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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-323 => Topic started by: keiron on December 18, 2008, 10:31:34 PM

Title: Reboot wants me to format my hard drive!
Post by: keiron on December 18, 2008, 10:31:34 PM
I have just restarted my DNS-323, and a message pops up asking me to format my newly found second hard drive. This is a hard drive that I have been using successfully for over a month in the DNS....

I don't dare format anything due to the issues I am seeing with this dialogue box and formatting drives in the DNS! I don't particularly want to format it anyway. It was just fine yesterday!

Please help!
Title: Re: Reboot wants me to format my hard drive!
Post by: keiron on December 20, 2008, 04:25:17 PM
:( Has this never happened to anyone before? Support guys??
Title: Re: Reboot wants me to format my hard drive!
Post by: hilaireg on December 20, 2008, 04:43:44 PM
I'd suggest backing up your data off the DNS then resetting the DNS configuration to default - probably want to save your current config so that you can restore it after the reset. 

Before restoring your config, I would also recommend reformatting the HDD's a separate volumes to ensure that the "second" HDD is not actually faulty.  If all is good, reformat the HDD's as desired RAID1, etc.


Title: Re: Reboot wants me to format my hard drive!
Post by: keiron on December 21, 2008, 06:12:52 PM
Perhaps  I should have noted that both drives were formatted as separate volumes...

DLink tech told me that I should mount the HDD in a PC and used Ext2Fsd to access the data. I guess one of my problems is that I am no longer particularly trusting of the DNS! How often will it pop up and want me to format my drives? 1Tb of data on each drive can be a painful ting to backup whenever this thing has a spit.

WHY is it wanting to format my drive??
Title: Re: Reboot wants me to format my hard drive!
Post by: hilaireg on December 21, 2008, 08:12:53 PM
Hi keiron,

Are you receiving the re-format message after you have used the utility to access files on the HDD.  If it after, I suspect that the utility may be causing an anomally with the bits that define the partition on the HDD.

... this would be a good time for anyone who's used the utility to confirm as I haven't used the Ext2Fsd utility.
Title: Re: Reboot wants me to format my hard drive!
Post by: keiron on December 22, 2008, 03:16:11 AM
I was receiving the format message when the drive was only in the DNS, and had never been in a machine. It was working fine the day before as well.... this came about after a restart of the DNS

I have tried to format it, but it starts, gets to 4 - 5 %, then skips to 99-100 and says format fails, and a button to restart the DNS...

I have plugged the drive into a SATA compatible PC with Ext2Fsd installed - this showed the drive, but in RAW format and I was unable to access with Windows utilities to format. I use Hirin's boot disk and fdisk and formatted as FAT32, then replugged into the DNS, but still no luck with the actual format from within the DNS. I changed slots and tried again - no luck.

My other drive works fine in there (but I have taked it out whilst I do this stuff)

I am suspecting a hard drive problem. My problem is that I don't own a PC with SATA capabilities (I use lappies) and can't keep popping the HDD into and out of an accessible machine


Keiron
Title: Re: Reboot wants me to format my hard drive!
Post by: hilaireg on December 22, 2008, 05:24:44 AM
Hi keiron,

I suspect your HDD is faulty; I suggest purchasing USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable Adapter so that you can connect the HDD directly to your laptop.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2329300&CatId=3770


Once connected to your laptop, delete *all* partititions that appear on the HDD and recreate a partition in Windows XP/Vista and then format the partition.  If it fails, the HDD is most likely faulty.

If all goes well, remove the *all* the partitions you create using Windows/Vista and insert the HDD in your DNS and see if you can initialize the HDD for use with the DNS.  Note: you have to restart your Windows before you can delete the partition.