I don't see any reason taking a disk out of a nas should be considered a last ditch recovery measure. When you have large amounts of data it only makes sense to move it over the fastest and most reliable interface possible.
I also think recovery should be made as easy as possible. When people put their data in a raid they are usually doing it to keep it safe + they probably have a lot of data. It's a given that someday they will need to get it off to put it on something else. There's a lot less value to any storage solution that doesn't provide for that.
The dns-320 uses linux to make a software raid right? How many different linux operating systems are out there with iso's ready to boot off a cd/dvd now? Why can't dlink make a how to and if necessary a package to enable people to use any of those linux versions to mount a disk/the disks out of a NAS? It just doesn't make any sense not to. Making it hard for me to get my data back doesn't make me stick with a dlink product that isn't working for me anymore; it makes me not want to migrate to another dlnk product.
I got the NAS in the first place because I didn't want to leave my workstation on. I was willing to incur the extra expense for that ability. If the dnla server worked and there was an easy way to get my data off the disks I would probably be buying a 4 disk nas from dlink now instead of migrating to my workstation.
usfwalden, you do know that removing a disk from a NAS to try and extract data from it is a last ditch recovery measure - NOT something to do as a regular thing, hence no simple tool.
As for your DNLA problems, you are not the only person that DNLA certified products only work together if they are from the same manufacturer and are of the same age.
You could investigate Fun_plug and an alternative media streaming program (google is you friend here).