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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-323 => Topic started by: etneedshelp on April 12, 2010, 10:06:42 PM

Title: format drive non-RAID
Post by: etneedshelp on April 12, 2010, 10:06:42 PM

hi,
sorry for the elementary topic, but i cannot find adequate guidance in the usermanual or the forum.

i bought a new Western Digital 500 GB drive. i cannot get the DNS-323 to see it in the D-Link Easy Share, nor can i get it to show up for formatting through the configuration pages.  i have restarted computer and DNS-323 in all imaginable permutations, hit the reset button, removed and replaced drives etc..  i did, by mistake, reformat one of my other drives, so i suspect the formatting feature is working (but i don't actually know how i managed to do that.)  Upgraded to firmware 1.08.

i am not the network whiz, so i could believe if i'm missing something elementary.  thanks in advance for advice.

et

Title: Re: format drive non-RAID
Post by: fordem on April 13, 2010, 04:59:46 AM

If you're installing a new drive the DNS-323 should prompt you to format it when you login to the web interface - if this is not happening the unit may not be recognizing the drive, check the drive LED on the front to see if it's on, check the status page to see if it's listed.

Apart from that you can reformat a drive using the TOOLS/RAID menu page - please note if there are two drives this will format both drives, it does not allow you to select a single drive.

Title: Re: format drive non-RAID
Post by: etneedshelp on April 13, 2010, 02:43:12 PM

many thanks.
the LED does show up - blinks for a while then goes steady blue.
it is not listed in the status page.

with respect to formatting RAID, my understanding is that this is a different format than "normal" and that i would not have the same access to my stored data on that drive - as in not able to just copy files to that drive for later retrieval. 

thanks again.
et

Title: Re: format drive non-RAID
Post by: fordem on April 13, 2010, 04:26:38 PM

If it's not listed in the status page it's not recgnized for some reason.

With regards the RAID - that's where the format menu is, whether or not you're using RAID - if you want to format a drive, that's where you go.

As to your concept of RAID - be assured that data stored on a RAID drive is accessed exactly like any other drive.

RAID is about redundancy - about having your data available even if a disk fails - if you don't need it then don't use it, but, if you format a drive, you'll still have to go into the RAID menu and select standard drives.

Title: Re: format drive non-RAID
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on April 13, 2010, 04:39:50 PM

RAID-0 is about speed, but since there are other limitations on the box, it's really not all that useful in this particular product.  RAID-1 is about hardware redundancy as fordem states.

Title: Re: format drive non-RAID
Post by: etneedshelp on April 13, 2010, 11:16:49 PM

thanks both to fordem and gunrunnerjohn.  something seems to have worked to get the drive to recognize and format.