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[Scottk]

ARGH!
The DNS-323 formatted the wrong disk!!!

Current Firmware Version :  1.06
Firmware Date :  12/03/2008 

Slot Vendor Model Serial Number Size
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B WD-WMATV0229484 1000 G 
2 WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0 WD-WCANU2014839 500 G

I have the DNS set up for "Standard (Individual Disks))"

Where I have most of the data on the 1T side duplicated on the 2nd (500G) drive.

I borrowed the 2nd disk (left side) from the DNS-323 for a weekend trip and used it in my PopCorn Hour, allowing it to reformat it as ext3, because everything on the disk was a backup/duplicate anyway.

When I came back, I inserted the ext3 formatted disk back into the DNS-323, fully expecting it to want to reformat the 2nd disk back to ext2.

Thus, when the prompt came up asking to format the 500 G (WD5000KS) disk, I let it do it...

BIG MISTAKE!!!
It started formatting the 1T disk instead!!!

Long story short, as much as I tried getting back my data from the 1T disk, it was gone...
And since the 500 G disk (my duplicate) was purged for the weekend, there went by backup.

Thankfully, *THANKFULLY*!!!
I actually have most of my important data backed up triplicate, so losing the original from the 1T, and the backup from the 500G, I still had another backup to copy back from...

But WOW, oh wow, this is one of the worst bugs I have ever seen.
Formatting the wrong disk is just a horrible horrible bug, and I would HOPE that it get fixed very fast...

I wonder how it could not be a showstopper?

Scott

[bigclaw]

Welcome to the club! This is the primary reason I'm migrating away from the DNS-323. It's no excuse for a NAS product to have this kind of bugs this late in the game.

[madpenguin]

Agreed. This is one of many, many dlink script bugs that plauge the 323. I think they need some more experienced help. It's the only reason I can think of why there are so many problems after how many years of production?

I completely disable goweb and as much firmware related things as I can and use funplug to hack things into shape.

Looks like they have GPL'ed the firmware so I would expect 3rd parties to start offering much better firmware than dlink can provide.

[ciac]

same thing happened to me. came here by your referral from the dns-323 wiki/forum. It is inexcusable for a NAS to do this, and it shows how little the company cares about its products. They have even released newer and more expensive models, but they can't even something as fundamental as formatting correctly. It's a disaster, and frankly quite pathetic that at this product life stage it still isn't fixed. I'm not happy, and thumbsdown for d-link. I wish I can retract a few stars on the amazon review if I can. I think the hardware is still good, however, and it would have been easier if they just made the firmware open source instead.

[bigclaw]

Now that I know the DNS-323's (horrible) limitations, I'm keeping the unit for now as it serves its purposes well.

I also have a DIY server that will eventually replace the DNS-323. My suggestion to people wishing to upgrade to another off-the-shelf NAS solution in the future is to buy from companies such as QNAP or Synology. Sure their products come with a price premium, but they are dedicated NAS companies and most likely have more resources devoted to fixing issues like these.

Find a product that's the core competency of the company making it.

[mulder]

Hi Bigclaw,
I was going to move away from the DNS-323 due to D-Link's lack of support in updating the firmware in the face of issues with the current version (1.06) and incorporating some of the suggestions in the wishlist. I spent time adding to the wishlist and I was hoping D-Link would listen to customers who use their product and issue a firmware update accordingly. The current firmware was released Dec 29, 2008. It is now April 2009 and still no firmware update.

On a lark I took a peek at the two companies you mentioned in your post. I was very impressed with the Synology Disk Station DS207+ (http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS207+/index.php) and the QNAP TS-219 (http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=113)

If I do not see any movement by D-Link in updating the current firmware and incorporating our wishlist suggestions by month's end, the 323 will be the last piece of hardware I will ever buy from this company. I will make sure friends, colleagues and even strangers know D-Link products are to be avoided at all costs due to poor customer support/service and buggy firmware. I would dump the 323 on eBay and at least get something back for what I've already spent.

In this day and age, D-Link has to realize customers can make or break a company by staying with their products or leaving. When I buy an expensive piece of hardware I resent a company that does not take their customer's suggestions/complaints about their products seriously. Either the company is dragging it's feet with the next version or they need to spend money to hire better caliber employees. It's 'hard to stay loyal and committed to dlink when it appears that such loyality is not returned...'

Buying another NAS from a different company that has better features, better customer support and costs more but comes with less firmware/customer support aggravation would be well worth it.

[ttmcmurry]

Mulder -- while I can certainly agree that the span of time between firmware upgrades is longer than it should be; on one hand I think your argument may be unfair despite your frustration.

When people buy a product, they typically purchase it for what they see on a box.  The 323 is aimed at SOHO applications with people who have little to no knowledge of networking, storage, or how to run a server.  As advertised, it works out of the box.

You, like me, are a power user.  You're aware of the other things the 323 can do and you use (or have tried to use) those features.  Having said that--

When you buy something from a company, 99.99999% of people haven't researched the issues that are presently bothering you.  For example, did you know prior to your purchase that firmware releases are every 6-8 months?  Did you know this forum existed to reach out for help?  Were you aware of the limitations or issues others are experiencing like formatting the wrong drive?   Where was your backup of your data (which D-Link and every other vendor out there recommends you perform prior to major drive operations)?  Why didn't you remove the HDD you did not want to format before performing a drive operation? 

To post that if D-Link doesn't fix my problem by... doesn't do any good; perhaps in that time frame they will, perhaps they won't.  If they did, it certainly wouldn't be because of your post, rather it would be because they have finished their QA tests and feel ready to release the firmware broadly.  I'm not defending D-Link, I'm stating the obvious facts surrounding their development process.  Remember, the first thing I said in this post was how I felt about their release cycle being too long between releases.

Perhaps another NAS is better for you; maybe you'd be better suited purchasing a Windows Storage Server or Windows Home Server instead. 

[jesbo09]

The 323 is aimed at SOHO applications with people who have little to no knowledge of networking, storage, or how to run a server.  As advertised, it works out of the box.

And you consider the fact that adding a second disk to the DNS-323 in a standard disk configuration will cause both disks to get reformatted and all data lost to be "working out of the box"??...  I argue NOT.  I can see many users buying this device and putting in one disk to start, then adding a second disk as their needs increase.  They are in for a RUDE awakening when they do that.

For a product that has been on the market for a number of years and targeted at typical SOHO users, I consider this not only inexcusable but to some extent hugely negligent... given that most users are known NOT to regularly back up their data.

[ttmcmurry]

I totally agree with jesbo09; things like this shouldn't happen.  My point is to look out for yourself. 

Never do anything to your data without a backup.  Think before you act.  Yeah, the 323 shouldn't destroy data like that.  I'm sure the fix is being worked on;  in the end the end user is always responsible for their data.

Ooo! I got a +1 today, lol

[Zardoz66]

I am still somewhat surprised that they have not made a fix or at least sticky for this very serious issue.

[fordem]

Whilst I agree it shouldn't happen - I invite any one of you to see if you can "provoke" it - in other words, can you identify what conditions will reliably cause it to occur (this is the first step into fixing it).

I know some of you are going to respond saying you didn't pay your money to beta test, etc., etc., I hear you and I've heard it before, so save your breath unless you have something meaningful to contribute.

For my part, I've owned a DNS-323 for over two years, I've swapped drives in and out and generally done a lot of things that I would not recommend people do, and formatted disks - I'd guess at a few dozen times - I have seen this bug once, and that was doing one of the things that I would not recommend - putting a disk with existing data into the unit.

I learned, back in the early '90's, that anytime you use a disk with data as a replacement on a device that is expecting a new disk, which this unit does - check the FAQ, there is a possibility that the unit will format the wrong disk.

Soooo.... do you want to help or do you just want to gripe?

If it's the first then document the conditions under which your mishap occurred - that will at least give D-Link some details to work with - and for the guy who's not going to buy another D-Link product - good luck with that, these are commodity items, you can buy what you want, but don't expect any better service anywhere else.

I've got another linux based NAS - and I don't get anywhere remotely near the support I get for this unit out of that brand.

just my $.0.02 

[Arvald]

Firmware cycle of 6-8 months is actually quite good.
The thing that should come out in under that cycle is patch fixes.  (a fix for the formatting the wrong drive would be appreciated by most I think)

You want your firmware to be fairly bulletproof.  Especially if it may cause drive formatting.

In an enterprise environment at work we get grumpy of we see quarterly updates of firmware...  who has time to apply them and the ability to backup all data first in advance an time to make sure it introduces no new bugs?

[ttmcmurry]

Firmware cycle of 6-8 months is actually quite good.

Put yourself in other people's shoes who experienced this problem.  When new 1.5TB hard drives were released, due to a bug, were are unable to use the new drives they just purchased in the 323. 

Consider AMD/ATI who releases a new graphics driver every single month that simultaneously supports 20-30+ GPUs.  Yet D-Link takes 7-8x longer to update one product.  A 323 is vastly more simple than a GPU.  Not to mention the 321, 323, and 343 are architecturally similar devices.  It's a matter of perspective.

[fordem]

A 323 is vastly more simple than a GPU.  Not to mention the 321, 323, and 343 are architecturally similar devices.  It's a matter of perspective.

Have you stopped to consider that with the GPU what you are discussing is a driver, wheras with a NAS such as the DNS-3xx line up the firmware is in effect an entire operating system ...

To put it in perspective - Microsoft offers a NAS OS - it's called Windows Storage Server, and is in effect a reduced feature version of their Windows Server OS - they've removed stuff like DHCP, DNS servers and the Active Directory participation is limited to being a part of the domain, but being unable to be a domain controller - your GPU driver would be just one device driver - one teeny, tiny module.

Did you say vastly more simple?  You've got that part right, but you're looking at it from the wrong angle -  it's the GPU software that is vastly more simple.

[jesbo09]

I don't really mind a 6-8 month firmware release cycle... But given that the DNS-323 has been on the market for several years, the serious bugs should have been long gone by now and the updates should be for minor issues and enhancements to support newer disk drives.  The basic OS functionality and drive management code should be really stable and functioning properly.