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[bpkengor]

All,

I've had my DNS-323 setup in a RAID configuration for a couple of years.  I am in the midst of rebuilding to a 2 standard drive configuration.   I'm now having trouble accessing one of the drives.   

Here is what I did:

I backed up everything
I shutdown the unit
i removed one drive
i powered up the unit
the unit recognized the remaining drive and let me reformat it to standard
i shut down the unit
I re-inserted the drive that i had removed
Unit would not recognize that drive.

I tried all kinds of combinations:   switching drive bays;  pulling out the reformatted drive, etc.  and whatever i do the unit will not recognize the one drive.

right now, i have the unit running with the one drive that it can't read.   the drive indicator light is blinking.  so presumably the hardware is recognizing the drive but the OS doesn't see it.   

I had various customizations installed so i thought i need to restore to the factory defaults.   didn't help. 

i'm running 1.06 firmware.    2 identical Seagate Barracuda drives.   

Advice?

[dosborne]

Try the "unseen" drive in a PC to ensure it is still functional.

[bpkengor]

good thought, dosborne.   unfortunately,  we are a laptop only house at the moment so i have nothing else to load the drive.   It is certainly possible that I fried the drive when i swapped it.   my hopeful optimism that i haven't comes from seeing the indicator light blink when it is inserted in my DNS-323.  And I can hear it spinning.   it seems to have some life.     

i may need to find someone with that has SATA drive bay to check it out.   Thx again!

[bpkengor]

further reflection.  Maybe constant blinking drive light means something is awry?     the good drive is solid blue.   Manual says "The lights will blink when the drives are being accessed, formatted or synchronized"    Maybe my unit is trying to access this potentially now bad drive and the flashing is indicating it's continued failure to connect?   

[D-Link Multimedia]

further reflection.  Maybe constant blinking drive light means something is awry?     the good drive is solid blue.   Manual says "The lights will blink when the drives are being accessed, formatted or synchronized"    Maybe my unit is trying to access this potentially now bad drive and the flashing is indicating it's continued failure to connect?   

Is it a steady blinking blue light? A drive access blink will be sporadic occasionally stopping or blinking very quickly. if it is a slow steady blink that means the sata controller is having issues with the drive. Try taking out your existing drive and just putting in the new drive and see if this goes away. If it does not the drive could be bad... I don't see it listed but what kind of drives are you using?

[bpkengor]

Thanks for the reply.   i have 2 identical drives:  Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500 gig, ST3500630AS

Both have been working fine since i first implemented 18 months ago. 

It is a steady, pretty fast blinking on the drive in question.    it happens in either bay.  it happens either with just the one drive or with both drives.

with both drives, at startup, both bays are blinking quickly.  after about the 15 seconds, the "good" drive goes to solid and the "bad" drive keeps blinking at the same pace.    not sporadically like it would for normal use.   

It kind of feels like your suggestion of the sata controller having issues with the drive.    thoughts?

[gunrunnerjohn]

Did you test the drive using the Seagate diagnostic connected to a PC?  Use the full surface scan, it's non-destructive.

[D-Link Multimedia]

Thanks for the reply.   i have 2 identical drives:  Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500 gig, ST3500630AS

Both have been working fine since i first implemented 18 months ago. 

It is a steady, pretty fast blinking on the drive in question.    it happens in either bay.  it happens either with just the one drive or with both drives.

with both drives, at startup, both bays are blinking quickly.  after about the 15 seconds, the "good" drive goes to solid and the "bad" drive keeps blinking at the same pace.    not sporadically like it would for normal use.   

It kind of feels like your suggestion of the sata controller having issues with the drive.    thoughts?

Well I would rule out he sata controller if you can switch the GOOD drive to either bay and it works. Plus you have been using  it for over 18months which would mean its not a compatibility issue just that it stopped functioning. If the good drive works in either bay then its your 2nd hard drive. Try placing that drive in a PC, erase all partitions on it and place it back in the DNS-323 for a rebuild. Also as GunRunnerJohn suggested, you can do a Diagnostic scan while it is in your pc to see if the drive has failed.

[ihatepcs]

hi, wasn't there bad firmware with the seagate hd's model 7200.10, that firmware bug does exactly what u described (works now, but may not work on next power up, drive doesn't get detected by mobo controller).  i think it's too late now, i don't think u can reflash with newer firmware to fix it.

[gunrunnerjohn]

Actually, there was a firmware fix for those drivers, I can't imagine why he can't apply it.

[bpkengor]

Thanks for the continued replies!

unless i'm missing something on the Seagate support site, there is no firmware upgrade for the 7200.10 drives.  There is an upgrade for the 7200.11 and a couple of other drive families but that is all i could find. 

That said, i've now figured out that my drive is hosed.   I rigged up a connection to my PC and tried to access via the Seagate diagnostic tools.   it would not even see the drive.  i connected my other good drive the same way and all is well.   

I have good backups & the drive is in warranty so all i'm lost is a bit of time.      I'm still mystified as to how/when i fried it but whatever.   

Again, sincere thanks to gunrunnerjohn, ihatepcs, D-Link Multimedia for their replies.    this is a great forum and i hope i can return the favor. 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Hardware does die, and hard disks are at the top of that list.  That's why I frequently recommend just testing the drive independently.  I have a box of about 20 dead hard disks in my closet, they are not bulletproof.

[D-Link Multimedia]

Glad you resolved your issue :0. If you bought your other drive from the same batch as the one that failed I would be very careful since they sometimes have a tendency to BOTH fail. Gluck and I hope you have no issues with your new drive.