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NDR / Devices and media / Buffalo NAS and DriveStation recovery

Buffalo · DriveStation, LinkStation, TeraStation

Buffalo NAS recovery for Nottingham. The box fails far more often than its disks; get a quote, then post the disks labelled by bay, or the unit whole if they won't come out.

How much does it cost? Single-drive DriveStation units are £300 + VAT; multi-bay units (a Duo, a Quad, a LinkStation, a TeraStation) are from £500 + VAT. Neither type carries a fee for the evaluation, and we provide a fixed price in writing before commencing. What are some examples of faults? Firmware won't load, a power board that has died, an error displayed on the front panel, a volume the enclosure has decided is unformatted. All of these problems have nothing to do with the disks themselves. Please ask for a quote before posting your equipment. A single-bay DriveStation comes to us whole, with its cable and power supply. Multi-bay units can arrive as separate disks, each marked with its bay, or as a single unit when the disks cannot be removed. Work reaches the lab from Nottingham, Beeston, Ilkeston, Worksop, Mansfield and Boston.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Free diagnosis first, then a single price, in writing Parcels come in from Derby, Lincoln and Loughborough

Ask an engineer and the first look is free
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What a Buffalo's symptom points to.

Not yours? Open the fault finder →
What is happeningWhat usually causes itWhat that means for you
It beeps, and there is an error number on the front panelFirmware that does not finish loading; the disks behind it are untouchedSwitch off, get a quote, post the disks
Shares are lost but the box still turns onVolume descriptions on the disks are damaged; the files below them are notStop restarting it; get a quote
A MiniStation ticks, then goes quietA worn 2.5in disk whose heads are on their way outKeep it switched off now
One bay is amber and the share still opensA member has fallen out and nothing is protecting what remainsCopy off what matters today
A disk removed from the unit shows as unformatted on a PCWindows cannot read a Linux volume, so it offers to format itRefuse, and leave that disk alone
It runs hot and restarts itselfAn adapter on its way out can take a disk's board with it when it goesPull the plug, and leave it that way
How to pack and post it: please obtain a quote before you start packaging. Once you have a quote, make sure your unit is securely packaged so there's no movement during transport. Ensure that it is insured for the value of your data and not for the unit itself. Send it to our intake lab using a tracked service. We pay for return postage. If you'd like help packing your unit, call us before sealing your box. The process is detailed in our packing and postage guide.

Four Buffalo units, and what gives out first.

DriveStation, the one on the deskThe small external units that plug into your PC via USB: the basic models use a single disk, and the Duo and Quad models use two and four disks respectively. Both versions typically consist of a standard drive within a common housing, and most commonly fail at the housing level. Obtain a quote and post the single-bay model with the accompanying cable and power adapter. The disk inside is likely to be intact.
LinkStation and TeraStationUnits that operate across a network: this could be one or two bays in a back office, or four to eight bays in a communications cabinet where people throughout a company access shared files. These units all run a Linux-based array with an ordinary file system on top, so we can rebuild a set here from images of the disks without requiring the original housing.
MiniStation, and the portablesFailures in these 2.5in drives are generally caused by being carried around rather than by ageing. At the first sign of a tick followed by complete silence, the heads are done, and we need a matching donor head stack and a read that takes as long as it takes. All attempts you can make to put the problem right at home will prove unsuccessful, and many will also cause further harm.
Firmware, and why this page existsOne job in particular sits behind all of this: a DriveStation whose firmware was not able to load completely, with two perfectly good hard drives inside. This prevented the volume being presented, and all the symptoms suggested the hard drives were at fault. The hard drives were fine. Most Buffalo problems fall into this category, which is why a unit gets copied here rather than restarted.

From the parcel arriving to the files going home.

01

Booked in the day it arrives, and the first look is on us Free

Your case number is assigned when the item is received. Then an engineer works out what went wrong (no charge). At this point, you receive a basic summary of which parts are recoverable and which are not. You also receive a single written quote for the price of the recovery. Accept the quoted price or turn it down, and there is no obligation to pay anything.

The first look is freeOne fixed figure, in writingNo charge at this point
02

The box and the disks, told apart

The disks come out of their housing and each is connected separately to a write-blocked port. Each disk is read individually on its own terms (not through a faulty controller board) to determine whether the failure is in the housing or on the disks themselves. If it was simply the housing, we treat it as a simple copy and charge less.

Read away from the failed boxEnclosure or disk, settled first
03

Copied first, opened only where it must be

Any disk still turning is cloned before anything is attempted on it. Where the heads of a disk are damaged, an engineer opens it and fits a matching donor stack of the same model, taken from a near production run, so it can be read again. All further work is done against the clone. What you posted is never written to.

Donor parts matched to model and batchEvery step runs on an image
04

The volume put back on the copies

Buffalo keeps its record of the volume on the member disks themselves, which is why the box is not needed to rebuild it. Bay order, stripe size and the file system above them are all read back off the images, the volume is brought up read-only, and the shares are opened here (documents, photographs, mail stores), because a file name on a listing does not prove that the file will open.

Read back off the copiesShares opened before they travel
05

The file list comes before the bill

A complete file list will be provided before any invoicing. Simply say "yes" or "no" to what we found: yes means it is billed, no means it is not, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. What we find is posted to you on media purchased specifically for your case, at no additional cost to you. We consider the process complete once you have opened those files yourself on your own computer.

Nothing is charged until you agree the figureNew media, bought in for your jobWe pay to send it home

What comes in most often

  • The box fails far more often than the disks in it: a power board, a fan, a software update that failed to complete, and a Buffalo will display an error code with every platter behind it untouched. This is the most common job on this page and the least expensive version of it, and before a price is quoted, the free assessment will tell you which version you have.
  • A Buffalo volume is a Linux volume. Remove a disk from a Buffalo, connect it to a Windows PC and you will be offered the chance to format the disk, because the PC really doesn't understand what's on it. Turning that offer down is likely the most useful thing anyone does on this page. Nothing has been lost. The PC simply can't speak the language.
  • Two bays is not two copies. Many two-disk units run as a single striped volume instead of a mirrored pair. Running a striped volume doubles your usable space but takes away all redundancy. If no one knows whether your unit is striped or mirrored, the free assessment will figure it out, and that's going to change what one bad drive means.
  • Put the power adapter in the box. Buffalo units run on their own external power supplies, and one that is failing gives exactly the picture people read as a dead drive. Including it costs nothing and saves a day at our end. Also, please tell us what the front panel was showing, including any code, and how many times the device was restarted before it came to us.

Where this one stops: once a track has been scored by a worn-out head, whatever was stored there is gone for good and no amount of money is going to get it back. If the unit has been re-initialised, or a member drive formatted so Windows can read it, some of what was there is gone for good. We will list those items before any charge is incurred. Encryption still needs its key and you must provide that. We only do storage devices: no phones or tablets. A single-disk DriveStation is £300 + VAT; multi-disk units start at £500 + VAT. Each price is confirmed in writing after your free assessment, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.

One of these, from start to finish.

NG · NTG-2026-1984ON THE LOG ✓

A DriveStation Duo that stopped presenting its volume

A ground-stability consultant in Mansfield ran borehole logs, scanned abandonment plans and site photos from a two-bay DriveStation Duo configured as a single striped volume across both disks. The unit turned on, ran its fan and produced an error code, but nothing could be seen over the network or through USB. Both disks were pulled and copied before either was asked to do anything else. Disk one read normally to its final byte. Disk two had a worn band roughly a third of the way in. Short passes reading disk two took place over two nights, once we'd safely copied all of the easy ground. The striped volume was recreated above the images and made available read-only. Ninety-eight per cent of the data was recovered and the report lists the individual files that were not.

98% of the files backThe two disks copied before anything else

What helps, and what does damage.

Worth doing first

  • Turn off the mains, get a quote and send the disks labelled by bay
  • Include the adapter that came with the unit in the box
  • Quote the front panel code exactly as it reads
  • Number the bays before any disk comes out

What makes it harder

  • Trying to boot it a few more times to see if it catches
  • Putting the members into another NAS to see if it recognises them
  • Formatting a member because the unit offered to do it
  • Using recovery software on a volume that cannot be mounted

Answers before you spend anything.

The unit beeps and shows an error code. Have the disks failed?

Typically they haven't. Generally it is something inside the case, rather than on the platters themselves, that fails: firmware won't load properly, a power board has failed, or a fan just dies and takes the board with it. The front panel does not report this type of failure, because the only thing it sees is that the volume isn't available. Unplug the mains, don't try turning it back on, and request a quote; then post us the disks labelled by bay (or the unit itself if you can't pull them). Which part is at fault (the enclosure or a disk) will be determined during your free assessment, before any price is agreed.

Can I send the whole unit, or does it have to come apart?

A DriveStation comes to us whole, with the power adapter in the packaging as well, since a failing power supply produces symptoms that people read as a dead disk. For a LinkStation or TeraStation, please remove the disks and mark each one with its bay (bay 2 as bay 2, for example); if you're unable to remove the disks, please post the unit intact. We do not collect, and there is no counter in Nottingham, so obtain a quote before sending anything and then post it (pack it securely, use a tracked service and insure the contents for what the files are worth), or drop it off at our Manchester intake lab: Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5AN, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment necessary.

A disk out of the unit shows as unformatted on my PC. Is it wiped?

No. Refuse the prompt and put the disk back down. Buffalo network units store a Linux volume on their member disks, and a Windows computer has no way to read this type of volume, so it offers to format it. At this point nothing has been erased. Accepting the prompt writes a new structure across the front of the disk, which makes the job take significantly longer, so if someone has already accepted it, please tell us. It only changes the order of the work, not the final result.

What does it cost, and when do I get the files back?

A single-disk DriveStation costs £300 + VAT. All multi-disk units (Duo, Quad, LinkStation pair, TeraStation etc.) start at £500 + VAT and go higher. Prices are published and not quoted only over the telephone. The assessment is free; you receive one fixed price in writing once it is completed, and no chargeable work will be undertaken until you have agreed to this price. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Please allow approximately 3–4 working days for a single disk, and a little longer with multiple disks; return postage is covered by us.

Start here if the same thing is happening to yours.

USB and Thunderbolt drives → The disk is not detected → Clicks, ticks and beeps → The full device list →

Switched off, a drive cannot get any worse.

The look costs nothing. It gives you a file listing of what opened and what did not, along with the cost of finishing the job, in writing, before anything chargeable begins. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Do not switch the drive on until you have that listing.

0115 8220606

Get a quote, then send it Posting it to Manchester