK Tex, I'll give that a shot and get back to you with the results.
Regards!
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@joma90, thanks for the reply.
I managed to format the drives, difficult as this was THE backup device. FAILED.
Tried with the "noformatting = 0". FAILED.
So I am now waiting the 700+ minutes while the unit is reset back to factory settings, and I will try again then.
For the record, this has to be the most un-user/admin friendly, bodged, and untidy OS I have ever seen on a NAS.
Being as big a company as Buffalo are, they should spend more time making it user/admin friendly and easily updatable. Especially for the commercial environment, not everyone can just format drives to update firmware.
Will NOT be buying any more Buffalo products. Only have this one as I inherited it from a previous engineer.
And the verification questions to reply to my own post ?? Stupid !
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Can't provide much assistance but I had had a similar situation to you with a LS421DE and now it's totally unusable, so interested to hear if you manage to salvage yours...be careful though! ;)
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Hi @cellardoor,
Well I finally got there !
After saying the estimated time was going to be 700+ minutes. Over 1000 minutes elapsed, with still 700+ minutes to go. I think someone was using the same time calculations as Microsoft ! Cancelled.
As everyone has been saying to format the drives I decided to try that. BUT, with a separate drive. Following these steps...
- Powered down the LinkStation
- Removed both drives
- Installed, temporarily, a 30GB SSD
- Used the LSUpdater on a Windows PC. Changing the flag 'NoFormatting = 1' to 'NoFormatting = 0' in LSUpdater.ini. (NOT as @joma90 says. 1 = yes. 0 = no. So 'NoFormatting = 1' = No Formatting & 'NoFormatting = 0' = Formatting)
- This then went through the process of formatting the drive. Didn't take long as it was only a small drive and an SSD
- Installed Version 1.80-0.08 without issue
BUT !!!
Buffalo seem to think its a good idea to install the firmware onto the drive(s)! As when I reinstalled the original 2 x 4TB drives the firmware returned to the Version 1.31-0.92. What genius though that would be good !?
Back to drawing board. Tried again with LSUpdater.exe with the = 0 flag. And even running as Administrator (just in case). FAILED.
So, being a bad admin I decided to wipe my backups and start over. But it is no good just formatting the drives. They have to be unpartitioned.
- Booted up an old PC using a KNOPPIX live CD with drives connected
- using GPARTED, wiped all the partitions from the drives. So they both showed drive space as 'unallocated'. (This also removes the formatting section from LSUpdater)
- Powered down PC and removed drives
- Reinstalled drives back into LinkStation enclosure
- Powered back up
- Used LSUpdater with 'NoFormatting = 1'
- Installed Version 1.80-0.08
- Rebooted, again just to make sure
- Re-set up LinkStation with users/groups/folders. Again !
- Re-mapped drives on workstations
I now have an updated LinkStation. And a full back up, phew!
This will definitely be the LAST Buffalo NAS enclosure I purchase. And will NOT be recommending them to ANYONE !
https://www.synology.com (https://www.synology.com) for me !
Out.
Oh, not yet. Verification... >:(
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@pelicanmedia
Glad to hear you got it working and thanks for taking the time to come back and post about it. Unfortunately I don't think it helps me as I tried the two unpartioned disks method but the NAS doesn't boot. I think I've somehow stuffed it's chip-based firmware and as it doesn't support TFTP I dont think there's a way back from that other than extracting the sand from the circuit board to use for my new driveway.
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Your'e welcome.
Ah that does not sound good !
And I wouldn't trust these to be stable enough as a door stop, let alone as part of a driveway ! ;)
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@pelicanmedia
My bad lol I haven't done the noformatting in forever. I would assume 0= false and 1=true, like in programming, wait... never mind -_- I see what I did, double negative in my head. O well at least you got it fix and caught my mistake. :P I'm only human,