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[vgisin]

Very Very Strange (actually not so strange, after reading all forum messages regarding this "wonderful device")

I've added blank hard drives to slots 1 and 2 and left unit running for a while. Now my Volume_2 (slots 3 and 4) is missing. Drives 3 and 4 were RAID-1.

Formatting wasn't attempted, so data is perfectly intact and I was able to back them up on my PC by connecting HD.

Now the issue is how to outsmart this piece of crap Web-interface that is proposing me to format all 4 drives if they were blank ones (and wipe out all data).

I am also surprised that even though I have 2 identical copies of the data - none of them is accessible via this DNS343 piece of junk. What is the point of doing RAID1 if it makes even harder to access your own data?

Any suggestions?

(Very unhappy camper)

[JavaLawyer]

It sounds like you are saying slots 3 and 4 contain HDDs and slots 1 and 2 were empty until recently.

If memory serves, you must add HDDs starting with slot 1 and work your way down to slot 4. If you use slots 3 and 4 first (and skip slots 1 and 2), and later try to populate slots 1 and 2, the unit will force you to reformat all HDDs.

Can someone validate this for me?  It's been well over a year since I've encountered this issue myself.

[D-Link Multimedia]

You never mentioned what you are trying to format the first 2 drives as. Are you trying to create a second Raid? Just pull the 2 bottom drives out and format the 2 top drives. Once the format is done re-insert the bottom 2 drives and reboot the unit. It will recognize both volumes.

[vgisin]

Formatting drives 1 and 2 may be a good solution. However if I pull out drives 1 and 2 altogether and restart the system - still drives 3 and 4 are not recognized as Volume_2 (as otherwise would be expected)! All data on drives 3 and 4 is intact and it used to be RAID 1 into Volume_2.

Any thoughts on that?

[vgisin]

Followed recommendation - formatted drives 1 and 2 into Volume_1 = all good.
Volume_2 still not recognized.
Advanced menu now gives an option -"Configure Newly Inserted Drives".
I am pretty sure that selecting RAID-1 will completely format the drives.

I wish there was more guidance from the web interface!

[JavaLawyer]

Followed recommendation - formatted drives 1 and 2 into Volume_1 = all good.
Volume_2 still not recognized.
Advanced menu now gives an option -"Configure Newly Inserted Drives".
I am pretty sure that selecting RAID-1 will completely format the drives.

I wish there was more guidance from the web interface!

I went through a very similar issue a couple of years ago and was informed by someone in this forum that it was necessary to populate HDDs in the DNS-343 starting from slot 1 onward, else the problem that you are experiencing would happen.  I don't know if later versions of the firmware fixed the issue, but at the time I ended up having to backup all  my data; reformat all 4 HDDs, and push the data over (again).

[D-Link Multimedia]

What happens when you take out all but 1 drive? Meaning take out your newly formatted drives and 1 drive from your raid 1 array. Put this drive in Slot 1 to make sure. Does it recognize the disk as a degraded Raid 1? Not at all? Does it do this on both disks (meaning one in the unit at a time)?

If it recognizes the drive with one disk in, you could try removing the partitions on your second drive and inserting that into slot two and then allowing the device to format it and resync the Raid 1. I would highly suggest making a copy of the data though if it allows you to access the volume with 1 drive in.

[vgisin]

What happens? Nothing happens! I just did what was suggested (i.e. removed all drives from Dlink and put Drive 3 (with RAID1 information) into slot 1).

After restarting Dlink I still see nothing (but printer server and HTML page). Hard-drive is detected as valid and pass all the tests. If I go to Advanced tab it is offering me to format it into blank partition.

I am not particularly happy with the software that allowed me to extract the data from Ext3 into Windows7 (Stellar Phoenix) - for some reason after data was moved on a disk, Windows become unstable and started crushing. Any ideas for the reliable software to do the job?

Having such a unreliable (dumb) system, Dlink, I am surprised that Dlink is not supplying users with the software to allow for direct data access (NAS emulator of some sort)!

I am not quite ready to forfeit my data - are there any suggestions left for me ?


   

[D-Link Multimedia]

Did you try http://www.fs-driver.org/?

[vgisin]

Yes I tried this software. It doesn't run under Windows 7, so my plan is to install Windows XP and give it another try.

One way or another I am trying to make sense of why this happened. How come Dlink343 was allowed to modify the partition (and I think it modified something like boot sector) on its own  without my explicit permission!!!

Someone from Dlink software development department needs to evaluate this issue closely! Events like this should not EVER happen on their own... Volume_2 was perfectly discoverable and just disappeared!!!

Otherwise how in future can I trust my data to this device???

[D-Link Multimedia]

This is a pretty closed incident and is not a regular occurrence. My guess is a partition on the drive became corrupted and is now unreadable by the device. Whether this was the device or the HD I do not know.

Have you tried running the fs driver in compatibility mode?

[vgisin]

No, No, No, this is not corrupted drive issue at all - I just went through the corrupted drive issue with DNS343 and I do know how this looks!!!

In fact the reason why slots 1 and 2 were populated with blank drives is because drive 1 was replaced by blank due to a corruption and drive 2 formatted (with data on it and data was lost) as a result of ignorance of Dlink customer support personnel. This is why I am so careful this time with the drives that still have data on them.

So I am pretty sure that this is purely DNS343 software/hardware issue (as far as disappearance of Volume_2)... 

What upsets me even further is that DNS343 web interface is not smart enough to recognize (or attempt to recognize) its own data partitions...

This is very inconsistent with the way device is advertised:

PROTECTION, PERFORMANCE AND FLEXIBILITY
By supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and JBOD, the DNS-343 gives you a variety of data protection options to help avoid data loss due to hard drive failure. ... If one drive fails, the unaffected drive in the partition will continue to operate normally. Once you replace the failed drive, RAID 1 mirroring will resume and both drives will mirror each other again.

I encourage Dlink software development team to address this issue!

[JavaLawyer]

I learned this lesson a long time ago.  It's important to maintain a backup of all important data on at least two separate physical storage devices (i.e. two different NAS devices).  RAID is not a replacement for making a  backup, it just provides redundancy.

[knightfreeze]

I learnt the lesson the hard way too, some time ago, thanks to the DNS-343. Consumers must be made aware that RAID IS NOT EQUAL TO BACKUP. RAID only improves AVAILABILITY, means when 1 HDD fails, you're still able to access your data at the same logical drive.

Even a backup on separate physical harddisk in the same NAS is also not reliable, especially in the DNS-343 because there's a risk of all your disks being formatted if not done propoerly. Backup must be on a separate device altogether.

A warning on the box should help to educate consumers.

[deezee]

This upsets me because I am one of those consumers who thought RAID configuration was the perfect backup as D-LINk and probably other manufactures lead on to say it is. The time it takes to backup something on another drive is painfully slow.  I'll have to read up on how to backup to another drive.  Does an image work rather than physically copying the data? (sorry to be off topic here)

I learnt the lesson the hard way too, some time ago, thanks to the DNS-343. Consumers must be made aware that RAID IS NOT EQUAL TO BACKUP. RAID only improves AVAILABILITY, means when 1 HDD fails, you're still able to access your data at the same logical drive.

Even a backup on separate physical harddisk in the same NAS is also not reliable, especially in the DNS-343 because there's a risk of all your disks being formatted if not done propoerly. Backup must be on a separate device altogether.

A warning on the box should help to educate consumers.