New 4TB disks not recognized in Buffalo NAS LS-WXL series

[paolaG]

Hello, I have the following problem with my Buffalo NAS (Linkstation LS-WXL, 2 bays) and wonder if you can help me.

I have bought 2 new hard disks Seagate Compute 4TB and have installed them into the two bays, but they are not recognized.

I have tried three times the following procedure:

I insert the two unformatted disks into the bays.
I turn on the unit.
The blue light flashes for about one minute.
The red info error light starts flashing (6 flashes + 3 seconds pause.
The unit is not reachable from the Nas Navigator 2 and not even on the network.
I hold the functions button for 5 seconds.
The blue light starts flashing repeatedly and continues for hours and hours, without anything happening (the unit does not become visible in the Nas Navigator 2 or on the network).
I turn off the unit, but it stays on, with the blue light still blinking and the fan spinning.
To turn off the unit I have to unplug the power cord.

Notice
The unit is connected to the switch in my home small network.
On my first attempt I formatted both disks. Then I read that disks must be unformatted, and have removed the partition.
I have read various threads, without success until now.

Thank you.

Paola

[davo]

The OS is on the original disks so you need the TFTP (OS) image to get the unit working with new disks.

[1000001101000]

Here's a thread with details about installing the firmware on new/blank drives:

http://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php?topic=30419.0

[paolaG]

Hello, thank you for your replies. I see it is getting complicated for me.

The thing is, I simply want to install new disks and start again from scratch copying files into the. I do NOT want any of the files contained in the previous disks to be transferred to these new drives (one of which appears to be damaged).

Is there no other way to do this, except the intervention of a specialist?

Thank you.

Paola

[1000001101000]

The link I posted describes how to do exactly what you describe.

If yours is a WXL/E there is an easier method described in the quick start guide:

http://buffalo.jp/support_ap/support/products/ls_wxl.html

[paolaG]

Hello 1000001101000, thank you for your time and help. The Buffalo was a present from my old boy friend some years ago, who was a network specialist in an industrial company. Unfortunately my present mate cannot tell the difference between a toaster and a computer and i am trying to find a solution by myself, because I think the nas is still valuable and i do not want to throw it away.

While i am reading the page you posted, could you please confirm that both new drives must be inserted unformatted, without partitions?

Thanks :-)

Paola

[1000001101000]

Yes, the methods I linked two above all require starting with blank drives.

[paolaG]

Hello everybody, after so many attempts i may be on the right road. At the moment the raid 1 configuration has been rebuilt on the two new drives and the raid array status is "checking...". It seems it will take about 1300 minutes to finish, so I will see what happens tomorrow.

I explain what i have done in case others may be interested.

In the beginning in the unit were two 1tb disks in raid 1 and i needed extra space.

The nas was connected in the small home network through a network cable and it could be browsed.

Inserting the two blank 4tb disks made the nas totaly invisible in the network.

After many attempts i tried to leave in the unit one of the old disks and put a new on in the other slot and apparently it worked.

Also in this phase I did various attempts and for this reason i cannot explain in precise details what happened.

I also reinstalled the linkstation software, downloaded from the Buffalo website.

When the new disk 4tb was visible in the linkstation at 192.168.0.6 i removed the old 1tb disk and put in the other 4tb disk.

Meanwhile I destroyed and rebuilt the disk configuration a couple of times, restarted the nas and erased the full content of all disks, but please do not ask me in which order.

It seems it was the right way and when both 4tb disks were visible in the linkstation i could rebuild the array 1 configuration.

As i said now all is being checked for about another 20 hours. I hope that switching off the computer and leaving the nas on will continue the proces and maybe tomorrow this time all will be over.

Meantime i have created a new root folder in the nas and apparently all works.

I'll let you know tomorrow, thank you for your help.

Paola

[paolaG]

All works! At the end of the checking procedure i have restarted the unit and it was ready to go.