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[cdplayer]

With the new version of the firmware 1.03 if you have the 343 up to 8TB of storage can be made available! Originally I had two 2TB HDs in the 343. I've now place an additional two 2TB HDs. The 343 sees them but want to format them. I want to skip formatting since I wish to keep the data.

How can that be done?

Thanks!

[JavaLawyer]

Is the DNS-343 prompting you to format the two original HDDs or the two new HDDs?

[cdplayer]

Thank you for replying JavaLawyer! 

The 343 wants to format the newly installed HDs. I don't want the newly installed HDs formatted since they contain data I wish to keep.

Cheers! 

[JavaLawyer]

Firstly, how were these two new HDDs formatted?  The DNS-343 requires that all HDDs use the EXT2/EXT3 partition format (i.e. Linux). Secondly, during HDD formatting, the DNS-343 writes unique identifiers for each newly formatted HDD.  Without this information, the DNS-343 will not recognize the Volume and will prompt you to reformat.

The HDD identifier information is so specific that users can't even move DNS-343 properly formatted HDDs to different slots within the same DNS-343 without reformatting.  I have read some posts, however, where users found ways to manually edit the id infor so formatted HDDs can be switched to different slots.

How much data do you have on these HDDs?  You may find it easier to simply copy the data over rather than go through the hassle of rigging the HDDs to work.

[cdplayer]

Thank you JavaLawyer for your unwelcomed answer! Just joking!
I was hoping that there was a workaround that would allow me to bypass that formatting process.
Oh well.

Why is it so important that D-Link uses an HDD identifier information that is so specific (sounds like a proprietary system to me...) that you can't make adjustments easily? I wish it was a little more user friendly...

[JavaLawyer]

Why is it so important that D-Link uses an HDD identifier information that is so specific (sounds like a proprietary system to me...) that you can't make adjustments easily?

I'd like to know the answer to that one as well.  I can tell you from first-hand experience that when I tried moving a HDD from one slot to another (on multiple occasions) the newly placed HDD was always unrecognized and I was prompted to reformat.  When HDDs are formatted as "Standard Volumes" the slot placement should have no bearing on the HDD functionality since there there are no dependencies between the other Volumes.

If your two HDDs are formatted as EXT2 or EXT3, I suppose you can try manually inserting the identifiers and see what happens.  Each slot is assigned a unique ID and there are other posts in this forum that provide instructions for those willing to try this out.  Again, whether this will work or not is pure speculation on my part.

[JavaLawyer]

As a follow-up, I did a search for the threads relating to this issue and couldn't find anything that precisely covers this problem.  The best (and safest) route is to save your data elsewhere, reformat, and push the data back onto the two drives.

[cdplayer]

Thank you so much JavaLawyer for your thoughts and your research.  I am amazed each time we make technical advancements and then we trip over ourselves. Having said that I still love my 343s!

Cheers!
cdplayer

[JavaLawyer]

No problem.  I experienced the same issue when I purchased my second DNS-343 and wanted to move all of my data to one DNS-343 for primary and the second DNS-343 for backup.  Due to this moving the HDD issue, I had to manually push > 3 TB of data which took the better part of a week.