Author Topic: linkstation duo trying to get RAID 1 but fails (then needs firmware doing to get back)  (Read 5070 times)

matt__r

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Hi,

  I've been reading the board and become quite good at the EM firmware restarts on my linkstation duo 1TB (LS-WXL).

  The problem I seem to be getting and quite a few others do by reading other forums is that I just can't get this drive to change to RAID 1 from RAID 0.

 

  I've done the firmware as it fails at the same stage each time and that's clearing down the RAID0 that comes with the firmware (1.54).

 

  I get the message to "failed to operate disk. Please resubmit after restart?", of course a restart sends it off into flashing the error light 6 times in a row and the merry cycle of rebuilding it begins once again.  I nearly got to 80% on clearing down the RAID 0 on the last attempt, this can't be designed behaviour so something must not be right here.

 

  I really need this in Mirror RAID to have a chance at data protection.

 

Anyone got any ideas?

 

Cheers,

Matt


matt__r

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Because I cant leave stuff alone i kept going!

It seems that you need to switch off the "RAID Array Error Detection Response?" so that the unit doesn't try and switch off at the first sign of trouble.

 

I also switched on email notifications so I could keep track of progress.

 

I then dropped a drive from the raid0, which caused it to error.

Removed the array

reformatted both disks as stand alones (I first tried just one disk and then mirroring the blank one to the unformatted but it errored and wouldn't do anything)

Then I was able to finally build the RAID 1.

 

It seems just deleting the RAID 0, then trying to build a RAID 1 just tips it over the edge!

 

good grief, it took a while but i got there.

 

Most importantly I ignored the suggestion to "restart the drive" at any point, if i did this I would need to reinstall the firmware.


matt__r

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OK, now I'm quite annoyed.  After it sucessfully passing a raid scan and running quite happily I decided to do a restart using the interface.

 

Now I'm back to 6 red led flashes once again.

 

Does this drive actually do Mirror RAID?

 

Somebody must have an idea?

 

Cheers,

Matt


Ccarbo

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Matt, just read your post.  I am with you on that.  I just got the same linkstation, mine seemed to work ok with the 2x1TB drives from the get go.  Well I put in a set of 2TB Samsungs HD204UI  and I get the same thing....... I did what you did,  format each then build the RAID, is ran just fine for couple days.  The the Navi software said there was a new firmware update,  well I took that through the bufflo web interface and she bricked with the 6 red blinkings lights..... forced the firmware upgrade and still nothing with those drives.  Put in the original that came  with it and it booted just fine......  so it points to the drives I think.  They are brand new but I have a ticket into Buffalo to find out if these drive will 100% work with this,  seems to but really flaky if doing firmware or whatever........  don't make sense.  Not very reliable RAID 1 backup IMO.    Hope we can figure this out......   


lemmingzappa

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I'm having this exact same problem as we speak !


Sull

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Me too but It's not even picking up an IP address now so I can't get on to it at all.  Matt, when you had 6 blinking lights could you still browse to the admin interface or did you also have IP issues?  I've only had this thing a day and already it's out of action.


matt__r

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Sull, to get it back to life I had to go through the TFTP process which is explained in the sticky posts in this forum.

So download the TFTP firmware, and the replacement firmware onto your PC and for the TFTP process you'll have to change your PC ip address.  (Follow the instructions on the sticky posts)

 

What I noticed was from a 6LED flash you had to go through the TFTP twice, on the second time it rebuilt the RAID array.  A key bit is being patient, it does take some time to rebuild the drive.  It flashes amber when it's rebuilding.

 

I'm thinking about just using this in RAID 0 and using a second USB drive to backup the unit.  I'm thinking that this firmware/boot combo is having trouble with the hardware.  (I've tried previous firmware releases, they all seem to do it)

 

It is relatively easy to get it back to where it was when it came out of the box using TFTP and firmware update, what is a pain is getting to a mirror RAID.

 

Best of luck getting back to the beginning, it does take some time though.


Sull

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I've tried the TFTP update also.  Changed my PC to .11, directly connected the NAS to the PC and have the TFTP server running but still nothing.   TFTP server is sat listening and the NAS boots up and returns to a flashing LED.   I've even run a port scanner when connected to the NAS and all it sees is the PC.  It's almost as if it's on a different subnet range. ?

 

It's so frustrating.  At this rate it will have to go back because it's useless in the state its in.


Sull

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Right, I finally got it back to a "normal" state.

 

Following the earlier attempt of  the "FAQ (3 of 5): TFTP boot procedure" it turns out that when I have tftp server running and  it's at the blinking red LED state, if I held the function button down for a couple of seconds the blue LED kicked into life and my TFTP server then began to see the connection requests coming from .150

 

After the transfers had taken place, I began the FAQ (2 of 5): Force Firmware update procedure?. The updater could see the NAS but with a 169.x.x.x address.  Obviously I couldnt route to this with me having a 192.168.11.x address and typically this the range a device will choose when it cannot aquire an address via DHCP so I disconnected the NAS from my PC and plugged into router at which point it picked up a vaild IP.  Still I couldnt browse to it  but the Updater application could see it.  I followed the steps in FAQ 2 of 5 but this too wouldnt complete and I was left with the error ""Could not confirm whether the partition exist. Cannot update the firmware. Firmware updating is aborted"?

 

After looking further on this forum I found the solution to that in this post http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Storage/LS-WSXL-install-problem/td-p/53124/page/2?

 

Like that user it also resulted in it being in Japanese but once I changed the language back to English I had finally returned my NAS to something I could use again albeit in RAID0

 

Now the question is, shall I attempt to change it to RAID1 or is there an issue with this firmeare version 1.54?  I really can't be bothered having to go through all this again when it's something which should just work.  And if i've purchased a NAS in which I cannot create RAID1 array, despite being supposedly able to, then it's pretty useless as thats the whole reason I went for a dual drive NAS.

 


lemmingzappa

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I've had all these same issues so i'm sticking with RAID0 for now. I also bought the linkstation duo for the RAID1 capability !

 

If I don't see a new firmware fix soon I won't be happy...


delta

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Exactly the same issue here as well, but mine is a refurbished product not new.

 

However, I have read some where on a different forums thatss has been achieved by using a previous firmware, as mine worked fine until i updated to 1.54 ....


Sull

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Is it possible to roll back to a previous version of Firmware and if so where is it located for download?


delta

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Sull wrote:

Right, I finally got it back to a "normal" state.

 

Following the earlier attempt of  the "FAQ (3 of 5): TFTP boot procedure" it turns out that when I have tftp server running and  it's at the blinking red LED state, if I held the function button down for a couple of seconds the blue LED kicked into life and my TFTP server then began to see the connection requests coming from .150

 

After the transfers had taken place, I began the FAQ (2 of 5): Force Firmware update procedure?. The updater could NOT see the NAS  


At this point the process failed, the NAS could not been seen on either the NAS Navigator nor on a ip ping response. I cannot see anyway to be able to force cirmware when you cant find it.

 

Any help with this issue is muchly appreciated

 

Thanks


delta

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Sull wrote:

Is it possible to roll back to a previous version of Firmware and if so where is it located for download?


I managed to get a previous version by finding a link to the 1.54 version and modding the http site file to a different version, not sure if it will help you though as i have now lost access to my NAS completely now and have been unable to try it myself.

 

Also do take into consideration that i am not a technical representative of Buffalo, nor an expert in any shape or form on NAS storage, so you do anything like this at your own risk.

 

 


Sull

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delta wrote:

 

At this point the process failed, the NAS could not been seen on either the NAS Navigator nor on a ip ping response. I cannot see anyway to be able to force cirmware when you cant find it.

 


 

Are you still cabled directly to your NAS at this point?  I was.  I brought a DOS prompt up and did an arp -a and could see the NAS as a 169 address.  This is because the NAS couldnt find a DHCP server.  I cabled it direct to my switch and it picked up an address from my local DHCP pool.   I could see it on the router as a client and the Updater software could also see it at this point.

 

Cheers,