Thanks to some guidance (cheers Davo), I'm now able to access my Linkstation after a power-outage. Solution was a FW update, but the problem is it appears to have wiped out my former Shared and Personal folders,
BUT Navigator does say some 55Gb is in use, which MUST be my data - so how do I get at it?
Simply pressing "view shares" only shoes me the default set-up prosumably added after the FW update, and I'm guessing the FW update didn't reformat the disc, so how do I go about getting at it? I've tried other forum answers, but not found a clear response.
Many Thanks to those who've helped so far.
It sounds like it could be data corruption. Unfortunately your options are limited at this point. I would first try rebooting the NAS (if you haven't already) and recreating the missing shares. Other than that I would suggest exploring data recovery.
Dont do anything yet. The data is actually still there and you should be able to access if you follow these steps:
I am correct in assuming that the only shared folder left on the unit is "share" and "info" yes?
But your data was contained on other folders you created in the web admin page?
If this is the case then you should be able to log back onto the web admin page and recreate the shared folder/s using the exact same name and attributes.
If this is done correctly and the settings you entered are the same as you originally had then this will allow you access to the data once more.
Let me know how you get on.
I agree with this approach and have just been through the same loop with a 500Gb Linkstation.
I upgraded the firmware and all of my shared folders appeared to have gone. OK, I had backups elsewhere, but the thought of digging them out and spending hours sorting everything didn't seem like a good way to spend an evening..
A big clue that suggested the files were actually still there was that 400GB out of 500GB was 'used' according to the status on the web interface, even though it said I only had one share called 'share1' and that had nothing more than the buffalo manuals in it !
So, here is what I did:
Use ftp (plain ftp from your PC) to open the local address of your Buffalo box. Login as user (user) and password (password)
Run an 'ls' command to list all of the folders from the root. You should see one called disk1.
Type cd disk1 (then hit return)
Now do another ls command
This should list all of the shares (visible and invisible on the web interface).
Hopefully here you will see not only the visible share, but also your missing shares.
Take a screendump to make sure you can see exactly what they are called. (note with Linux Hello is not the same as hello ! - case is sensitivie)
Now go back to your web interface and re-create your missing shares with exactly the same names that you saw from your ftp sesssion. Hint: Try the least important one first as a test.
Once you have recreated your shares, go back to your Explorer/Finder etc and try to map a drive to it. You should see your shares and all of the files within.
I got back 100% of my files, and the whole process took no more than 5 minutes.
Now (as many people say): take a backup onto a separate device, like a USB drive, and just hope you will never need it.
Hopefully that will help a few people out of a hole. It taught me a lesson... if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it !
David (Newton Abbot, England, UK)