So i assume all of my data on the drive is considered a loss?
Data loss is preventable regardless of whether the drive itself is a loss. Here are a few things to remember:
1: If you fail to plan for hardware failure, you will lose data someday.
2: If one of the Buffalo NAS's fails, and the hard drive is still ok, you can get at the data by connecting it to a Linux computer that understands XFS filesystems. But that's not as convenient as having a backup.
3: Buffalo NAS's make it easy to automate backups either to a USB device or to another NAS.
Sounds like you were able to get things going again, so this is a moot point, but I'm making it for future readers.