While working in the Windows server room at our church, I found an LS-500GL that was not being used. Asking around I couldn't find anyone that remembered what it might have been used for; so I tried to check it out. All I could get it to do was wind up the HDD, make a few clicks, wind down, and give me 1 long error flash followed by 6 short flashes. I sent and email to Buffalo Support and they suggested the TFTP Boot Procedure given in the Storage FAQ's. I was able to run that procedure through to the end and got blocks served on both uImage and initrd. The procedure says that after that point "the NAS typically boots into Emergency Mode" and I can continue fixing it (firmware update). As far as I can tell the device is not booting--it continues the same wind up, clicking, wind down/flashing sequence without any change.
I've been running this troubleshooting using a Windows XP Pro bootcamp partition on a MaBook Pro 2.4GHz. Since I haven't been able to communicate with the NAS, I have no idea what firmware is installed. In any case the Buffalo Support response suggested that the firmware was corrupted. Has anybody got any ideas on what I might try next?
By the sounds of it the unit has a faulty HDD. Not much you can do to be honest.