D-Link Forums

The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-325 => Topic started by: Blaq on September 06, 2014, 07:46:43 PM

Title: Both LEDs flash amber, but HD shows as OK
Post by: Blaq on September 06, 2014, 07:46:43 PM

Hello,

I have a DNS-325 with two Western Digital Red 3TB drives. After using it for a few weeks, both its LEDs were flashing amber, but operation seemed unaffected. (Both drives passed the SMART test; file access, e.g. backing up my PC, worked fine.) This past summer, I ran into a problem and reformatted everything. The LEDs would flash white as expected during access.

I have now come back from vacation to find that my recent overnight backups have failed (out of space) and:

• Both LEDs flash amber.
• 2/3 of the drive space is occupied by "unknown" data, as per WinDirStat on my PC.

Some debugging info:

• Firmware is 1.03
• The NAS dashboard's Scan Disk utility reports "This volume has been successfully scanned." Result for Volume_1 is "Success".
• Both drives pass the SMART test.
• Going to Disk Management > Hard Drive Configuration > Current RAID Type doesn't show any info, just the spinning "Waiting" icon. (It was originally set to RAID 1.)
• The "My files" application shows "null" as the root folder, with nothing inside.

1) What is the source of this huge unknown area?
2) How can I fix the amber-LES situation?

Since the product is discontinued, I can't get help from D-Link. Thanks for helping me solve this problem.

Title: Re: Both LEDs flash amber, but HD shows as OK
Post by: cable2 on September 07, 2014, 07:07:42 AM

Hi Blaq,
First things first, somehow you should backup your data to an external source before trying anything.  The next thing I would try would be a hard reset, i.e., use a toothpick or whatever in that reset hole on the back with the unit powered on.  Hold it in for about 10-15 seconds and allow unit to reboot.  Check to see if this has any effect on your unknown data space which appears to be causing your immediate issues.  I doubt it will but worth a try.  Read this link: http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=c63ea11b64e5a3c819c5436ebd4b987c&topic=52519.0 and this one:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=c63ea11b64e5a3c819c5436ebd4b987c&topic=46508.0

If you have trouble accessing your data try these tools: http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=c63ea11b64e5a3c819c5436ebd4b987c&topic=41398.0
Consider not using RAID 1 but 2 standard drives with perhaps multiple daily local backups from Volume_1 to Volume_2 or redo everything and see if you can avoid a third Raid 1 failure.  Good luck

Title: Re: Both LEDs flash amber, but HD shows as OK
Post by: Blaq on September 07, 2014, 04:57:44 PM

Thanks for your reply. I reset the NAS and, after rebooting, am still getting:

• Windows shows my 943GB backup folder (the only one in root), but drive properties show the drive as full.
• The NAS UI's right-sidebar Storage Status shows "2748.19GB / 9792MB Available   99%" which is definitely wrong. (My RAID-1 drives are 3GB)

What now? I'm stuck with a discontinued NAS that's acting flaky; certainly not something I can trust with my backups. Do you or someone else have further troubleshooting tips? What about that open-source firmware I hear about?

Thanks.