Linkstation HS-DHGL version 1 & 2 disk replacement.

[parky_dw]

I have recently got hold of two Buffalo Linkstations in the HS-DHGL series.  One is a 'version 1' and the other is a 'version 2'. (The internal arrangement and back panels are different).

I have a couple of problems that I hope somebody can help me with.

When I insert a fresh drive into each linkstation:
With version 2 I can successfully install the firmware using the TFTP approach. (Reset button pressed before powering up - Linkstation comes up on 192.168.11.150 and downloads the initial files from a TFTP server on 192.168.11.1).
With version 1, what ever I try, the TFTP server never receives any requests.

Question 1a. How do I get the Linkstation (version 1) to start up in the recovery mode?
Question 1b. If it supports a different recovery mode what is it?

[The above is more out of curiosity. My work around is to initialise the drive in the Version 2 housing and then transfer it to the Version 1 housing]

I tried using a 1.5TB Western Digital hard drive (WD15EADS) without success.  The firmware loads and the Linkstation comes up on the network but the drive is shown as unformatted.  When I try and format the drive it fails rather than completing successfully.  I tried out a 2TB Toshiba drive and that worked without any problems.  I have two of Western Digital drives and both behave in a similar manner.  Checking the 'smart' status they report OK and also pass the "short" test.  Currently I'm running the 'long' test which takes over 6 hours to complete.

Question 2: Are the Linkstations particularly fussy about the drives they support?

Any input appreciated.

David

[LearningCurve]

Wow, I've not been on here for a long time and don't know if you are still checking your posts or not.
I bought one of these units without a drive installed a long while ago now.  As with you, no matter what I tried, I could not get a drive to work.
All I kept getting was the drive error code.  I shelved it for later.
Now much later I have bought another with a 500gb drive installed and working.
After some testing and swapping around, I determined that my original unit was fully functional, I swapped the drive over and it worked without fault.
I considered formatting a drive in the "new" unit but that failed so what I did was attach the working drive as an external drive to my PC.
Now I use Linux so this may be different for you.
I ran Gparted to look at the partitioning on the drive and noted it's setup.
I then copied that setup to a different drive.
I used DD to make iso files of the partitions on the original drive and uploaded them onto the relevant partitions on the new drive thus copying the files.  I found that I couldn't do it using copy and paste as there are a lot of empty files which that wouldn't process!
The new drive worked fine.
In windows parlance, you should be able to use fdisk for the partitioning, I can't remember off the top of my head what you would use for the iso files, it's been a long time since I last used windows.
Obviously using your newer unit to initialise a new drive would be simpler but this method might get an awkward drive to work.
It also works when putting a larger capacity drive in.
I haven't a clue whether these units are fussy about the make and model of drives or not, I tried several different ones without success.
It might be due to their age, we are almost certainly trying to use drives which simply did not exist when they were made!
Anyway, good luck