Taking work now — the first look is freeNAS drives posted in from anywhere in the UK, or handed in at ten drop-off pointsQuicker still, give us a ring:0800 6890668
NDRNAS Data Recovery 0800 6890668 Price my job
NDR / Whatever it is saying now / Buffalo E14, E16, E22

E04 · E14 · E15 · E16 · E22 · E23 · E30 · NAS Navigator

Buffalo says E14, E16 or E22. The manual's answer to E22 is to format the drive. If the files matter, don't.

Buffalo's LinkStation and TeraStation units report faults as E-codes, on the front panel, on the display, by long and short flashes of the red LED, and in NAS Navigator. E14 means the RAID array cannot be mounted; E16 that a drive cannot be found; E22 that a drive cannot be mounted; E23 that a drive has been dropped from the array; E30 that a drive may be damaged; E04 that the firmware is corrupt. Buffalo's manual gives a corrective action for each, and the corrective action for E22 is to format the drive. That advice is for a unit whose data is backed up elsewhere. For one whose data is on it, the right action for every code on this page is the same: power down, label the bays, and send the set, where the XFS or ext volume is rebuilt from images. A single-drive LinkStation is £300 + VAT; a two-bay LinkStation or a TeraStation set is £500 + VAT upwards, fixed in writing.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668

Do not format the drive on E22, and do not rebuild on E14 or E23. Buffalo's manual assumes the data is backed up elsewhere. If it is not, power down, label the bays, and send the set.

What each code is reporting, and where Buffalo's advice stops being safe.

A Buffalo unit boots its own Linux from a partition on the drives, assembles the RAID with mdadm, and mounts an XFS or ext file system on it. The E-codes are the boot script's report of where that stopped. E16, drive not found, is a drive that did not answer at all: a dead drive, a loose connection, or a backplane fault. E23 is a drive the RAID dropped, usually for read errors. E30 is the unit's own health check calling a drive damaged. E14 is the array refusing to assemble, with too many drives dropped or its metadata damaged. E22 is a drive whose file system, or whose slice of the array, would not mount. E04 is the firmware partition itself corrupt, with the data untouched.

The manual's corrective actions are written for a unit that is one of several copies. Reboot, reseat the drive, replace the drive, rebuild the array, format the drive. Every one of those either writes to the drives or reads them in the way that finds the next failure: a rebuild reads every sector of the survivors, and a format writes over the file system that holds the data. For a unit that is the only copy, the corrective action is to stop at the code.

The bench images every drive, assembles the mdadm arrays from the superblocks on the images, and repairs the XFS log or the ext journal on the virtual volume before mounting it read-only. A TeraStation with E14 after a power cut is usually an XFS log that did not replay; a LinkStation with E22 is usually a drive with bad sectors in its file system's metadata; both come back from the images.

What it says, and what it means.

Describe yours to us →
What you see The usual reason Where that leaves you
E04Firmware partition corruptData arrays assembled without the firmware
E14RAID array cannot be mountedEvery member imaged; array assembled from the superblocks
E15Bad sectors at a dangerous levelThat drive imaged first, weak areas last
E16A drive cannot be foundDrive tested on the bench; array assembled from images
E22A drive cannot be mounted; manual says formatDo not format; file system repaired on the image
E23A drive dropped from the arrayDo not rebuild; imaged and assembled
E30A drive may be damagedThat drive to the clean bench

From the box arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

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.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo rebuilds, no repairs, no resets
02

The unit, and the drives, apart

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.

Unit and disks assessed separatelyFailing members to the clean bench
03

Every member imaged, once

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.

Every drive, including the cacheWeak areas last
04

The set put back together, from the images

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.

Rebuilt in software, from imagesThe file system repaired on the virtual volume
05

You see the file list before you pay

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.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job5–10 days at the bench

From the bench

  • The flashes count the code. Long flashes for the tens, short flashes for the units: one long and four short is E14. NAS Navigator shows it in words.
  • E22's corrective action is for somebody else's unit. Formatting the drive is the fix when the data is backed up. When it is not, it is the end of it.
  • E04 is good news, as these things go: the firmware is corrupt and the data arrays are untouched, and they are assembled without it.
  • TeraStations use XFS, which repairs well from its log on an image and badly from a rebuild on a weak drive.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · NDR-2026-0545JOB LOGGED ✓

A TeraStation TS3410 in RAID 5 showing E14 after a power cut, and a school's shared drive on it

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 a run of 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. Everything came back in six working days.

100% of it recovered6 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Note the code, from the display or the flashes
  • Power it down
  • Write each bay number on its drive
  • Send every drive and the unit

What sets us back

  • Formatting on E22
  • Rebuilding on E14 or E23
  • Reseating drives repeatedly
  • Re-flashing the firmware to clear E04 before the data is safe

Questions answered before you commit.

My Buffalo shows E22 and the manual says format the drive. Should I?

Only 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.

What does E14 mean?

The RAID array cannot be mounted: too many drives dropped, or the metadata damaged. The array is assembled from images on the bench. Do not rebuild.

E16 says a drive cannot be found. Is it dead?

Possibly, or the connection is. The drive is tested on the bench and the array assembled from images either way.

What does it cost?

£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.

How long does it take?

5–10 days at the bench for a set.

Where this usually leads.

Buffalo →Four-bay RAID 5 and 6 →Two-bay NAS →Beeping, orange or red lights →

Nothing gets worse while it is powered down.

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. Until that list reaches you, leave the unit off and the drives in their bays.

0800 6890668

Price my jobPacking and posting