Linkstation Pro network path not found

[fitbrit]

   

Weird problem here. I have a Linkstation Pro LS-GL F/W 1.11 (250 GB).

 

It's worked fine for 2+ years now. 

While emptying the trashbox, I got an error, which I didn't take note of. Since then the internal drive of my Linkstation Pro has been inaccessible. It's not a network issue as I've rebooted everything and the two connected USB drives are still available. NAS Navigator can see all three drives, and it correctly shows the internal drive as being 80% full. I can connect to the unit via the web interface too. The only problem I have (and it's a big one) is that I cannot map the internal drive any more. The network share shows up when browsing for it, but when I try to map it, it tells me the drive's network path cannot be found. If I try to ftp into the drive, it tells me there are no files in disk1, which should not be the case.

Could it be that the drive itself experienced an old-fashioned crash, while the networking capability of the LS Pro is still running fine? Some Googling yielded that a new firmware 1.47 fixed this type of issue for someone, but I cannot find anything above 1.11. Further, I've read that there's a NAS Navigator v2 out there somewhere, but again I cannot find later than 1.2, which I have.

 

There are some data that I would rather recover than re-create from source. Any help greatly appreciated.  

[SimoPP]

   

I have experienced something similar with different types of Linkstations I own. Try to find Navigator version 2 somewhere, it helped with the new Linkstation Live II which the older Navigator version did not recognize at all. You can find the V2 at the European Buffalo support pages if you go to see available downloads for LS Pro Duo.

 

Please keep in mind that I can not know if there is any risk at using some of these versions at your location with the equipment you have.

[Colin137]

That sounds like filesystem corruption to me. Your best bet would be pulling the drive out, mounting it in a computer that either runs Linux or you can boot a LiveCD on, and running xfs_repair (http://linux.die.net/man/8/xfs_repair) on the data partition (biggest one). xfs_repair could potentially damage the data more, so be careful when using it, and make sure you target the correct drive and partition. Unfortunately, data recovery is beyond the scope of our support, so we can only offer suggestions; we can only help so much when it comes to data recovery.

 

Firmware 1.47 was for the HD-HLAN series Linkstations, not the LS Pro.  1.11 is the latest firmware version for the LS Pro. You can find the NASNavi v2 on some of the newer products' download pages, such as the Linkstation EZ (LS-CL), or download it from this direct link: http://www.buffalotech.com/support/getfile/?NASNAVI-211_win.zip

Message Edited by Colin137 on 12-09-2008 12:53 PM

[fitbrit]

   

Thanks a lot, Colin

 

This was basically what I thought had happened, although I didn't have the tech vocab to say it. Nas Navi 2 didn't help, as even the 1.2 version was able to see it. I was thinking of taking out the disk and mounting it on another PC, but it's going to be tricky getting a Linux running machine. I do have an unRAID server that's running a very compact install of Linux, and I know one can run some other apps from it too, but it may be beyond me or the time I have right now to look into it. Thanks again for the help. I shall return to the thread to look for more suggestions and to give updates.

 

[Colin137]

You won't need a machine with Linux installed on it, you'll just need a PC with a SATA port, and a LiveCD. Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/ ) is the distribution I would recommend. When you boot the CD, just start the system, don't do the install. You'll have full access to the hardware.

[fitbrit]

   Awesome. I was just looking at Live CD stuff. Just wondering whether I could install the ubuntu onto a flash drive.

[fitbrit]

   P.S. Can the drive itself be connected via USB, or does it have to be via a SATA connection? I have SATA to USB adaptor devices and this would be handier than having to disconnect internal drives to free up a SATA port.... not to mention I that I won't even have to open up the PC.

[Colin137]

A SATA-to-USB adapter should work fine.

[fitbrit]

   Thank you again, Colin. I'll try it as soon as I can and get back to the thread.

[fitbrit]

   

I might need more assistance here. I've used the ubuntu live cd, in fact I'm typing from firefox in ubuntu. I can launch the terminal window and try to run xfs_repair on my damaged disk. However, I'm having a lot of trouble finding the disk, and I don't know whether the xfs is a file to be repaired (-f) or the disk. Also, not sure how to mount/unmount it. I think that the damaged xfs is making things more difficult. Is there a gui oriented way to use xfs_repair?

 

[fitbrit]

   

I'm looking at GParted, but still having troubles.

After unmounting and trying a check/repair, I get the following error:

 

Check and repair filesystem (xfs) on /dev/sdc6  00:00:02    ( ERROR )      calibrate /dev/sdc6  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )      path: /dev/sdc6
start: 1670823
end: 488392064
size: 486721242 (232.09 GiB) check filesystem on /dev/sdc6 for errors and (if possible) fix them  00:00:02    ( ERROR )      xfs_repair -v /dev/sdc6      Phase 1 - find and verify superblock...
- block cache size set to 184328 entries
Phase 2 - using internal log
- zero log...
zero_log: head block 139584 tail block 30196
ERROR: The filesystem has valuable metadata changes in a log which needs to
be replayed. Mount the filesystem to replay the log, and unmount it before
re-running xfs_repair. If you are unable to mount the filesystem, then use
the -L option to destroy the log and attempt a repair.
Note that destroying the log may cause corruption -- please attempt a mount
of the filesystem before doing this.

 

Any ideas what to do now, anyone? Is there any hope of saving the stuff that was on the disk?

                            

 

[Paul]

I will request a tftp boot loader to be made for the linkstation pro. 

please check the link below for an update. 

 

TFTP

[fitbrit]

   

Thanks for the reply Paul. A couple of questions based on this:

1) What is EM mode, and how do I boot into this? The manual doesn't mention it.

2) The pictures in that link are not working, so I can't really tell what's supposed to happen. 

 

I found a version of TFTP boot recovery for LS-Pro. I downloaded it. I edited the .ini file as required. Is it necessary to change the IP of the PC to 192.168.11.1? My network goes from 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.0.254; the PC is 10.0.0.2 and the LS-Pro is 10.0.0.7. Anyway, I've tried keeping the IP and changing it to 192.168.11.1 as well. In both cases when I run TFTP boot.exe, it's just listening for a request. I'm supposing that this is where I need to boot the LS-Pro into EM mode and it'll communicate with the TFTP boot.exe program then?

 

Once it's connected, should I be able to see the files and perhaps download them to the PC? I know that simple ftp shows that disk1 has no files in it. 

 

Thanks for all your help so far. I just need a little more hand-holding. I learn fast, but at this point I'm a n00b. 

[fitbrit]

   Also, does my LS-Pro need to be in standby mode, or will TFTP Boot allow it to reboot into EM mode? Should I disconnect my USB drives from the LS-Pro too?

[Matt_M]

xfs_repair is mainly command-line based. If it is just a corrupt filesystem and not a physical issue with the disk though you should just be able to run xfs_repair with no additional switches other than the path to the drive. If it is a phsyical issue however and the XFS_repair gets a hard I/O error it will halt and cancel, in which case you would want to use dd to move the data to a known working disk before running the repair.