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I just bought a Linkstation Quad as well as 4 Seagate 1.5TB drives to use in it. I installed the Quad software and removed the RAID configuration from the pre-installed drives. I then swapped those with the Seagates but now I cannot access the Quad or drives at all. It is not recognized by the software.

 

This is strange as one of the points that attracted me to the Quad is that you can replace the drives. I did everything correctly and made sure the new drives were compliant with the voltage and security requirements in the user manual. I even asked about the ability to swap drives on this forum before buying and was told by the moderator that this was doable.

 

Can anyone please help?

 

Pete

Drives on the devices can be swapped with the use of the TFTP software that will load the partition on the drives.  I don't have one for the Quad as of yet, however I will pass up the request to get this software made as soon as possible. The drives on this device are designed to be changed one at a time pending your RAID configuration.

   

Paul,

 

Thank you for the reply and for working on the TFTP for the Quad. In the mean time, I might swap the original drives back in, build a RAID array, and the swap the new drives in one-by-one.

 

Pete

If you do that it will only use the size of the original drive on your new larger drive.

 

Think of it like a old ghost program, you can copy an image to the same size drive or larger, however if you do send it to a larger drive you can not access or use the extra space. 

   

Hi again, Paul. Thanks for replying.

 

Well, I don't have anything on the original drives yet since I just bought the Quad. So if I swap the discs in one-by-one, at first I would only have access to the more limited disc space. But then if I reconfigure the RAID array once all the new drives are in, would I then be able to utilize all of the disc space on the new drives?

 

Or is there a better option?

 

Best,

Pete

That should work, rebuild the RAID would force the unit to see them.

Let me know if you have any other issues with it.

   

Paul,

 

After a bit of trial and error, I was able to get the drives formatted externally in XFS and then again internally one-by-one. Finally replaced all the drives and the Quad recognized them and allowed me to proceed with building the new RAID5 array with full disk space. After about 38 hours of diskcheck, everything now looks OK.

 

Pete

Good, we will work on making an easier way of doing this.

   

Hello,

I have recently purchased a LinkStation Quad and have also bought the Seagate 1.5TB hard drives as well. I haven't even powered up the Quad yet as I was waiting to work on it once I had the drives. I was wondering If you guy's had the TFTP software or some other type of software available yet to help with swapping out the drives? If not, what is the easiest way to swap out the drives and to have the Quad recognize the full size of the 1.5TB drives? I have the 2TB model with 4-500GB drives.

 

Thanks!

As of now its one by one and restructuring between each swap.

 

When done delete the array 

 

Then you can build it how ever you want.

 

PLEASE NOTE THIS WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY WITH BUFFALO.

   

Thank you for the response. Sorry for the delayed reply. I've been on vacation and thankfully unable to be connected with the outside world.

 

What is actually voiding my warranty? I've looked throughout the manual and the only statement I can see were I could have a problem is this:

 

"Your product warranty may be void if you mount a non-approved hard drive in the LinkStation. Buffalo's OP-HD series drives are recommended."

 

...or is there something else that would voiding my warranty. 

 

I've been searching around and have been unsuccessful in finding the list of approved hard drives.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

   No, it voids your warranty. Often times by users doing this they can brick their NAS's permanently. Buffalo doesn't support it and it does void your warranty.

   

I guess maybe I'm being a little dense here but I'm not quite understanding what is actually causing me to void the warranty?

 

1.) the act of swapping out a hard drive, which is a supported and advertised feature in the manual and does not say voids the warranty

 

or

 

2.) the fact that the hard drive that I plan to be replacing the existing hard drives with is a non-approved hard drive.

 

If I replaced a drive with a Buffalo approved hard drive then the warranty should not be void as it states this in the manual.

 

It seems to me that it clearly states in the manual that it supports swapping out drives and there is no mention if this voiding a warranty. I have a hard time believing that replacing a hard drive one at a time would cause the NAS to brick as I have done this with other NAS products. Isn't that kind of the point or a main feature of a NAS that supports RAID configurations, to be able to swap out the drives, whether it's because your replacing a bad drive or upgrading drives for more storage, without causing problems.

 

I'm looking for a specific reference or proof that shows were a definite line has been crossed that causes the warranty to be voided.

 

Thanks!

 

P.S. Sorry if this has gotten somewhat off the original topic. I guess you guys can move it elsewhere if needed.

I understand your questions, however changing the hard drives with an approved buffalo hard drive refers to a hard drive provided by our RMA department.  This would be the same make and model as well as size as the original drive.

   

Paul,

 

Thank you for your response, that explanation makes sense. That was the kind of explanation I was looking for. So Buffalo doesn't support the swapping out of it's pre-installed hard drives by a customer.

 

Thanks again!

   

is the boot image for quad available?  cos i got an out of warranty unit from a friend and would like to take out the only drive in there and put in 4 new 1tb drives and use as backup for my existing quad.

ftp://24.153.165.234/disk1/share/nas-recovery/

 

There ya go!

   josh, thanks.  sorie to keep asking question on boot image over 2 threads...  the link in this forum is for US?  how about singapore?  tink my fren unit is bought locally here in singapore.

You need to contact your local support and find out through them.