Does the LS-QL not support 3TB SUB External drives?

[schievelbein]

I got tired of having to leave my machine on all of the time to back up everone's data, so I purchased a LinkStation Quad 8TB unit with the intentions of formatting it to RAID5 with two 3TB shares.  I wanted to copy the data off my two 3TB WD MyBooks onto the shares for faster access.  I then wanted to plug the units into the LS-Quad, and use them to back up their respective shares.  All of this workes great EXCEPT, when I plug in the MyBooks, they are not seen by the LS-Quad.

 

My firmware is LS-QL F/W 1.11

Am I missing a patch or something that allows the LS-Quad to see the drives?

Every one of my machines, even my old Windows XP machines can read the drives, so please don't tell me the LS cannot read 3TB drives.

If I am going to have to use another backup method, what type of unit can I plu into the USB ports that will allow me to back up the shares?

Am I going to have to use another NAS to back up my LS-Quad?

?

?

[schievelbein]

Update:

 

The Drives are seen but the capacity and format are not detected and I cannot add them to shares.

 

USB Disk 1

Manufacturer     WD

Model Name      My Book 1130

Unit Name          My Book 1130-1

Total Capacity    Not Available

File Format         Not Available

 

USB Disk 2

Manufacturer     WD

Model Name      My Book 1130

Unit Name          My Book 1130-2

Total Capacity    Not Available

File Format         Not Available

?

[Jotin]

That is correct, it does not support 3TB USB drives. You would have to use smaller disks or another NAS. Only our linkstations with 1.52 firmware or newer can support 3TB drives.

[schievelbein]

Can the LS-QL firmware be upgraded to the 1.52 firmware?
Is so, where are the instructions on how to do it.
I wish I would have known this before I bought this unit,
So I could have gotten one of the newer ones.

[Jotin]

It cannot be. The 1.52 and up firmware is only for the Pro version of the LS Quad.

[schievelbein]

I cannot believe this.
I have a brand new unit that is just past the return date and find out that it does not support 3TB drives that have been out for a year. To top this off, you do not offer an upgrade path to the PRO version of the Firmware or way to even purchase an upgrade. I am out ~$800 and cannot even use it with my current hardware because of an undisclosed limitation. I would not be so mad, but the website state that multifunction printers cannot be used, but NOTHING about large drives or large external USB raids.

AS you mention in your tagline, Always have a proper backup, but I cannot do that because the unit will not work with my drives or RAID rack......

[Jotin]

If there was a way that I could give you the pro version of firmware I would have offered it but that firmware is for a unit with different hardware then yours. What you could try doing is deleting the partition within Windows and creating 3 1TB partitions and see if it can see one of those partitions so you can copy the data off. If you want to use the full space then yes there is nothing that I can do for you. But if you are just wanting to use this drive because it is the only one that you have then that might work. At the time that this was released 3TB and now even 4TB drives had not been released yet.

[schievelbein]

This sounds great.
Could you point me to the directions to load the firmware?
To make sure I am thinking correctly, do I need to destroy the raid and share on the LS-Q?
Am I also correct that you want me to repartition one of my 3TB drives to 3*1TB partitions?
I can easily do this, as these are just a few of the redundant backups I have and I am not worried about the data that is on these devices (yet).
I assume that you have my email from my Profile, but if not, it is Schievelbein at gmail.com.

A similar question is: for current owners of the LS-QL, is there a way to buy just the chassis to migrate our drives? (ie upgrade at a reduced price)
Thank you for working with me on this issue.

[Jotin]

I said that I could not offer you the firmware. If there was a way that I could I would give it to you. The firmware that I mentioned is for newer units with different hardware.

 

Yes, you should try and make 3 1TB partitions and see if the unit can see one of those partitions. As for buying the unit without drives... This is not something that buffalo does in America. You might be able to find the unti with no drives but it would be from a 3rd party or you would be buying it used for a user.

[schievelbein]

Since BuffaloTech obviously does not care about the supporting the products that they are DUMPING onto the market to get rid in order to start selling the new models, where can I get the Firmware code so I can do the simple recompile and make it support >2TB external USB drives. It is driving me crazy using 3 different external USB drives to back up my LS-Quad, when I should be able to use my single 6TB drive and connect it to the USB port. I have talked to quite a few Firmware programmers and they said that it should take Buffalo 6-8 man hours to redo the code and release it for user testing. I for one would be happy to beta test the code and save Buffalo the QA time.

[dons395]

Ok, so I read that my Linkstation LS-QL Quad will not support 3TB USB drives ...

What is the largest size USB drive it will support?  Will it support a 2TB drive...?

I have searched this board I have not seen a definitive answer to max size USB drive.

[Jotin]

The max size for the external usb drive is 1TB.