My Linkstation Quad LS-QL/R5 (8TB) has been working, without major incidents, consistently since I purchased and installed it almost a year ago. It is installed as part of a small office network (Linksys WRVS4400N router) which is accessed by up to three notebooks (HP Pavilion dv6, HP Pavilion dv1000, and a Gateway M-Series), all of which run Windows 7 Ultimate. An HP Photosmart C7280 printer is plugged into one of the Quad's USB ports. NasNavi has been installed on each of the notebooks as well. I cannot provide the Firmware version (for obvious reasons), but can share that it has not been updated since I purchased it new. We have been in the process of moving twelve years of business files onto the Quad, which has amounted to less than 2GB of storage thus far.
The Quad suddenly is not being discovered on the network by any of the computers. "Refresh" from NasNavi churns a couple of seconds before showing nothing as well. In an attempt to shut the Quad down and power it back up, a 5-second press of the power button followed by what has literally been days now (instead of the published "up to 30-seconds) and all four drive lights and a constant blue "power" light still shine bright. I cannot get the thing to shut down. I hesitate to just unplug it from the UPS as posts on this forum advise that that may result in data loss, which is not something I am willing to gamble on.
How might I shut this thing down?
What might I do to get it discovered on the network once again?
Please advise me how to return my Quad to being the e-file cabinet we purchased it for, and not yet one more e-garbage can that trashed anything stored in it.