Buffalo Drive Station Quattro on RAID 5 - losing files and not booting Vista

[plafortue]

Hello,  I am hoping someone can help me out here..  I have been having problems with this unit.

 

I have the Buffalo Drive Station Quattro HD-QS2.0TSU2R5 in Raid 5 configuration using eSata cable; on Windows Vista.

 

I recently bought the unit to store 1.8TB of RAR files contaning jpeg images only.

 

Everything was working fine for a few months and then some RAR files started to be corrupted (about 20GB worth of files!).  Now I'm getting a lot more corrupted RAR files which I was accessing without poblems before.  I don't understand how can this could have happenned? these are simple RAR files.

 

I am dissapointed because the unit is losing so many important files and I really need to know what's going on. I am afraid of using it now since it is corrupting files somehow. I can't trust it!

 

Please help!

[Dustrega]

When you formatted the device did you do so via USB or eSATA?

[plafortue]

I formatted it in eSata. I have also installed the TurboUSB to be able to use it in Turbo when using USB.  I am aware not to use both at the same time but is it okay to use it sometimes in eSata and some other times in USB (when using it on my laptop for instance)?  - Is this why it is corrupting files, because i'm not sticking to one?

 

I was able to fix my "Access Denied" problem and RAID drive work either in USB or eStata. (had change my permissions back to 'Everyone')

 

But I still don't undertand why I lost so many files, I have so many RAR files now that are corrupted!

 

Is it because I am using it in eSata and sometimes in USB?

 

I also have an eSata card which I have used sometimes instead of my external eSata plug. But that should not make my files corrupted!

 

I have also replaced the 4 Hitachi Deskstar 500GB drives by 4 Hitachi Deskstar 2TB drives - could that be the cause?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated; I really need to understand why my Buffalo Quattro is losing/corrupting my files.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Phil.

[Dustrega]

You need to format in USB first because eSATA only handles signaling not formatting.  That's probably most of the issue in a nutshell.

[plafortue]

Actually the drives were already formatted.. thats what I meant to say... 

 

Do you have any ideas on why I am getting corrupted files?   

 

 

[Dustrega]

They may have been formatted but in order to transfer some larger files the device needs to be formatted to a file system that will support it.  Since these devices are both PC and Mac compatible their respective format is not pre-determined, the partition needs to be formatted.  If you formatted via eSATA then that is most likely the cause of the corruption and I would suggest a re-format via USB.  Using USB and eSATA interchangeably to transfer data will not cause the corruptions you're describing in most scenarios.

[plafortue]

Thanks for your answers; much appreciated.  Drive were pre-formated so I didn't need to re-format them again for this simple usage of small files backup. Beside, re-formating four 2TB drive will take forever and Hitachi confirmed their format are Windows/Vista Ready.

 

After shock, I lost 662 GB of data, 46,773 RAR files... (average per file is small, no large files here) these files were corrupted after moving/transfering from my main computer to this Buffalo drive using eSata. All files were transfered but they are all damaged, I cannot open of fix any RAR files.

 

This is definately my worst experience/disaster with any Hard Disk system out of my 25 years using computers. I don't understand how the files were transfered and left dead on its destination (still taking the space on the HD) without any errors during the transfer. Transfer was fine, opening files was not -- not quite reliable here.  How can Buffalo explain this?

 

Without backup, this is so sad.

[Dustrega]

Look, since you're not willing to re-format or troubleshoot there's nothing further I can do to help you.  I have given my recommendations and they have been ignored and that's your choice.