Author Topic: LS-XL not showing in NAS Nav or IP search either through hub or direct ethernet  (Read 2664 times)

brewmastermk

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Hi - hoping someone can help.  I saw a similar post on the forum, but not quite with my level of lock-out.

I've had the LS-XL for a while, but for the last year or so haven't touched it.  Now I find it is not accessible.  Some details;
- Unit powers on (spins up and flashing blue light on front)
- When connected to my SKY hub
  - NAS Navigator not showing anything
  - Accessed hub for "attached devices" and I can't see anything there that it could be - just all my phones, TV etc..
  - No luck guessing or getting a response from a direct IP entry
-When connected directly from NAS to laptop Ethernet
  -Same as above, no response

I'm at a bit of a loss here to know what to do - can anyone make any suggestions on how to start working on this?  I have data on there I want to use.

Similar post I saw was as follows, but they at least got a response with direct connection - I don't even get that far - http://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php?topic=11879.0

Thanks in advance.

1000001101000

  • Debian Wizard
  • Big Bull
  • *****
  • Posts: 1128
  • There's no problem so bad you cannot make it worse
Does the led ever stop blinking?

Starb7

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 12
As per 1000001101000, does the light stop flashing?

If it does, then have you perhaps changed your router and so base IP, eg your Buff could be 192.168.1.XX yet your router (and so your PC if on DHCP) could be 192.168.0.XXX, ie the 0 and 1 would effectually hide the Buffalo drive on the network.

You could try changing your PC's subnet mask value to 255.0.0.0 and then run NASNAVI and see if it can detect it.  If it does, open a desktop explorer (not internet) windows and type \\192.168.xxx.xxx  where the xxx are your Buffalos's IP and see if you can browse the files.

Cheers

brewmastermk

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Hi both - thanks for picking this up.

Blue light still flashing after a number of hours.  Does that suggest something specific?

1000001101000

  • Debian Wizard
  • Big Bull
  • *****
  • Posts: 1128
  • There's no problem so bad you cannot make it worse
There may be some notes in the manual about it.

I believe the bootloader starts the led flashing at start and will switch to certain error codes if booting fails. If it succeeds in booting the firmware it continues to flash until the firmware tells it to change to solid fairly late in the boot process. I believe after a certain number of boots (or something like that)  it will perform a disk check of some sort before completing the boot process. I'm not sure if it would show on the network at that point or not, but I believe most services don't start until it finished.

It could conceivably be stuck doing something else in the boot process too for that matter. I would expect a full disk check on that device to take hours but not days, unless the drive is failing (then it could take literally forever). It might be worth listening to the device and se eif it sounds like a lot of disk activity is happening or not.


brewmastermk

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Thanks again.  So when I remove the power supply and re-attach the following happens noise-wise;
Some blips and sound of spinning up.  A slight vibration.  This then winds back down in a matter of seconds and noise goes dormant.

No change when I insert ethernet.

If this suggests the item is defective, is there anything I can do to conclusively diagnose that or access and retrieve data?

1000001101000

  • Debian Wizard
  • Big Bull
  • *****
  • Posts: 1128
  • There's no problem so bad you cannot make it worse
One other thing to think about is the power supply. If your adapter is failing it can cause behavior somewhat like what you;re seeing. It could also be that the drive is dying and it's getting just far enough in the boot process to have the bootloader think the boot was successful but then crash before getting anywhere.


Starb7

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Thanks again.  So when I remove the power supply and re-attach the following happens noise-wise;
Some blips and sound of spinning up.  A slight vibration.  This then winds back down in a matter of seconds and noise goes dormant.

No change when I insert ethernet.

If this suggests the item is defective, is there anything I can do to conclusively diagnose that or access and retrieve data?

Does sound like the drive has packed up but could be the power supply.  Do you have another PSU to test it with?  You could take the drive out and connect it direct to your PC to see if it spins up, just the power side, NO DATA, as you may cause more issues like Formatting or Initialising the disk in error.  Also, some NAS Drives has their pin 3 enabled to stop you using it on a desktop (Shuking) and so you may need to isolate this pin, take a look here https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/collateral/tech-brief/tech-brief-western-digital-power-disable-pin.pdf  Cheers

1000001101000

  • Debian Wizard
  • Big Bull
  • *****
  • Posts: 1128
  • There's no problem so bad you cannot make it worse
As far as I know Buffalo does not attempt to “lock” any drives or prevent their access from PCs. I would expect to have heard about it.

Kane88

  • Buffalo
  • ***
  • Posts: 161
I wonder if this unit is hanging, trying to obtain an ip address.  That's my guess.

I would try rebooting with a different network cable.

I have not seen the TS-XL before.  Is this a model with removable front door, where the drives can be easily removed?
If so, I would also try reseating the drives. 


Does the blinking blue light go solid if you press the function button?

Kane88

  • Buffalo
  • ***
  • Posts: 161
Thanks again.  So when I remove the power supply and re-attach the following happens noise-wise;
Some blips and sound of spinning up.  A slight vibration.  This then winds back down in a matter of seconds and noise goes dormant.

No change when I insert ethernet.

If this suggests the item is defective, is there anything I can do to conclusively diagnose that or access and retrieve data?

one other thing, are you hearing clicking sounds?

If it is spinning down right away, it could be a failed/failing disk motor.
You could try running the unit on its side, face up or face down- sometimes the angle will get the failing motor to spin up enough for the drive to function for a short time.

If it is not hanging trying to get an ip, then either the internal connection is loose, or the drive is probably dead, if not dying.

If it is possible to pull the drive, I would connect it to a windows machine, and run hd sentinel to view the smart info.  That certainly will tell you what is going on with the disk.  If it won't detect on windows, it is definitely dead or on its way out. 


If indeed it's a dead drive, then you're probably looking at consulting a data recovery service.