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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-323 => Topic started by: jeffers.r on June 26, 2010, 08:53:30 PM

Title: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: jeffers.r on June 26, 2010, 08:53:30 PM
For the life of me, I can't remember if I opted for EXT2 or EXT3 when I formatted my drives 6 months ago on my DNS-323, and I can't seem to locate the information anywhere now within the DNS tools. Any suggestions on how to figure this out?

Many thanks.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: dpo on June 27, 2010, 04:15:14 AM
It looks like firmware versions 1.02b and newer do not support EXT3, only EXT2. See for example release notes (ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Multimedia/dns323/Firmware/dns323_release_notes.txt) and other posts in this forum.

Chances are you're running a recent version of the firmware, in which case ypu must have formatted using EXT2.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: jamieburchell on June 27, 2010, 05:28:07 AM
Chances are you're running a recent version of the firmware, in which case ypu must have formatted using EXT2.

That's quite an assumption. If you are using 1.08 firmware or newer you could have chosen EXT2 or EXT3. Before that, you could have only chosen EXT2 (apparently down to 1.02b when EXT3 was supported).

You can easily find out if you have telnet/SSH access to the box by issuing the "mount" command. This will list all mount points and will show the filesystems used. If you don't, there's another way by using a "fun_plug" file - but I'm not allowed to tell you how to do that, because it's against D-Link rules :)

Another way, if you are brave, is to turn off your NAS, remove one of the drives and insert it in a PC and boot with a tool called GParted (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/) which will probably indicate the partitions and types on the drive. It will be the largest partition that you are interested in.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: jeffers.r on June 27, 2010, 05:40:46 AM
Thanks for the input!

I'm connecting to the NAS using CIFS through Linux, so when I use the mount command from within the linux machine I get something like this:

//192.168.x.xxx/NAS-01 on /mnt/NAS-01 type cifs (rw,mand)

It seems I can't SSH directly into the DNS-323 unless I install a fun_plug, which I'm not necessarily keen on doing. Or am I mistaken on that?

Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: jamieburchell on June 27, 2010, 05:45:54 AM
What you are seeing with that mount command is the result of connecting to the drives over the network, rather than directly.

You would need to install Fonz Fun Plug to get telnet/SSH access - but it's understandable if you don't want to go down that route just to find out the format of you drives :)

Are you running RAID1 or single drive(s)?
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: fordem on June 27, 2010, 07:52:07 AM
Actually - I'd take a second look at where dpo was coming from - and start by determining what version of the firmware you're running.

With anything between 1.03 ~1.08 - you have no choice but to you're run ext2, so you can forget any intricate test procedures - and with regard to telnet access, fonz fun_plug is not a necessity - you can create your own, much simpler fun_plug, and there's very little to fear.

fun_plug is nothing more than a script that runs at boot time and can be used to load whatever pre-complied code modules you wish to run.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: jamieburchell on June 27, 2010, 08:04:02 AM
I'm working on the assumption that you were given a choice of file system type, otherwise the answer is obvious. If you let me know if you are running RAID or not I'll PM you a one line script that will tell you.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: dosborne on June 27, 2010, 08:34:54 AM
Try this as a mount command:

mount -t smbfs //192.168.1.z/[sharename] -o username=xxxx,password=yyyy /mnt/nas

Using appropriate values of course to match your setup
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: jeffers.r on June 27, 2010, 09:50:25 AM
I'm running firmware v1.09 and I definitely had the option between EXT2 and EXT3 when I originally installed, that much I remember, although I was on 1.08 at the time. I'm currently running a RAID1.

As it turns out, I'll likely be looking into a fun_plug after all. In visiting these forums to inquire about determining the format type, I stumbled across the numerous posts about the WD20EARS and the problems associated with them, and I use these drives in a RAID1. So I might be reformatting my drives to accommodate the 4k and help improve performance.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: jamieburchell on June 27, 2010, 10:32:46 AM
I've just sent you a PM which should help.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: brianw on June 27, 2010, 05:26:14 PM
Is there something I'm missing by not being able to PUTTY into my NAS via Telnet?
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on June 27, 2010, 05:44:45 PM
That would be because you have to use fun_plug to enable Telnet.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: fordem on June 27, 2010, 06:59:23 PM
Is there something I'm missing by not being able to PUTTY into my NAS via Telnet?

Not really - if you're using the unit purely as a NAS, you can get by quite well without telnet access - however, having telnet access allows you to manipulate the unit directly and provides a great deal of flexibility - if you know what you're doing.

Oh - for what it's worth - PuTTY is a particular opensource telnet/SSH client - just one of the many available.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on June 28, 2010, 05:17:00 AM
To use simple Telnet, all you need is any recent version of Windows, you just have to enable the client.
Title: Re: Is there a way to determine the format type?
Post by: jamieburchell on June 28, 2010, 05:32:57 AM
To use simple Telnet, all you need is any recent version of Windows, you just have to enable the client.

I think he was asking what the benefits of using it are, rather than how to. I could be wrong though, it has been known.