Recently I picked up a Buffalo Linkstation 220 to play around with at home as I felt that I could use a bit of additional storage to play around with. Note that this previous statement is pretty much a lie. I have tons of storage, and was really just looking for an new toy to play around with. Basically I just had a few disks laying around that I wanted to put to use.
However, much to my dismay the I was unable to configure the device once I shoved in the disks, powered it up, and connected to it with the Buffalo Smart Phone Navigator. I figured that this was not a big deal however, so I tried the installable Windows App from my Windows 7 Vm. The Buffalo NAS Navigator was also able to connect to the device, however the device showed that it was currently booted in what was called “Emergency Mode”. Not sensing a real emergency, I did not panic.
See borrowed image below.
Fortunately the site that I borrowed the above image from (here) and this site (here) give advice on how to fix the issue. First step is to download the Buffalo Linkstation Firmware Updater that you can get here. Both pages advise you to modify the LSUpdater.ini file. However their instructions did not work for me. The exact changes, and the LSUpdater.ini in its entirety are below.
[code language=”css”]
[Application]
Title = BUFFALO LinkStation Series Updater Ver.1.62
WaitReboot = 1200
WaitFormat = 600
WaitFileSend = 600
WaitDiscover = 120
[Target]
ProductID = 0x80000000
ProductID2 = 0x0000001D
ProductID3 = 0x0000300D
ProductID4 = 0x0000300E
ProductID5 = 0x00003011
Name = LinkStation
[Flags]
VersionCheck = 0
NoFormatting = 0
[SpecialFlags]
Debug = 1
[/code]
At this point you launch the updater again, and select “Update“. This fully partitions the drives and then updates the firmware. This process takes a while, so be patient. Now you can launch the NAS Navigator and configure the device.
Perfect. Updating now… thanks!
Thanks a ton. Mine is now working !!
Spent all morning trying to figure this out…. formatting now, perfect, thanks a bunch!
Well done updated both the version check and no formatting from 1 to 0 and mine is now formatting.
Thanks
Can you please tell me how to adjust LSUpdater.ini for ver, 1.71, it would be much apreciated
Thanks!
ver 1.71 :
[Flags]
VersionCheck = 0
NoFormatting = 0
[SpecialFlags]
Debug = 1
Thank you for your post.
Does this procedure delete the data on the nas?
I would say yes, although I would have to try it to be sure. This procedure does partition the drive, so it probably also creates a file system on the drive. This should wipe any old data.
It does. I can vouch for that.
Thank you for your post.
Dose this procedure delete the data on the nas?
Awesome Fix Thank you
Many thanks, this worked for me.
Thank you so much for this article. I’ve been searching Buffalo forums for over 4 hours and nothing. The hardware on these Buffalo seems ok but the software really really sucks. I suppose once you go through an installation its easier but the first time user the docs really suck.
Thanks for the post. My NAS drive (LS-XL) is in Emergency mode so i tried to do an update as you have written above. I initially was getting “Partition not found. Aborting Firmware Update” but after changing the debug settings it then gives an error of “Format Failed. Update Aborted”
Did you get any solution about it?
Thanks a million. Clear…concise..and competent advice. Worked flawlessly to save a DS220DE I just picked up. Bravo!
Thank you very much!! You are the best!!
getting further with this change than with the Buffalo website however I am getting a message that the format failed and operation aborted. So still in the same boat as before …. 😦
You’re a lifesaver. I thought I was going to have to send the enclosure back. Thanks!
I owe you a beer, cheers for the help!
Excellent post. I have just bought an enclosure and put 2 Seagate 2TB disks in after deleting everything on them and initializing them. The firmware updater said there was no partition and aborted. After finding this post I made the necessary changes and it worked perfectly.
Thanks very much.
Great to hear this got you working
This has just helped me too thanks for such an old post still working today. Buffalo should sort this out really
Yesterday i bought a Buffalo LS220DE NAS. From the start of my installation process, it was showing in the “Emergency Mode”. Later i tried to format, then it says “Partition Not found” error. As per your suggestion i changed “LSUpdater.ini” file. Now I am getting another message “Format Failed, Update aborted”. Will you please suggest what to try out next?
Are the disks you are trying to use new, or have they been used before? It’s possible that you might need to format them individually before loading them into the NAS.
Hi, its really necesary format the HDDs? because I’ve important information. Isnt there another way to get this working?
Thank you for the immediate response.
Yes, Hard Disks are brand new. I will format Hard Disks on Desktops and try again. Update you after that.
A
Thanks, it is working now. I formatted the Hard Drives on my PC and connected.
Great!!!
I got the same issue, may I ask how you how to format HDD in PC, and what type of partition you used ?
I used Gparted to pre-format my HDD but It still have the same error !
I formatted HDDs on Windows7 professional using NTFS file system.
hi everyone,
I have the TeraStation Pro – TS-1.0TGL/R5 sires, in that 4 HDD 250GB each, Im trying to use dell poweredge 2900 server HDD i.e. total 4 HDD 1TB each.
I have edited above given script and change following value
[Application]
WaitReboot = 1200
WaitFormat = 600
WaitFileSend = 600
WaitDiscover = 120
[Target]
ProductID = myproductID
Name = LinkStation
[Flags]
VersionCheck = 0
NoFormatting = 0
[SpecialFlags]
Debug = 1
but its giving massage that terastation can’t respond for 600 sec.
Also I cleared the RAID cong before using the same SERVER HDD.
Please help me to sort it out….
Thanks to everyone in Advance
Mayur Tamhane
Wish I found your post two days ago. It’s been a long haul but thanks to you I’m up and running.
Thanks,
Warren
wont this destroy data on the drive
Yes, if you need to pull data from the drive, I believe that you can plug one of the drives directly into your PC and read it without issue (if your drives were Raid1). Just need an external drive reader or dock. Raid0, I’ve never tried it. Filesystem will be striped across both drives, instead of copied to each drive (as in Raid1 mirroring)
My Drives were configured as RAID 1*, so when the NAS “lost” the array after a firmware update, I was able to remove them, boot my laptop from a linux live cd (I chose Knoppix), connect the disk using an external drive enclosure and access my data.
The disks are formatted with XFS format which Windows doesn’t natively read. A paid product, windows explorer is supposed to be able to read XFS, but I didn’t buy it.
This post was very useful when I purchased a new pair of drives, I needed the .ini file changes in this post to force the disk partitioning. Thanks for creating it.
This process will definitely destroy any data on the disks in the NAS.
*If you only had a RAID 0, not a RAID 1 array, then your data would be striped across both disks and If they are both still intact, you would need to do some quite fancy stuff in linux to rejoin them as a set, but basically, unless you’re a real XFS filesystem expert, your data is lost. RAID 0 is only a good choice if you can easily afford to lose the data, and you absolutely must have the extra performance and capacity.
These days, 2 mirrored RAID 0 sets would be the best option for this, or RAID 10 as it is known.
yes. absolutely
I just bought new one and it was bricked right out of packet. No help with buffalo help desk. Now with your instruction, I got it working and no need to return it. This is very bad product I must say.
Thank you!!!
Thank you, My terastation is up and running
Thanks, it is working now.
Great!!!
Thanks, worked nicely for me.
For the model LS-WXL, I only modified the original .ini in the updater folder, with adding the last strings you mentioned:
[Flags]
VersionCheck = 0
NoFormatting = 0
[SpecialFlags]
Debug = 1
Worked! Now the last firmware is up and working, I need just to modify language.
Thank you!
absolutely one of the really necessary times the internet and google have saved me. this came up in one of the first 3 or 4 links to the EM / format error. i used your .ini exactly as written and within 15 minutes my NAS drive is up and running. Thank you so much Christopher !! You are the bomb diggity !!
Dave Yurik
You are gorgeous. Thank you for posting this. It worked like a dream (albeit with a bit of a wait). Thanks, thanks, thanks.
Dude! Perfection. I’ve been fighting with this for a year and you just fixed it in 20 minutes!
Thanks for this Christopher. I couldnt figure out why I did not have the debug tab in LSUpdater. Your contribution did the trick! Thanks so much!
Curiously, I have done all this with a LS-CHL. As I recovered my info I have no problem at all for play with versions and options. I’m stuck at the time for format the drive (actually I have try 3 different HDDs, and played with formatting them previously in Win10, Linux, and XP.
I even prepare a PC with WinXP as I found evidence for this old NAS boxes, Lsupdaters and TFTPs that works better.
For all you folks who are having problems to arrive from E07 to E06 state: indeed on the first red led > press button you are safe to disabling AV and FireWall manually 192.168.11.1/24 on your PC the “Blocks served” will arrive sooner or latter.
The big trouble follows then: the NAS must reset at least its Eth port after 16-18 secs. and then show STEADY BLUE led, no more flashing, and the NAS will require a regular DHCP request.
I’m able to move on the fly the NAS to a DHCP server enabled LAN, see the NAS assigned IP, ping successfully to that address and all seems to be OK with the Network.
At this point, no matter which Lsupdater version I use (1,74, 1.68, 1.65, and others from similar ARM processor family) no matter which changes I did to .ini and no matter which combination of left/right section of debug mode I activated: no joy, same error “Partition not found” immediately the software tries to start to format the HDD.
I’m considering to Knoppix hack the .buffalo files from software to make the partitions and disk structure via the PC.
Does someone have had this same problems?
On the forums I just found a guy who pretended to hack the updaters and asks Buffalo for $50K for fix all their mess regarding their software.
Yes I have the same problem on LS 220D. I made a 1GB partition in my HDD (EXT3) and stored the files firmware files (initrd.buffalo and ulmage.buffalo) maybe that is the reason. I will try to format the HDD with only one partition and retry tomorrow
You, sir, are a legend. Thank you!