Wayne, Txs for the heads up re the Datavolume doesn’t exist. My drives all read good, but unassigned and went this way one day after my transferring a great deal of data across to them. I don’t get why all four would fail at once.
I have spent 1/2 day trying different things after a few calls to the WD ‘help’ line. Here’s what I’ve found to date, and I find it ‘illogical’ hence my blog name tag.
I tried installing my old HD’s across to the working RMA NAS replacement unit, to try and recover my data without success. What I found really strange was that on any drive inserted it came up with firmware version 2.1.92 was now installed on the unit whereas it had been 2.1.96 before indicating that the firmware is loaded on the HD’s and not the unit its self .
As I was unable to install and read my old drives(HD’s unassigned) WD help then suggested that I update my ‘old’ HD’s with the latest firmware, trouble was that the units auto update told me I had the latest firmware installed albeit 2.1.92. There is a manual update option but you need the file and it’s nowhere to be found as i can see on the WD download site, and anyway it’s not as upto date as my RMA replacement anyway. I spoke to WD again and they to date were unable to help me with a file copy of 2.1.96.
During the swapping of drives i managed to loose 1 drive of the RMA replacement and only a hard reboot (push button on rear of the unit) recovered it for me. I went systematically through my ‘old’ HD’s into the RMA replacement until finally it gave up the ghost totally and refused to boot or turn off, which was exactly the fault i had on my first unit which i bought back in NOV 2009! (this is my third replacement). Pushing the reset button had no effect.
Next I reloaded my ‘old’ drives into the RMA replacement and it booted and switched off OK, but of course no data as all the drives are unassigned. Therefore it appears that the new RMA drives are knackered, having self destructed during a boot sequence, and it is they that prevented the unit booting correctly.
What I just don’t get is why this unit is so flaky on booting up and why on earth would you have firmware on essentially ‘dumb’ HD’s. If they don’t have an answer for me tomorrow WD will be getting their unit back as is, and I’m stuck with trying to get my money back from my original supplier.
Given all the feedback of others with data loss I really think WD should offer a mechanism where you can get your data retrieved FOC within a say 12 month time frame, and perhaps offer an out of warranty discount scheme to assist other older WD users who suffer at the hands of this NAS unit losing their data, after all that’s why we bought it in the first place.
Better still have a service centre where you can send or drop the unit into worldwide, rather that this convoluted RMA system that takes forever and a day, in my case THREE WEEKS for the last one, and your loathe to use anyway as you need to keep your data.
I have absolutely no faith in this unit keeping my data long term given the troubles I’ve seen and I’ve only used it TWO DAYS in total. It’s by far the worst purchase I’ve ever made and to think I trusted it with my data what an ■■■■■…you live and learn.
