Author Topic: testimony of a first time user  (Read 2294 times)

SuperPC

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testimony of a first time user
« on: December 01, 2010, 11:20:06 AM »

i have to say that i'm new to this NAS stuff. the buffalo LS-WXL E is the first NAS i ever bought. the experience of setting up the LS-WXL E is really great. it's easy, the guide is painless to follow, and it's quick. now i have a hard drive that i can access from all over the house over wifi. it's really amazing how cheap a NAS nowdays. i bought mine for 90 US$ without a hard drive. i put in a 1.5 TB hard drive in it and work great.

 

i do have some question about this NAS though.

 

first question, i want to add a second hard drive. problem is the hard drive is full of data and it said in the manual that the NAS would erase all data that from any drive added. is there a way to get around this? right now the storage section said disk 1 status normal (EDP available). i'm assuming that means i'm not using raid right now.

 

second question, i plug in a USB drive in to the NAS and transfer some file from USB drive to NAS using windows explorer. the transfer rate is really slow. about half of my network speed. is there anyway to make it faster (without using direct copy because i save a lot of RAR, ISO, and NRG files in my USB, and as i understand it those files won't be copied if i use direct copy)? i'm only using 10/100 router and my PC doesn't have gigabit ethernet. but i don't understand why manual USB copy can't be as fast as PC to NAS copy eventhough the USB is pluged into the NAS.

 

third question, if i remove my 1.5 TB drive from my NAS, plug it into my PC and then put it back to my NAS will all the data be erased? is there any way so it doesn't get erased?

 

thank you for all your attention and for making my continuing use of my LS-WXL E great with your response.


davo

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2010, 11:31:42 AM »

SuperPC wrote:

i have to say that i'm new to this NAS stuff. the buffalo LS-WXL E is the first NAS i ever bought. the experience of setting up the LS-WXL E is really great. it's easy, the guide is painless to follow, and it's quick. now i have a hard drive that i can access from all over the house over wifi. it's really amazing how cheap a NAS nowdays. i bought mine for 90 US$ without a hard drive. i put in a 1.5 TB hard drive in it and work great.

 

i do have some question about this NAS though.

 

first question, i want to add a second hard drive. problem is the hard drive is full of data and it said in the manual that the NAS would erase all data that from any drive added. is there a way to get around this? right now the storage section said disk 1 status normal (EDP available). i'm assuming that means i'm not using raid right now.

 

second question, i plug in a USB drive in to the NAS and transfer some file from USB drive to NAS using windows explorer. the transfer rate is really slow. about half of my network speed. is there anyway to make it faster (without using direct copy because i save a lot of RAR, ISO, and NRG files in my USB, and as i understand it those files won't be copied if i use direct copy)? i'm only using 10/100 router and my PC doesn't have gigabit ethernet. but i don't understand why manual USB copy can't be as fast as PC to NAS copy eventhough the USB is pluged into the NAS.

 

third question, if i remove my 1.5 TB drive from my NAS, plug it into my PC and then put it back to my NAS will all the data be erased? is there any way so it doesn't get erased?

 

thank you for all your attention and for making my continuing use of my LS-WXL E great with your response.


1. you should be able to insert a new HDD and format it using the web based admin page. This should not effect the first disk, only if you want to create a RAID will the data on the first HDD be lost.

If you want to add an existing HDD to the Linkstation that you have data on then this will not be possible without erasing the data.

 

 

2. It is slow because you have still mapped the USB disk, which means your using samba through the network. The only way you will get "USB Speeds" are if you use the built in backup option or direct copy.

 

3. If you plug the first HDD into your PC it will not be able to recognise it, the Linux would of formatted your disk to XFS (Linux), Windows cannot read this file format.

 

PM me for TFTP / Boot Images / Recovery files  LSRecovery.exe file.
Having network issues? Drop me an email: info@interwebnetworks.com and we will get it fixed!

SuperPC

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2010, 06:47:42 PM »

thank you for your answer davo

 

I use FAT 32 on my 1.5 TB. i will use XFS on my 1 TB after i moved all the files elsewhere. if i remove my 1.5 TB from my LS-WXL E, plug it into my PC transfer file to it, will any of the data be lost when i put it back into my NAS?


davo

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2010, 07:50:47 AM »

When you remove the 1.5TB from the LS and plug it into your PC, the PC will not be able to read it because of the different file formats.

PM me for TFTP / Boot Images / Recovery files  LSRecovery.exe file.
Having network issues? Drop me an email: info@interwebnetworks.com and we will get it fixed!

SuperPC

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2010, 09:07:23 PM »

so eventhough my 1.5 TB use FAT 32 format my PC would still not recognize it? that's odd.


davo

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2010, 05:56:37 AM »

correct me if im wrong but the 1.5TB HDD is the one that your currently using with your NAS right?

 

If so then it is not FAT32 but it is XFS.

PM me for TFTP / Boot Images / Recovery files  LSRecovery.exe file.
Having network issues? Drop me an email: info@interwebnetworks.com and we will get it fixed!

SuperPC

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2010, 10:51:45 PM »

it's not like that exactly. since i am really new to this NAS stuff so i decided to tested the water first so to speak. so the first hard drive i put in that NAS was a 250 GB i borrowed from a friend. after that i put my 1.5 TB and tried a bunch of stuff. RAID, formating, disc scan, file copy, the works. then i decided that i want FAT 32 for my 1.5 TB and i don't want to use RAID. so i set the NAS in normal mode and formated my 1.5 TB to FAT 32. then i remove the 250 GB and returned it to my friend. so now i only have 1.5 TB with FAT 32 in normal mode inside my NAS. my question remains. is it possible to remove it, transfer files from it (or to my 1.5 TB drive) and put it back into the NAS without loosing any file already in it?


SuperPC

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2010, 08:54:20 PM »

oh another thing, i also notice a quirk with this NAS. if i add a share folder in to it it seems that my windows 7 32 bit can't see the NAS anymore. adding it manually doesn't help. the only thing that makes my windows see it again is by restarting it or unplug and replug the LAN cable. is this normal behaviour? can't anyone help me here?


davo

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2010, 05:58:38 AM »

Let me say it once more.............................. If your using your 1.5TB HDD within the NAS then it IS NOT FAT32. It is XFS which windows cannot read.

PM me for TFTP / Boot Images / Recovery files  LSRecovery.exe file.
Having network issues? Drop me an email: info@interwebnetworks.com and we will get it fixed!

SuperPC

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #9 on: December 08, 2010, 05:38:38 PM »

fair enough. can i put my 1.5 TB in my linux PC and add or remove files from it without reformatting it when i plug it back into my NAS? oh another question, when moving around some files in the shared folder or from one shared folder to other shared folder, why is it that sometimes it's using the network and sometime it doesn't?


CapnSmith

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #10 on: December 13, 2010, 04:28:20 PM »

Let me answer your questions, Super PC.

 

First, We do not support removing the HDD from our units and placing them into your PC, if it is a linux PC, yes, you should be able to read the filesystem and interact with files, but if this is a RAID unit, you can seriously damage the RAID array, which could result in data loss.  This action is not recommended.

 

Second, if you are moving files from a sub-folder to up one directory, you are only changing the directory structure, and no data needs to be sent over the network.  If you are moving files from one share to another, that is doing more than changing the directory structure, and the PC will need to process the data, so it will be sent over the network.


SuperPC

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Re: testimony of a first time user
« Reply #11 on: December 15, 2010, 01:55:28 AM »

thank you for the answer. since i neither have a gigabit router or computer with gigabit LAN yet it would be much quicker to just plug it in my linux box and transfer file to it than put it back in the NAS. i don't use RAID since i want the ability to back up some of my file on my other drive inside that NAS but not all the files. and i bought my buffalo NAS without any HDD in it so the HDD that i bought to put in it is already unsupported. i'll try transfering files into my HDD from my linux this week end than. thank you again!