LS220D USB UNFORMATTED - EPIC FAIL BUFFALO with proof !

[ciotta]

Hallo Buffalo users,
i'm an IT tech form Italy.

I got this problem with a brand new  LS220D:
No matter what USB drive i plug it shows UNFORMATTED... and results impossible to format, format fails.
It shows as UNFORMATTED all the USB drives i plug... also the perfectly working and visible as FORMATTED drive from my OLD (but better) Linkstation duo 2TB.

Before expalining the test i made i can assure i'm not the oly one with this problem...your forum is full of "impossible format USB" threrads...
Hey Buffalo, are you woirking on a FIX? If not you are making 1 step forward 2 steps backward....so bye bye Buffalo.

I tested this a lot today and i find at least 1 clue:
The only USB it mounts and shows as USBDisk1 (as share) are 2 Kingston's USB dongles...16GB and 64GB so it works with 16K clusters (max 61 GB)
Anything bigger is shown as UNFORMATTED in administration and INVISIBLE as a SHARE

WORKS on LS220D:
Kingstone
64 GB
FAT32
Cluster size 16k
Sector size 512byte

DOES NOT WORK:
USB 2.0 1TB (ext psu)
USB 3.0 2TB (ext psu)
no matters what kind of partition... FAT32, NTFS, EXT3 same problem.

If the old works better than the NEW.... fix fix fix the FW please !!!!!!!

USB 64GB working


USB 2.0 1TB (ext psu) WORKING on MY OLD Linkstation duo


SAME hard disk USB 2.0 1TB (ext psu) NOT WORKING on my NEW LS220

[joma90]

You know not all usb hard drives are supported right? they recommend buffalo usb products. Are you using that? also you can always format them yourself in ext3 i believe and go from there. if its ntfs or the apple format( dont use one so dont know it) then that could be your problem, though ntfs should be able to be read only, hmm... either or are you using buffalo usb hard drives?

[ciotta]

Thankyou joma90 for your answer.

I'm using WD external hard drives, i tested the 1TB and the 2TB... (both 3,5) so with External Powersupply.

When i was testing the 2TB, before writing this post i could PLUG the same USB 1TB Western Digital EXT3 formatted drive on both my BRAND NEW LS-220D and my 2 years old LS-WXL (linkstation duo).... RESULTS >>>
The LS-220D is UNABLE to see it... and the OLD LINKSTATION duo is able to recognise and see it.

Then i TESTED the USB WD 2TB drive with all those kind of partition formatting:
FAT32, NTFS, EXT3

NO WAY to see and use it.... the NEW LS-220D shows it as unformatted...everytime.
Reading your forum i noticed i'm not the only one with this problem.

SO i still need your help!

PS: Buffalo Drives... ? No thanks, i'll stay with Western Digital, i prefer to choose between product quality and history instead of unclear forum suggestions.



Firmware details are on the attached images, first message.

[joma90]

hmm... i read all the fw update logs and didn't see a fix there... So have you tired a factory restore.. only thing i can think here is either firmware is corrupted, there is a actual issue with the feature or the feature doesn't have enough support for all the usb drives your using. they have to add into the firmware certain information as move portable drives now in days aren't using the simple upnp. Some require drives from the manufacture. This is what i notice at least when working with the tons of usb drives i have. sometimes there is even a third party controller that the usb hard drives use for special software that comes with the drives. If anything i would call your support and notify them of the issue and explain how it works with certain sizes and how they work fine on the other unit. Either they will escalate the information or just replace the unit... depends. Thats really the best thing i can tell you. Its really hard to determine the cause when you dont have a mass section of usb disk and since i dont have this unit either. I cannot try this.

[ciotta]

Thanks joma90 for the detailed and clear answer.
I hope this is something related to corrupt fw install.
Is there any way to clear/reinstall the FW without erasing my data ? (shared folder) I remember there was a trick to enable hidden (debug)options on the firmware update executables...

+
A good thing for the company could be to have a database of working and not working devices.

Thanks again and have a nice weekend ;)

[Armand28]

Any luck resolving this?  I have one ancient usb drive fat32 formatted working, all of my other drives either won't mount or will show up but cannot format.  Don't advertise as supporting usb drives if you cannot support modern drives by PNY, WD and Samsung.