Buffalo Forums

Hi,

I have a LinkStation Quad LS/QL that had 2 hard drive failed at the same time. I have a replacement hard drive ready but it just won't boot.

When I slot in the new hard drive, it will blink normally during boot (green light) and detect hard drive. After that, it will just shut down.

The only way I can make it stay powered on is if there are no hard drives.

Is there any way to perform a recovery of some sort to make the enclosure usable again?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

The firmware is stored on the disks- if all of them go at once or you are replacing them with a drive that has no firmware (new disk) then the Linkstation can't boot because it can't find the firmware (because it isn't there anymore).  I'm not sure but the first disk is the most important or at least that sticks in my mind for some reason...  If you can't, perhaps, clone an original disk (I've never tried it) then this sounds like a TFTP recovery to me.  Its fairly simple, especially since there are instructions for it, now.  When I bricked my Linkstation, years ago, I had to swamp around and figure it out haphazardly...  I was in a state of extreme high anxiety (Mel Brooks) and It was brutal. 

You might be able to reflash with the firmware flasher or if not then TFTP will surely work.  Be sure to read up before you go diving in (read ll the .doc before you start, so you don't cause yourself more problems).  Its a simple process, but can be somewhat daunting for the "uninitiated".   If your Linkstation is LS-QVL then I'm pretty sure that you will want to keep the name Kirkwood in mind.

Check here:

http://forum.buffalo.nas-central.org/viewtopic.php?t=28961

http://forum.buffalo.nas-central.org/viewtopic.php?t=28843

http://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php?topic=10185.0

I keep an old drive handy with the firmware on it just in case something like this happens....  Let me know how you make out (Not sure if the firmware from an LS-QVL/E-AP would boot an R5, but it might)...

I've set run the TFTP server from the Kirkwood but it never responded to any requests from my hard drive.

I'm still ordering a new set of disks, but was wondering if this would work with Windows 10.