LS-QL Orange Drive LED, Flashing Power LED

[December]

I have an LS-QL with 2 existing drives setup as RAID 1.

 

I have 2 other hard drives which already contain data, and I want to add them to the unit. Both drives are stand-alone, ext3 formated and work well from another extenral case (but that has no networking, which is why I want to move the drives the LS).

 

I added them into bay 3 and 4, and started up the LS.

 

At first I get 4 green drive LEDs, but after a while, 3 and 4 go orange, and the power LED flashes from blue to  Long Red -> Long Red -> Short Red -> Short Red

 

I can't see any information in the manual about this, what does it mean? Why is the manual so completely useless? I can't even find ANYWHERE on the web while file systems are supported!

 

Great product, attrocious documentation!

 

Shouldn't I be able to add these 2 drives, to be used as stand-alone non-RAID drives in this way?

 

Under Drive Properties I see:

 

Disk 1 Status:RAID Array 1

Unit Name: WD10EADS-00L5B1

Total Capacity:976,762,584 kbytes (931.51 GB)

Disk 2 Status: RAID Array 1

Unit Name:WD10EADS-00M2B0

Total Capacity: 976,762,584 kbytes (931.51 GB)

Disk 3 Status:Standard Mode

Unit Name:WD10EARS-00Y5B1

Total Capacity: 976,762,584 kbytes (931.51 GB)

File Format: Not Available

Disk 4 Status: Standard Mode

Unit Name: WD10EARS-00Y5B1

Total Capacity: 976,762,584 kbytes (931.51 GB)

File Format: Not Available

?

What does file format: "Not Available" mean? It is also not mentioned in the manual.

 

Firmware version 1.11

[ESCHER]

Data filesystem is XFS, but additionally there also EXT3 and Swap operating system partitions.

Disks have to be newly formatted (and data deleted) by the LS. 

In case of trouble, I think you should delete the partition table before plugging the disks.

I notice also your firmware is outdated, current version is 1.54.

Maybe the manual does not matches the firmware you have installed.

[December]

So I have to erase the drive before using? If it supports ext3, why wouldn't the drives work as they are (ie. already in ext3 format). I have so much data on them (they are each 1Tb and about 75% full), I would need to buy 2 new drives to copy the data off onto first, would be cheaper to just buy a different brand NAS that does allow me to use exsiting filesystem instead!

 

Is there any way to use drives with existing (ext3) data on them without re-formating? Maybe there are some partition flags, or installing a different partition table..? Can I use something like gParted to modify the drives so the LS would accept them?

 

My actual model on the unti LS-Q1.0TL/1D, not LS-QL, sorry, my mistake. I think 1.11 is the latest firmware for that one.. although searching here ( http://www.buffalotech.com/support/downloads/? ) only shows 1.10! The Hong Kong site ( http://www.buffalo-asia.com/cgi-bin/support/index.cgi?country=hk? ) does show a 1.11 for that model (until was purchased here in HK)

 

Thanks for your help :-)

 

 

 

 

[ESCHER]

Sorry about firmware versions misunderstanding. I was wrong also anyway.

Linkstations partitions disk in a complicated way.

Unfortunately the disks must be formatted by the LS.

Maybe you can install a new disk in the free bay and attach the EXT3 disk with an USB adapter and copy the data.

[December]

I tried using a USB to connect the drive. I can't use direct copy (as most of the data is not media files), so tried using my PC.

 

For just 1 large folder (about 300Gb) it's going to take over 24 hours to copy!!!! The total data i have is around 1.5Tb, so it will take more then 5 days.

 

Obviously direct copy would work much faster (as it's not going from the USB -> LS -> Network -> My PC -> Network -> LS internal drive), but since that only copies media, it's useless for me.

 

Is there any way to do this without spending money on a new drive (and even then.. how do I get the 1.5Tb of data into the LS?) or waiting days and days for the transfers to happen? Both these options just seems ridiculous for a reasonably expensive NAS.

 

I could not find any way to copy folders from either the Admin or regular Web interface :-(

 

This product is really not as 'plug & play' as its advertised!

 

Since I assume it's running some form of Linux, is there any way to get SSH or Telnet access, then I could use simple shell commands to copy stuff from the USB to the internal without having to use my computer in the middle?

 

[ESCHER]

LS runs Linux and it is possible to open the firmware, but it is not so easy, nor a topic for this forum.

 

[December]

Thanks for the suggestion, a little reasearch online did point me to the right place. It's pretty sad I have to void the warranty on a product just to be able to do a very common task.

 

Its really very obvious that Buffalo put no thought into this product at all:

 

"Copy files from an external USB onto the Linkstation? Na, can't imagine why anyone would ever need to do that, lets not bother with such a feature" - Browsing forums all over the web, this is a very commen complaint.

 

Would it really have been that hard to add such a feature, it could be done in several ways:

 

1) Add "Copy" and "Move" functions to the Web interface (can't imagine it being more then a few lines of code)

2) Add an option to set "Media Files Only" or "All Files" for the Direct Copy function (again, probably only a few lines of code)

3) Add an SSH or Telnet option to allow more advanced users to do it themselves (and chances are someone would have written a small program to help the terminal-disadvantaged people)

 

This was my first, and will be my last Buffalo product, and I definitly won't be be recommending it to anyone - quite the opposite: If Buffalo can't even think of something so obvious (seriously, who though a 'copy only media' feature would actully be useful?) then they really don't put much throught into how people might use their products. Based on how often this has come up on various forums, at least a firmware update to address the problem could have been release.. but no. Best to avoid Buffalo products all-together.

 

[ESCHER]

I think you could try to use the "backup" function.

I am not familiar with your model, but if there is a backup function, you could select directories on the USB drive as source and your target disk as destination.