Buffalo Forums

Hi. I recently encountered a problem with my LS-WXL. It was a drive 1 error. 6 blinking red lights.

I've purchased a new hard drive and swapped in the new drive using these instructions from Buffalo: http://en.faq.buffalo-global.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13688.

However, I still got a drive 1 error (but now 3 blinking red lights). So I started to think there was a component failure in the Linkstation itself. So I put drive 2 in the drive 1 slot and the new drive in slot 2. Now I get a Drive 2 error. So assume the link station itself is all ok and its the HDD.

So what am I doing wrong? Is there something I need to do to the new drive?

Thanks

are you able to boot with just one of the old drives in place? 6 red blinks typically means it's failing to read boot files from any drive which can happen for a number of reasons. Verifying one drive actually works to boot from is important for this type of recovery.

The new drive typically needs to have it's partitions removed. The bootloader on these devices scans the "partition 1" of each drive looking for boot files, but the bootloader can't handle partitions larger than a certain size and can crash. This becomes a problem since many drives will come with a single large partition the size of the full disk, or are set up that way if initialized by windows/etc. Any such partition needs to be removed or the device can't boot with it present. 

Buffalo has a procedure for doing this, check out the "If LinkStation doesn't Boot after a Hard Drive is installed" document at the bottom of the downloads page:
http://buffalo.jp/support_ap/support/products/ls_wxl.html

Thank you.

Yes just tried, so left in just the original working drive 2 in slot 2. Booted up ok but still had the 6 red flashes.

So do you think I just need to remove the partitions on the new drive then?

are you able to get into the web interface with it like that?

Yes I can.

Then I would think removing the partition table on the new drive would allow it to boot etc.

This is useful information

Read your post regarding your new drive for the LS-WXL model. Can I ask where you purchased your new HD for this model? Almost out of space on my drive now wanting to purchase a 4TB drive. Undecided on whether to buy replacement drive a completely different model.

Thanks. 

Ok, I'm more confused than ever.

I discovered that if I swap the drives around (so the good drive in slot 2 is now in slot 1 and the new HDD is in slot 2) the option to rebuild the array appears. Hooray.

Gave it a try, 4 or 5 hours in the unit just shut down (not in Auto mode).

Tried again, it worked!! The web interface said both drives were error free and the array was "Normal". Tried accessing the files on my drive but couldn't, just thought it might have dropped from the network, so powered down. As soon as I powered on again all the errors came back and the 3 red flashes returned.

Next day, tried again, it worked!! All the errors had gone and I could access all my files. Thought this was it. Powered down overnight only to power up again today and guess what, the errors have returned and the red flashes are back.

Any ideas anyone? I'm pulling my hair out in frustration. Just wish it was consistent.

My first guess would be that the old drive is going bad and that the intermittent behavior was a symptom of that.