Hi @cellardoor,
Well I finally got there !
After saying the estimated time was going to be 700+ minutes. Over 1000 minutes elapsed, with still 700+ minutes to go. I think someone was using the same time calculations as Microsoft ! Cancelled.
As everyone has been saying to format the drives I decided to try that. BUT, with a separate drive. Following these steps...
- Powered down the LinkStation
- Removed both drives
- Installed, temporarily, a 30GB SSD
- Used the LSUpdater on a Windows PC. Changing the flag 'NoFormatting = 1' to 'NoFormatting = 0' in LSUpdater.ini. (NOT as @joma90 says. 1 = yes. 0 = no. So 'NoFormatting = 1' = No Formatting & 'NoFormatting = 0' = Formatting)
- This then went through the process of formatting the drive. Didn't take long as it was only a small drive and an SSD
- Installed Version 1.80-0.08 without issue
BUT !!!Buffalo seem to think its a good idea to install the firmware onto the drive(s)! As when I reinstalled the original 2 x 4TB drives the firmware returned to the Version 1.31-0.92. What genius though that would be good !?
Back to drawing board. Tried again with LSUpdater.exe with the = 0 flag. And even running as Administrator (just in case). FAILED.
So, being a bad admin I decided to wipe my backups and start over. But it is no good just formatting the drives. They have to be unpartitioned.
- Booted up an old PC using a KNOPPIX live CD with drives connected
- using GPARTED, wiped all the partitions from the drives. So they both showed drive space as 'unallocated'. (This also removes the formatting section from LSUpdater)
- Powered down PC and removed drives
- Reinstalled drives back into LinkStation enclosure
- Powered back up
- Used LSUpdater with 'NoFormatting = 1'
- Installed Version 1.80-0.08
- Rebooted, again just to make sure
- Re-set up LinkStation with users/groups/folders. Again !
- Re-mapped drives on workstations
I now have an updated LinkStation. And a full back up, phew!
This will definitely be the LAST Buffalo NAS enclosure I purchase. And will NOT be recommending them to ANYONE !
https://www.synology.com for me !
Out.
Oh, not yet. Verification...