I wanted to thank the "support chat" person and the people I have been emailing back and forth for their attempts to support me in making my experience with a product failure a satisfactory one. However, they have been unsuccessful. I am grateful for having purchased a Buffalo LS-QV8.0TL/R5 NAS back in November of 2012, and that with the recent failure of drive 1, my data is preserved on the remaining 3 drives. However, the lack of interest in solving my ultimate concern, my concern for the best solution to protect my growing data storage needs from future failures was left unmet. As such I've ordered a 12 TB NAS from a competitor to replace the failed Buffalo. This is not so much because the Buffalo device is necessary inferior. It is because communication with Buffalo has been so slow and difficult, and obtaining satisfactory results in a timely manner has been impossible.
Dave Bloom