HD-HGLAN300 and USB Disk

[P38roverowner]

   

Hi

 

I wonder if anyone can help me here. 

 

I have the above and recently filled it to around 99% and so purchased a 1TB USB disk, which is recognised by the LinkStation and I formatted using the GUI over firefox and I am currently running a back up to it. 

However, I use the LinkStation mainly for streaming media to my LinkTheater and yet the LinkTheater cannot see the USB disk at all.  All it can see is the original LinkStation. 

I had presumed, from what I had read about the LinkStation that connecting a USB disk would present the device as a single disk with the capacity of the two devices together, therefore, my LinkTheater would now see one disk and that would have 1.3TB of storage.  Is that not the case and if not, what do I have to do in order to use the new space I have?

 

Also, I am currently backing up the contents of the LinkStation to the USB drive, but the data rate is appallingly slow - at this rate it is going to take over 130 hours to transfer 290GB, can this be correct? 

 

What I would like it to do is operate as a larger device, e.g. - I should be able to write to it and read from it as if it were one single drive of 1.3TB. 

 

Many thanks for your help.

[Matt_M]

The USB drive is detected as an independant share on the NAS drive, as such you need to go into the PCast menu and set the media folder to USB Disk 1 if you wish this to be the new point for the media content. Also, the transfer rate will continue at that pace unfortunately, these original model NAS drives were limited in their RAM and processing power, which did create a bit of a bottleneck for content transfer.

[P38roverowner]

   

Hello and thank you for your prompt reply

 

I did try this, but there are two problems.  1) When I try to set the media folder to (what should be - see below) "USB Disk1" it constantly simply returns to Share every time and;

2) The USB disk is called "USB Disd1" for some reason and of course, I cannot alter this. 

 

I do not do much that is very advanced and have left the settings pretty much as they were when I purchased this kit several years ago.  Therefore, I have the following in the drop down menu on my PCast Link Theater Settings page:

 

Share

Share Mac

Share/MP3

Share/Photo's

Share/Videos

USB Disd1

USB Disd1/200812271657

 

Now, when I choose either of the two USB options and press "Apply" it simply reverts back to "Share" every time, however, if I choose Share/MP3, or Share/Photo's it stays on that folder.  Note also the incorrect spelling, which I presume is in the firmware and cannot be changed.  Could this be having an effect?  Of course, it could be that I am in the process of a huge backup right now (hence the final USB filename) which was started some six odd hours ago and has yet to reach 20GB...

[ScottP]

This could be a problem in the firmware, though I must admit this is the first I've ever seen of this issue, and this product has been around for many years.  What firmware version are you running on this particular Gigabit LinkStation?  Have you tried reformatting the disk a second time to see if it names the volume correctly?

 

The long transfer from LinkStation to USB disk would happen because the data needs to move from the LinkStation to your PC, then back to the LinkStation once more.   Telling the LinkStation to run a backup job to move the contents would be much faster.

[P38roverowner]

   

Hi

 

I am running a backup, the PC is not involved at all yet still it is taking forever.  I am now up to around 185GB, some two thirds of the way through.  

The LinkStation is running firmware 1.61 - as for reformatting, having spent the last few days waiting for it to copy my data, the last thing I want to do is have to start again.  The thing is, in other places, the disk name is reported correctly, such as  under the "Maintenance / System Status" menu. Please see this link for more details.  

 

http://forums.buffalotech.com/buffalo/board/message?board.id=0101&thread.id=3148

[Paul]

Try to force the firmware and set the unit back to factory defaults, this will not cause data loss.  how to force the firmware

[P38roverowner]

   

Thank you Paul, but what do I reflash the LS with, given that what I have (1.61) is greater than the other version I have found, which is 1.42?

 

 

[Paul]

That may be the issue, it is not a supported North American Firmware.  I would run the force procedure then when your finished with the flash set the unit back to factory defaults from the web interface (under maintenance).  This will not cause any data loss but it is a must.

 

how to force the firmware

[P38roverowner]

   

I am not in North America, I am in England and this is where I purchased the unit. 

 

The problem appears to be limited to the PCast menu, because elsewhere the USB disk is called "USB Disk1" such as in Maintenance / System Status and of course the USB Disk is recognised, formatted via the GUI and I have copied data to it, albeit painfully slowly.  

 

Do you still recommend that I flash the unit with FW 1.42, in particular as I have read that some HD-HG units could not be flashed and in particular the HD-HG300 can be problematic?  

[Paul]

I would still flash it with the latest firmware that is provided in your region. 

[P38roverowner]

   

Flashed the firmware with v.1.42, which is the latest for Europe and no change - not a thing, nothing, nada, zip, zilch etc.  In fact, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between v.1.61 and v.1.42 - they look absolutely identical. Of more concern is that the USB Disk is still called "USB Disd1" in PCast and I cannot select it to share.  

 

For what its worth, I am now carrying out a disk check of the USB disk prior to formatting (again) it and then waiting the four odd days it will take to carry out a back up to see if that fixes it - failing that, I have no idea.