D-Link Forums
The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-321 => Topic started by: gallamine on September 10, 2009, 08:48:35 AM
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I tried installing DriveClone Pro 5, the software that came with my DNS-321, but the drive image feature would crash the software. I contacted Farstone, the maker of Drive Clone, but they no longer support version 5 and want me to pay to upgrade.
I'm pretty frustrated/disappointed that the DNS-321 came with software that isn't supported. Was this a mistake in my DNS-321 box, or do all of them come with outdated software? ???
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We will work with Farstone to make sure they are properly supporting the software. In the mean time, what OS are you using. Are you trying to run the image from the OS or from bootup? Can you provide links to the error (images) or the error text.
The more information the quicker we can diagnose the issue.
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I was testing DriveClone PRO 5 as it came with my 2nd DNS-321 NAS.
I was looking for something that would do a image backup to the NAS as well as provide system level backup. The goal was to find something and install that on my wife's computer which is running Windows XP PRO.
I gave DriveClone PRO 5 a spin since it came with my NAS. Thing is my first DNS-321 actually has Mimeo. The Mimeo software did not sound good since it does real-time backup of files as they change. Not something I wanted to do on my wife's wireless connection.
If DriveClone PRO 5 would have done the job I would have opted to pick up a second copy for my system. Easier to support my wife's setup if I am running the same software.
Well I first tried DriveClone PRO 5 on Windows 7 and it seemed to work fine for the regular backup and the system image thing it does on bootup. But selecting to do a complete image backup caused an immediate crash. I figured the issue was with Windows 7 and went ahead and installed it on my Vista Ultimate 64 system. Even went ahead and registered it.
Well I tried the complete image backup option and I got the same crash. So I uninstalled the package and went for DriveImage XML for the image backup on my wife's system. Under Vista Ultimate 64 I decided to use the built in backup software for the image backup. Seem to be trouble free. Can not save the image to NAS but for the image backup that is fine. I did install DriveImage XML so I can re-image my wife's drive should it go bad and I can check her backups to make sure they are complete. I plan on doing monthly image backups.
I also backup my 1st DNS-321 to my 2nd DNS-321 using RoboCopy. I also use RoboCopy for small backups of other data sets on my system.
Both systems are also doing regular scheduled backups using the Windows Backup to the NAS. This seems to be working very well. I just had to use the user name EVERYONE with no password. I really don't like the fact that Vista backup does not allow backups of .exe and .bat files unless they are pre-compressed '.zip'. Of course the full image backup does save those items.
It's to bad the DriveClone Pro 5 did not work as it looked like not to bad a package. I just did not have the time or the desire to work through the issues.
I did check Farstone's site and the lack of even one update on the product and no bug reports did not leave a good feeling about the product.
Maybe no one uses the product they only get it with their hard drive or NAS?
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I've got the exact same issue. Driveclone crashes immediately when I try to use the "Back up my Computer" function. Every time. Every computer.
No info or updates on the Driveclone site. Only upgrade choice is to pay $30. Not likely if this is the way it works.
Can Dlink do something to fix this?
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Here's what the Windows XP error report says:
AppName: fsmain.exe AppVer: 1.0.0.7 ModName: dc30_treeui.dll
ModVer: 1.0.0.1 Offset: 00008724
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I still have Drive Clone Pro 5 installed on one of my VM instances running 'Windows 7'.
Here are the results from selecting full backup option.
From Event log:
Faulting application name: fsmain.exe, version: 1.0.0.7, time stamp: 0x47f995b8
Faulting module name: DC30_TreeUI.dll, version: 1.0.0.1, time stamp: 0x4805ba1e
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00008724
Faulting process id: 0xcbc
Faulting application start time: 0x01ca33e9a17df5b8
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\FarStone\DriveClone Pro\fsmain.exe
Faulting module path: C:\PROGRA~2\FarStone\DRIVEC~1\CBP\DC30_TreeUI.dll
Report Id: 0c1d2ecd-9fdd-11de-86aa-000c2948e917
My... that looks like the XP error you have.
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I have the same crashing issue - using Drive Clone 5.1.0 that came with my system. They seem to have a free upgrade to version 6, but when trying to install it, it also crashed saying it could not find the file it just downloaded. Very sad.
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I just installed the DriveClone 5 software on a 64 bit Vista machine and it will not even recognize my hard drives to clone. After a few moments, I get the whole program to crash.
So far I have not had any response from Farstone's tech support.
How do we get the version 6 update?
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Bundled free software is frequently worth every penny you paid for it. ::)
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I finally got a reply from Farstone and they sent me the version 6 of Driveclone with the new license. I tried it out and so far it has worked great for my purposes.
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I have the same issue with DriveClone 5 installation on Windows 7--crash at Computer backup.
I contacted them, them repied with Ticket number.
I sent them my Dns-321 serial number and Cd Key like they asked but I have not heard from them since.
Still waiting
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I tried Using this Software as well with my dlink 321 and like others I had a Crah At Back up my computer. I am Running Windows 7 64bit And resolution to the Problem yet?
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I tried Using this Software as well with my dlink 321 and like others I had a Crah At Back up my computer. I am Running Windows 7 64bit And resolution to the Problem yet?
Contact farstone support. The have a procedure for these type of things :).
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I am having the same problem and it is more than two months later. Absolutely NOTHING on the D-Link website OR the FarStone website to update the software of owners of the DNS-321. Perhaps it is time that D-Link found a different software vendor or had their own program developed? I am a little concerned now. I purchased my DNS-321 and it arrived today. Now I am looking online and I am finding that support is "lacking" on many different fronts.
Alfred
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As a rule, free software you get with a device is worth every penny you paid for it. There are tons of backup options that will serve you better, I'd cut your losses.
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Memeo works pretty well. In fact, I thought that the DNS-321 came with Memeo when I purchased it. Also, the software is not exactly free, it is factored in to the price and is a big enough part of the feature set touted in the marketing.
I have played around with various NAS devices over the years and I am not exactly loving this one just yet. Let's see what FarStone has to say. At the very least D-Link should get their act together and have a link on their site to update the software.
Alfred
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I am having the same problem and it is more than two months later. Absolutely NOTHING on the D-Link website OR the FarStone website to update the software of owners of the DNS-321. Perhaps it is time that D-Link found a different software vendor or had their own program developed? I am a little concerned now. I purchased my DNS-321 and it arrived today. Now I am looking online and I am finding that support is "lacking" on many different fronts.
Alfred
As stated a post above yours, contact farstone. They can fully support any issues you are having.
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I have tried to reach them for the past two days via email and telephone. No one answers via telephone (not even hitting 0 or going through the sales option)
Are they still in business?
Alfred
As stated a post above yours, contact farstone. They can fully support any issues you are having.
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I would recommend NOT using DriveClone. I had gotten an upgraded vesion (ver 6) from then for free to fix a windows 7 problem, but it would still crash so they made me buy the newest version (ver 7) for $20 which i didn't think was too bad all-in-all considering. Absolutely horrible! It actually INCREASED the size of my backup stored on the NAS. I had about 80GB of data that i backed up with high compression. It ended up being ~102 GB stored on disk. Once i saw this i stopped trusting the software especially since it puts it in it's own format.
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Acronis True Image for bootable images, ROBOCOPY for data. Both a lot cheaper and a lot more reliable. :)
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Not only did version 5 crash every time I tried to make a back-up, but it made my laptop unstable and it would give me a blue screen every few minutes. I had to uninstall it completely and now my machine is running well.
I have a copy of Norton Ghost, guess I will have to use that. (At least I can count on Symantec answering the telephone!) I purchased the DNS-321 to use primarily as a back-up device. I want to create an image of the drives of my laptop and my wifes laptop with incremental back-up. At some point I want to try to create the image, install two new hard drives in my laptop, format in RAID 1 and restore the image. (I have a new Gateway laptop with two HD bays which I LOVE)
Alfred
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Farstone's DC 5 is a 2 year old application. One of the big selling points for me w3as real-time backup and I was looking forward to the software everyone raved about in the reviews I read. (Memeo?!). 321 shows up yesterday, I install it and discover, as all of you have, that I have unsupported, poorly engineered, non-functional, backup software.
D-Link, we need a REAL application with our bundle plz.
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It took two days, but they finally replied to my support request asking for the Serial Key, DNS-321 serial number and they wrote "Dlink bundled our older software with their hardware which is DriveClone Pro 5.
If you would like an upgraded version of our software please provide me with these items.
1.Dlink serial number
2.Drive Clone Pro 5 serial number
3.The receipt for the dlink"
D-Link needs to update the software they ship or put a link on their website so that it can be downloaded. I can not tell you how disappointing it is to receive a product with old firmware and worthless software. Plus, after spending an hour reading through this forum I see that there are many "bugs" which will probably never be addressed.
I have purchased over 100 D-Link items over the years for myself or clients because they are relatively inexpensive and work well, but this is raising some serious red flags.
Alfred
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It took two days, but they finally replied to my support request asking for the Serial Key, DNS-321 serial number and they wrote "Dlink bundled our older software with their hardware which is DriveClone Pro 5.
If you would like an upgraded version of our software please provide me with these items.
1.Dlink serial number
2.Drive Clone Pro 5 serial number
3.The receipt for the dlink"
D-Link needs to update the software they ship or put a link on their website so that it can be downloaded. I can not tell you how disappointing it is to receive a product with old firmware and worthless software. Plus, after spending an hour reading through this forum I see that there are many "bugs" which will probably never be addressed.
I have purchased over 100 D-Link items over the years for myself or clients because they are relatively inexpensive and work well, but this is raising some serious red flags.
Alfred
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I will contact FarStone and investigate this to see if we can expedite this process.
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I would recommend NOT using DriveClone. I had gotten an upgraded vesion (ver 6) from then for free to fix a windows 7 problem, but it would still crash so they made me buy the newest version (ver 7) for $20 which i didn't think was too bad all-in-all considering. Absolutely horrible! It actually INCREASED the size of my backup stored on the NAS. I had about 80GB of data that i backed up with high compression. It ended up being ~102 GB stored on disk. Once i saw this i stopped trusting the software especially since it puts it in it's own format.
Do you have an email instructing you to purchase Version 7?
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Do you have an email instructing you to purchase Version 7?
Unfortunately I do not anymore since I no longer have that email address.
Although I would like to point out that FarStone no longer offers DriveClone Pro on there companies website. My guess is they ditched this software and replaced it with TotalRecovery. D-link may want to look into the software they offer now since even the company doesn't offer it.
http://www.farstone.com/software/driveclone-pro.php (http://www.farstone.com/software/driveclone-pro.php)
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Unfortunately I do not anymore since I no longer have that email address.
Although I would like to point out that FarStone no longer offers DriveClone Pro on there companies website. My guess is they ditched this software and replaced it with TotalRecovery. D-link may want to look into the software they offer now since even the company doesn't offer it.
http://www.farstone.com/software/driveclone-pro.php (http://www.farstone.com/software/driveclone-pro.php)
DriveClone was simply renamed to TotalRecovery. It was not ditched.
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Regardless of the applications name. The bundled software does not work with the current level of OS most people run (Vista and 7).
That being the case, http://www.farstone.com/software/totalrecovery-pro.php should be the new bundled application. This isn't a Farstone issue, this is a D-Link issue that THEY need to resolve with Farstone; and then pass along to their customers.
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Here's my backup solution since DLink can't seem to solve the software issue.
Microsoft provides a free power toy named SyncToy. You configure folder pairs and define a sync direction then schedule it to run with Task Scheduler. Totally free and functional backup; NOT a drive image solution, just data backup. Takes a while to run the first time but thereafter it only echos the changes from source to destination.
I dump a copy of my data to a local secondary drive using SyncToy and then clone that folder to my mirrored disk set in my 321.
Link to SyncToy download.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en)
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I use Acronis True Image for image backups, and I have Beyond Compare for large sync jobs, and I also have SyncToy for some misc. backups. I schedule all of these using Task Manager and let it wake the machine up late at night for the backups.
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I got stuck with the wrong Drive Clone for Windows 7. They sent me a new version for free but that doesn't work either. It couldn't open the drive. It could see everything but not open it. I uninstalled and put the original software on a Windows XP machine. That could see the drive and started writing to it, but the backup job failed for unknown reasons.
I also found it odd that Windows 7 Explorer can see the drive and move files back and forth but Windows Backup and Drive Management cannot see the drive at all.
The upshot is I have an overpriced external drive. At least the UP-server works. Otherwise this would be a total bust. >:( >:( >:(
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Do yourself a favor and switch to Acronis True Image Home 2010, it can be had for $28 mail-order: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832200012&cm_re=acronis-_-32-200-012-_-Product
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Thx but I'm worried nothing will work since Windows 7 tools (Backup and Drive Mgmt) can't even see the drive on the network. That seems like an issue apart from Drive Clone, but when I called D-link all they could suggest was installing the software on an XP machine.
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Well, Disk Management doesn't work for network drives, so it won't see it. Also, Windows Home versions don't support backup to networks as well, here's the features matrix: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/default.aspx
Acronis True Image works on the network for Windows 7 Home or the Pro/Ultimate versions, I use both here.
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Thanks. Will look into Acronis.
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As a rule, free software you get with a device is worth every penny you paid for it. There are tons of backup options that will serve you better, I'd cut your losses.
Do you have any suggestions? I bought the DNS-321 because the product data sheet specifically says:
SIMPLIFIED MANAGEMENT
With the included feature-rich backup software, you
can create schedules and rules including real-time full
or incremental backups. The Web-based configuration
software allows users to establish storage quotas
for specific users and groups. The DNS-321 can
automatically back up your data regardless of the
Operating System (OS) of your computer (Windows®,
Mac®, or Linux®).
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I am concerned after reading this thread. I had this hardware purchased because of the following description...
SIMPLIFIED MANAGEMENT
With the included feature-rich backup software, you
can create schedules and rules including real-time full
or incremental backups. The Web-based configuration
software allows users to establish storage quotas
for specific users and groups. The DNS-321 can
automatically back up your data regardless of the
Operating System (OS) of your computer (Windows®,
Mac®, or Linux®).
However, it seems that it doesn't do this. It comes with DriveClone but DriveClone only works on Windows and is only an Image creator which you have to go through the process upon restarting and not able to use your computer while it is imaging. I don't know if it works or not because I just canceled the process. I don't need imaging, I need "real-time full or incremental backups" that D-Link advertises. It also needs to work on Windows and Mac.
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Well, I installed the DriveClone software that came with my DNS-321 and after a few weeks the computer went completely blank and upon restart, I get the following error
Cannot initialize me, error code: 3
Please uninstall me, and contact DriveClone FAQ.
Real descriptive ehhh? Well, calling Farstone was a waste of time because no one answers the phone. Emailing them proved unsuccessful as well. Then I figured, the software comes with Dlink products, they might know something about it. Nope, not a chance. They didn't know what I was talking about. I figure that the MBR got corrupted and I will try to repair it, but thanks Dlink for the great support and way to stand by your product that you sell and its packaged software.
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I am really disappointed with my purchase of this product. I thought I would make use of a couple of 500gb hard drives, but the process has been anything but simple. Putting the drives in the box was easy. But windows 7 wouldn't recognize the drives. I installed DriveClone 5 and my nightmare began. BSOD for several hours ... said there was a driver conflict. Called Farout or whoever they are ... twice ... this has been a week ago ... no callback. Finally was able to do a restore and remove the software. Thought there might be a conflict with my Seagate software so, yesterday, deinstalled seagate and tried again. This time the crappy software mucked up my master boot record and the system responded with "system software missing." Finally figured out how to fix that and after several more hours got the computer up and running again. Bought acronis which is great software but it still won't recognize the d-link drives. Does anyone know how to make this work?
I could have simply bought a 2tb esata disk and have been done with everything in less than an hour. As it is, it's been two days of nothing but headache and heartache.
Here's my take:
1. D-Link shouldn't send out a product with inferior software and inadequate instructions.
2. I'm going to write management and demand my money back.
3. Farout needs to get it's act together. Their technical support is non-existent and reflects poorly on D-Link.
That's it ... a terrible experience ... I will never buy another D-Link product.
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What a piece of crap software and fraudulent practices by D-Link.
They have obviously made no effort whatsoever to solve this issue and deliver what they advertise.
Who is interested in a class action lawsuit against D-Link??
Email me at michaelg@gray.mb.ca
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I normally don't flame people ... but the dlink people are really irresponsible and deserve whatever I, and others, can dish out.
I finally got my windows programs to recognize the drive letters by enabling NFS, which I knew nothing about. These folks should provide a set of quickstart instructions for those of us who aren't network experts. The farout people never did call me back ... and dlink makes it impossible to get a hold of someone by phone.
They should be taken behind the woodshed and given a good scolding for sending out inferior software AND for not having good customer service on their end or farout's end.
IMHO, the support system and information on their website sucks, too.
That's my two cents worth.
P.S. They have a disclaimer on their website that they never offer refunds under any circumstances. They must get claims all the time to have to put up such a message.