Author Topic: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives  (Read 75964 times)

Eastmarch

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Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« on: September 06, 2019, 12:25:28 PM »
Our super awesome user 1000001101000 put together some pages which help DIYers with TFTP reinstalls. Buffalo can't speak to the accuracy or safety of any of this stuff, and we can't support it, so don't take this as advice or an endorsement as the content. Mostly this is for people with an out-of-warranty chassis that they have the desire to reinstall and get back running. Which is super cool.

A few points: Some units have the ability to reinstall firmware built into the box. These are :

TS3000
TS5010, 3010
LS220DE (Not 220 or 210)
LS421D (Not 420 or 410)
LS441DE
LS-WVL/E

In addition, TS5000 has a documented, simple method to reinstall, as does TS-xVL as these are Intel processors capable of USB boot. Any Windows Storage Server unit is provided with reinstall media in the box.

All other NAS units use an ARM processor and the firmware is factory installed on the provided drives, and has no simple way of being reinstalled; as you will see in his links.

His Post:

This consists of first extracting the required firmware files:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Extract_Boot_Files_from_Stock_Firmware

Then booting into EM mode either by TFTP booting with your favorite TFTP utility or by loading the files onto an EXT3 partition on a disk:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Restoring_Stock_Firmware_without_TFTP
or
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Restoring_Stock_Firmware_via_TFTP

finally performing the install using the firmware updater in Debug mode with the "rebuild partition table" and "force update" options selected:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Enable_Debug_mode

I've heard back from folks who done this successfully with just about every ARM based linkstation/terastation model over the past year.

Any oLet me know if you have any questions.

**Intel based devices use a similar process only get into EM mode via a usb recovery disk:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Create_Recovery_Disk_for_Intel-based_Terastation
« Last Edit: September 17, 2019, 11:01:58 AM by Eastmarch »
**A single copy of data, even on a RAID array, is NOT a backup! Hard drive failure is not a question of IF, but WHEN! Don't take my word for it, take Google's!**

fizux

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Re: TFTP Repair links
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2019, 10:59:07 PM »
I am grateful for all of the hard work and support provided on this issue, but one problem I have had is that many of the resources (TFTP Repair links, Debian images, etc.) miss the LS-QL series linkstation (e.g. LS-Q4.0TL/R5), which from experience appear not to be compatible with the LS-QVL series.

Any suggestions of an alternate series to try as a replacement, or would it be possible to publish resources for this series?  For example, Debian supported models include:
kuroboxpro, ls-chl, ls-wsgl, ls-wtgl, lspro_ls-gl, ls-chlv2, ls-qvl, ls-vl, ls-wsxl, ls-wvl, ls-wxl, ls-xhl
but not ls-ql.


oxygen8

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Re: TFTP Repair links
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2019, 05:39:38 AM »

1000001101000

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Re: TFTP Repair links
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2019, 09:53:52 AM »
I never noticed that about the LS-QL before. Despite being listed on that slide deck I don't see that a device tree ever ended up in the kernel nor was part of the original project as far as I can see.

Looking at the specs for the various devices I would suspect that the installer for the lspro_ls-gl or ls-chl might work with the LS-QL. There could be differences that prevent leds/buttons/usb ports from working but it's worth a try.

Oddly enough I'm currently working on adding Debian support for additional devices not covered by previous projects (I'll put up a separate post about that at some point). I should be able to add the LS-QL to that project.

Let me know if you have any success with the ls-gl/ls-chl files.


1000001101000

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Re: TFTP Repair links
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2019, 07:57:56 PM »
I thought I had an LS-QL but it turned out to be a QVL.

I’m afraid I won’t be able to do any hands-on testing. If you’re able to get it running using the files for another device I can help modify the device tree for the LS-QL if you’re interested.

fizux

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Re: TFTP Repair links
« Reply #5 on: September 13, 2019, 09:38:05 AM »
I did try using the LS-QVL firmware, but that did not work and I had to go back to LS-QL.  The slide deck has LS-QL listed as 2nd Gen, and LS-QVL as 3rd Gen.

Thanks, if you have the ability to add a LS-QL branch, I would certainly provide feedback from testing.

Eastmarch

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Re: TFTP Repair links
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2019, 11:00:48 AM »
LS-QL was the same generation as LS-CH. I'd def try it. 
**A single copy of data, even on a RAID array, is NOT a backup! Hard drive failure is not a question of IF, but WHEN! Don't take my word for it, take Google's!**

oxygen8

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Re: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2019, 12:21:35 AM »
LS-CHL with blue webif (HANZEI) uses the Orion chipset, like the LS-QL
The LS-CHL with red webif (YURYAKU) uses the Kirkwood like the LS-QVL

Debian on the old LS-CHLV1:
https://www.onderka.com/computer-und-netzwerk/buffalo-linkstation-live-ls-chl-v1-v2-und-v3/

Maybe it is possible to modify this for the LS-QL

1000001101000

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Re: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2019, 10:35:21 AM »
We took the conversation offline and have been looking into making this work. The installer for the ls-chl didn't work out of the box, I'm still trying to figure out why.

stay tuned.

jerryr

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Re: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2019, 05:14:01 PM »
Greetings All.  Interesting thread. TIA.

Question.......

Background First:

I have a TS5800D2408. I had all 8 bays populated. I only had R5 configured. (I know R6 would have been optimal, but what it was bought for the extra capacity was needed.) A couple of months ago, I lost a drive. This was ok. I bought another and replaced it. The array recovered and went on about it's business.  However, I then lost another drive. I replaced it, however, this time while it was rebuilding I lost a second drive.  This of course is bad as a R5 group can not sustain two drive failures at the same time. No biggie. Most of the important stuff was backed up.

However, I have since removed the two bad drives and have decided to just go with 6. I used the Bootable USB Recovery Image located here: https://www.buffalotech.com/support/downloads/terastation-5000n-series

I was able to boot to the USB drive, have it go through the recovery process and then flip the switch back to boot from the HD.  The system starts but the LED screen stays a purplish pink color. The power button continually flashes and only the Welcome to Terastation is displayed. The display button does not toggle the display. The system does get an IP Address as I can see it given out to the device in my router. When I go to the IP Address the page will load but I only see the outline of some of the shapes. If I use the NAS Navigator, the device does not show up.

Question:

In order to perform this option using the Bootable USB Recovery Image, do I need to make sure that the drives I am using have zero partitions on them and are blank in order for the recovery to work correctly?

If the Bootable USB Recovery will not work to replace everything then what are my options?

Thanks,

Jerry

jerryr

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Re: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« Reply #10 on: December 19, 2019, 06:59:56 PM »
Ok.. that was the ticket... Needed to have no partitions on the drives and then use the USB Recovery Image.

Thanks for this thread!

1000001101000

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Re: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« Reply #11 on: December 19, 2019, 07:36:22 PM »
Sweet. Blank drives is important, usually so is having enough drives

BlackScorpion

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Re: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« Reply #12 on: December 24, 2019, 10:22:31 PM »
HI guys, new to this NAS thing, i happen to get my hands on a used Buffalo TeraStation-TS-XE8-0TL-R5-4-Bay from a guy who stated it was in excellent working condition.  I brought it from him and when i connected it up to my network  the thing powered up and went thru some type of process , seems to be running correctly, i see on the amber screen " No Init File at HDD0, at the end the light turned red from amber and a message stating emergency mode and no array info. I tried updating the firmware from the updater and i get a beeping sound from the NAS and a message DISK1 signature fail. I;m running on Mac OS 10.14.6 Mojave,  Been trying for a few days now to no-avail, could someone shed some light as to what i can do to get this thing up and running?

 My computer IP is  (f)192.168.1.102, the IP showing on the NAS is (f)192.168.1.10



Frank
« Last Edit: December 24, 2019, 10:48:05 PM by BlackScorpion »

1000001101000

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Re: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« Reply #13 on: December 25, 2019, 05:35:04 AM »
sounds like it’s booting off the onboard NAND into EM mode which should make things relatively simple.

You should be able to get running by first ensuring the drives are blank and then running the firmware installer in debug mode with the formatting options enabled:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Enable_Debug_mode


BlackScorpion

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Re: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« Reply #14 on: December 25, 2019, 11:37:30 AM »
sounds like it’s booting off the onboard NAND into EM mode which should make things relatively simple.

You should be able to get running by first ensuring the drives are blank and then running the firmware installer in debug mode with the formatting options enabled:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Enable_Debug_mode

 How would i go about ensuring the drives are blank? do i remove them and erase them?  I tried doing the debug thing and kept getting an error message on the Nas as stated above.