LinkStation · TeraStation · E-codes · NAS Navigator · XFS
Buffalo's LinkStation and TeraStation units report faults as E-codes, on the display, by long and short flashes of the red LED, and in NAS Navigator, and the manual answers each with a corrective action written for a unit whose data is backed up elsewhere: reboot, reseat, replace, rebuild, and for E22, format the drive. If the files matter, the corrective action for every code is to power down, number the drives by bay, and send them. Underneath, a Buffalo is Linux with mdadm and XFS on most TeraStations or ext3 and ext4 on the older LinkStations, assembled from images on the bench; the Windows Storage Server TeraStations are NTFS over a hardware or software RAID and are read the same way. A single-drive LinkStation is £300 + VAT; a two-bay LinkStation or a TeraStation set is £500 + VAT upwards; four-bay and rack TeraStations from £1,250 + VAT, in writing after the free look.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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| Family | Models | Bays, OS, file system and layout |
|---|---|---|
| LinkStation, single | LS210, LS510, LS710, LS-CHL | 1 drive · ext4 or XFS |
| LinkStation, two-bay | LS220, LS420, LS520, LS720, LS-WXL, Pro Duo | RAID 0 or 1 · ext4 or XFS |
| TeraStation, desktop | TS3010, TS3210, TS3410, TS5010, TS5210, TS5410, TS6000 | 2–8 bays · XFS · RAID 1/5/6 |
| TeraStation, rack | TS3020, TS5020, TS5810DN and rack variants | 4–8 bays · XFS |
| WSS | TeraStation WS series | NTFS on Windows Storage Server |
| What you see | The usual reason | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| E22 | A drive cannot be mounted; manual says format | Do not format; imaged and repaired on the image |
| E14 | Array cannot be mounted | Every member imaged; assembled from the superblocks |
| E04 | Firmware corrupt; data intact | Data arrays assembled without the firmware |
| Flashes: long then short | The code counted in tens and units | NAS Navigator shows it in words |
| Pool or volume degraded | One member lost; still readable | Copy critical files; power down; no rebuild |
| Pool or volume crashed / unmounted / not active | Too many members lost, or file system damage | Every member imaged; assembled from the superblocks |
| Unit will not boot after an update | System partition or boot flash; data intact | Data arrays assembled without the OS |
| Drives shown as new in another unit | Foreign layout; the unit offers to install | Say no; the order is read from the metadata |
A case number goes on the parcel and a number on every drive the day it is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually happened before anything spins. The unit is examined on its own; each drive is assessed on our own equipment, never in a NAS that will try to rebuild. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.
The box and the disks are two different jobs. The unit is tested separately, because a dead power supply, a failed board or a bricked boot flash leaves the drives untouched more often than not. Each drive is then read on the bench: the ones that answer at full speed, and the weak or failed ones in clean air where they need head work. On units that hold an encryption key or a layout of their own, the unit is part of the data and is kept with it.
Nothing is worked on live and nothing is rebuilt on the originals. Every drive in the set is imaged sector by sector, the weak ones head by head with the bad areas last, and the SSD cache with them where there is one. From then on the originals are not touched again.
Order, chunk size, parity rotation and the reshape point are read from the drives' own metadata and the array is reassembled in software: mdadm and LVM under SHR, X-RAID and QTS pools; a ZFS pool imported read-only; Drobo's BeyondRAID zones reconstructed. The file system, Btrfs, ext4, XFS or ZFS, is repaired on the virtual volume, and encrypted volumes are unlocked there with the key you supply. Never on the originals.
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
The array would not assemble and the manual's next step was a rebuild. The unit was powered down instead. All four drives were imaged, one with bad sectors taken last, the array assembled from the superblocks on the images, and the XFS log replayed on the virtual volume before it was mounted read-only.
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine caseOnly if the data is backed up elsewhere. Formatting writes over the file system that holds it. If the files matter, power down and send the set.
The RAID array cannot be mounted: too many drives dropped, or the metadata damaged. Assembled from images on the bench; do not rebuild.
Yes. It is NTFS over a RAID, imaged and assembled like any other set.
£300 + VAT for a single-drive LinkStation; a two-bay LinkStation or a TeraStation set is £500 + VAT upwards; four-bay and rack TeraStations from £1,250 + VAT.
Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the unit off and the drives in their bays.