Author Topic: Terastation HS-DHTGL External USB HDD Backup Hangs at 4:04am  (Read 2067 times)

DiscoStu

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Terastation HS-DHTGL External USB HDD Backup Hangs at 4:04am
« on: August 23, 2010, 08:03:18 AM »

HI all - hope you can help with an issue I'm having.

 

Model: Terastation HS-DH2.0TGL/R5

Firmware: v2.14

 

I've had a Terastation for a couple of years and been backing it up to an external Maxtor Basics USB HDD on a weekly basis for some time.

 

Unfortunately last week the USB HDD failed so I bought a new WD20EARS 2TB drive - http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=608?=en - and slotted it into the USB caddy.  Formatted it to XFS and kicked off a backup overnight.

 

Next morning found the backup had stalled - no disk activity, no error messages in the backup log file, and the web interface stated a backup was in progress.  Checked the last file in the backup log on the USB HDD to find it had partially copied - ie filename something like '.MyFile.txt.TH6k8d' - and the timestamp was 4:04am

 

Reformatted the USB HDD and tried again next night - manually starting the backup this time.  Same problem - no errors in the backup log file, web interface stated backup in progess, last file (different file this time) partially copied & timestamped at 4:04am.

 

Thought it was a bit odd so adjusted the Terastation date & time so 4am was within daylight hours and tried again.  Same issue - backup stalled at 4:04am ''Terastation time'.

 

I'm at a bit of a loss to explain what's happening.  The only consistent element is the stall at 4:04am.  Doesn't appear to be related to a specific file or amount of Gb transferred.  The new HDD seems physically ok - I've formatted it to NTFS, connected it to a PC via the USB caddy and left files copying to it overnight - past 4:04am - with no problems.  I've also run the quick version of WDs Data Lifeguard Diagnostics with no problems found.

 

Can't see what else the Terastation might be doing at 4:00am.  There are no other backup jobs scheduled and in any case the backup to the old USB HDD must have on occasions run past 4:04am (I scheduled it to start at 2:30am).

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

 

DiscoStu.

 


Dustrega

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Re: Terastation HS-DHTGL External USB HDD Backup Hangs at 4:04am
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2010, 06:17:07 PM »

Usually, with odd and inexplicable problems such as this I would recommend a re-initialization.  If that doesn't work I would suggest a force firmware update.


DiscoStu

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Re: Terastation HS-DHTGL External USB HDD Backup Hangs at 4:04am
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2010, 06:37:29 PM »

 

Thanks - I'll try what you suggest and post back with the results in a couple of days.

 

DiscoStu.

 


Dustrega

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Re: Terastation HS-DHTGL External USB HDD Backup Hangs at 4:04am
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2010, 06:46:53 PM »

Thanks much DiscoStu I appreciate that. :D


DiscoStu

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Re: Terastation HS-DHTGL External USB HDD Backup Hangs at 4:04am
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2010, 09:21:29 AM »

 

Thanks for your guidance Dustrega.  Many apologies for the delay in posting back - I've been trying a few things.......

 

I was a bit wary of doing an initialisation & force firmware upgrade without a working backup so thought I'd do a manual 'copy & paste' style backup.  At this point I discovered that the new HDD only seems to work properly when connected internally to my desktop PC.  When its in the USB caddy files seem to be readable & writable but have corruption issues.  Only noticed by chance when opening a folder of images in thumbnail view and seeing several 'half-black' image previews.

 

So to cut a long story short I managed to create a working back up using Cobain Backup and tried an initialisation & force firmware update on the Terastation.  I needn't have worried as it went exactly as described in the manual and I didn't lose any shares or data.

 

Unfortunately after this the Terastation USB backup still didn't work - went past 4:00am (!) but had the same file corruption issues I'd noticed earlier.

 

Since then I've spent a quite ridiculous amount of time trying all sorts of stuff the most relevant of which was formatting the disk to XFS manually using GParted Live CD (my first foray into the world of Linux) to see if was it anything to do with the new HDD advanced format.  Unsuccessful - the Terastation wouldn't recognise the external USB drive.

 

So based on the fact I can get the new HDD to work correctly when directly connected to a PC I think there's some hardware compatibility issue with the USB caddy & the new HDD going on here and the Terastation itself isn't at fault.

 

So the only way forward I can see is to get another complete USB external HDD unit and give that a go.  Thinking of giving one of these a try http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/external-drives/drivestation/hd-cx-drivestation-with-hardware-encryption/ - decent capacity and not too bank breaking a price.

 

DiscoStu.

 


davo

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Re: Terastation HS-DHTGL External USB HDD Backup Hangs at 4:04am
« Reply #5 on: September 06, 2010, 07:02:30 AM »

DiscoStu wrote:

 

So the only way forward I can see is to get another complete USB external HDD unit and give that a go.  Thinking of giving one of these a try http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/external-drives/drivestation/hd-cx-drivestation-with-hardware-encryption/ - decent capacity and not too bank breaking a price.

 

DiscoStu.

 


Dont go for that one, that unit has a CDFS that the Terastation cannot read from. The two devices are not compatible with one another for backing up. You will need to buy a HDD with one large partition like the ; http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/external-drives/drivestation/hd-eu2-juststore-desktop/

PM me for TFTP / Boot Images / Recovery files  LSRecovery.exe file.
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DiscoStu

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Re: Terastation HS-DHTGL External USB HDD Backup Hangs at 4:04am
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2010, 05:26:31 AM »

 

Thanks for the advice davo - saved me more money & hassle.  I'll post back when/if I finally get backups working again.

 

DiscoStu.