Factory Reset Questions

[Psychlone]

Hi there, new Buffalo user, local field tech for a computer repair business.

I have a customer that has an LS420D set up in a RAID1 with two 2TB drives of which one has failed.  I used Navigator 2.91 and try to get to the online settings panel but it simply won't allow it.  NASNav sees the unit and has an ip address for it, but the NAS itself doesn't show up in the box for me to right-click on to get to the actual online settings panel.

If I boot up with JUST the original good drive in, it takes about 15 minutes with white flashing power, then it turns red and blinks 7 times repeatedly.
If I boot up with JUST the failing drive in, it takes about 15 minutes with white flashing power, then it turns amber and flashes 1 long, 6 short along with Drive 1 light turning red.
If I boot up with both the known good drive and the new replacement drive in, it's 15 minutes of white flashing power followed by 7 red blinks repeatedly.
If I try to boot up in EM mode, it simply won't do it at all... just sits on white flashing power forever.
If I try to boot up with both original drives (the good AND the failed drive, just as it was when I walked into the job), it's 15 minutes of white flashing power followed by amber and then drive 1 is red.

In ANY combination, the unit does not show up in NAS NAvigator2 other than it's ip specs, firmware version and it's name down below at the bottom of the navigator window.

So what are my avenues of recovery here? 
Drive 2 is supposedly known-good, drive 1 is in failing condition.  The RAID array is obviously degraded, but I can't get anywhere without the online settings panel to do anything about it.
FWIW, I've already ordered a brand-new 500 series LS with two 4TB drives, but this company I'm working for has 1.5TB of data that they'd rather not lose.  They DO have a backup but it's about a week old, and in the print media business, a week is hundreds of advertisements, articles and such.

So can I reset this LS420D to factory condition without losing data in an attempt to gain access to the online control panel?  And if so, HOW?
If no, then would it be possible to put the known-good 2tb drive in the new LS520DN0402, rebuild the array using one of the new 4TB drives and then swap out the 2TB drive with the other new 4TB drive and have it re-mirror to the larger capacity drive?

How is using a Buffalo LinkStation easier or more efficient than using a hardware RAID card in a dedicated computer where RAID tools (RAID partition repair, RAID Diagnostic Toolkit, etc.) can be utilized inside the Windows environment for recovery purposes??

Just looking for some help here, I'm at my wit's end with this 15 minute reboot to get nowhere.

Thanks in advance!!

[cwj73]

Hey, it sounds bricked!

Here's what I did when my Linkstation LS-WXL-175 bricked. I didn't receive much help from this forum, but I hope this link might give you an idea how to get the web interface control panel up. Unfortunately, you will loose all the data using this method, but if you've got a couple of spare hard drives, it will at least get the control panel up an running and you can swap out the drives once you've got that far

http://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php?topic=24587.msg87935#msg87935

[MiG174]

Turn off the device
Remove the corrupted disk
Turn on the device with one working disk
Wait when the red signal starts flashing amber
Turn off the device
(Insert a new cleaned disk)
Turn on the device
Settings should be available.

[Psychlone]

This unit ONLY flashes red 7 times no matter what now.  Damaged drive in, good drive in, both drives in, brand new drives in, no drives in... no EM boot either, it's truly bricked.

So how do I find what TFTP image I need?  I found the download link to lots of different TFTP images, but they're not labeled like the unit which is an LS420D0402.

I'm going to try to follow your advice cwj73 - I very much appreciate that you even responded.  I'm now wondering why I purchased a Buffalo unit at all when Synology is cheaper and appears to have better customer support.

[MiG174]

http://anp.synology.me/ls420d/