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Author Topic: What drive format will allow me to connect the drives to my laptop?  (Read 3288 times)

Keboose

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  • Posts: 2
What drive format will allow me to connect the drives to my laptop?
« on: March 05, 2011, 10:57:20 AM »
My DNS-323 has two 1Tb hard drives in it, set up as a RAID. I have a PC backup and recovery program that I am very fond of. The only problem is that I can back up my computer over a network, but I cannot restore my PC the same way, I have to take out one of the drives and plug it into my Windows 7 laptop using a SATA to USB adapter. This is a problem because my computer could not read the drive until I formatted it, using the disk manager. It had 3 partitions with unknown formats, and about 1.5Gb of unallocated space. It wouldn't be read until I deleted all the partitions, turned the unallocated space (now the whole terabyte) into one NTFS partition, and assigned it a drive letter.

It's not a major issue at the moment, because I was just testing the restore process. But what formatting options on the DNS-323 will give me the NTFS Partitions I need so that I can plug a drive into my laptop when I really need to?

Thanks for your time.
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dosborne

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Re: What drive format will allow me to connect the drives to my laptop?
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2011, 12:42:41 PM »
The DNS323 (along with 99% of devices with an embedded O/S) uses Linux as its operating system and the drives are formatted in EXT2 or EXT3. These cannot be accessed natively from a Windows system. One option is to download a linux driver and install the drive in the PC or put it into an USB enclosure in order to read it.

Another is to get a backup program that runs from a floppy or bootable CD in order to be able to mount the network drive and access the image that way.

If you search the forum, you will find a link to the windows driver.

Absolute worst case, you should be able to reinstall a fresh copy of windows should you need to, then install your backup software, mount a share and access the image that way in order to recover.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2011, 12:47:08 PM by dosborne »
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3 x DNS-323 with 2 x 2TB WD Drives each for a total of 12 TB Storage and Backup. Running DLink Firmware v1.08 and Fonz Fun Plug (FFP) v0.5 for improved software support.

Keboose

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  • Posts: 2
Re: What drive format will allow me to connect the drives to my laptop?
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2011, 03:46:04 PM »
Thanks, I forgot that the 323 ran Linux. I went to google and found the driver website, and it installed without a hitch after I ran it in compatibility mode for Windows Vista, and now I can mount the second drive, no problem. I'll have to remake my recovery CD (which is what I was using in the first place,) and include this program on it.

Thanks for the help!
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