D-Link DNS-323: A brand-name NAS worth waiting for

[JoeHombre]

[Article link]

For DLink DNS 323 users. If you run in RAID 1 mode (I have two 500GB Samsung HDs), check the status menu to see if you have the message -- “Sync Time Remaining: Degraded”.

I have this message (both HD LEDs are blue) and called Tech Support. According to tech support, this is likely an erroneous message (meaning the HDs are okay) and the product manager is aware. The tech support person did not know if a fw update (I have fw 1.05) was forthcoming but said keep checking their web site.

Joe

Mine says degraded too and both lights are blue. One odd this is, when it starts up one of the hard drive lights turns from blue to a pink/purple for about a minute and then back to blue. As I'm writing this I just noticed it happened again... about 20 - 30 mins after startup. Any thoughts? These drives aren't even 6 months old.

I decided to move my DNS-323's cabling around a bit, so I first powered it down completely- then disconnected the A/C. After routing cables the way I wanted, I powered back up and I to see the degraded notice.

I am thinking that it may come up when the 2 volumes aren't exactly in sync, possibly because there was an outstanding sync to the 2nd raid-1 volume before the power dropped. I would have expected that the pending operation would be remembered through the power cycling- such as storing the required operation on disk before shutting down. However, they may have not put this ability in since it might not complete either if there is a power loss instead of a planned orderly shutdown.

The first time this happened, I had just copied all my data from an older drive onto the DNS-323, and not yet deleted it. I reformated the drives and re-copied the data over. I then powered down properly and then started back up. Again I see the degraded sync message on the webpage, and once again the 2nd drive's light is pink [currently].

I am going to leave this as is and see what happens over the next 24 hrs. I will perform a small file backup to the DNS-323 to help "kick" the sync mechanism into action. I'll let you all know what I see after 24 hrs.

Originally Posted by Mike

Mine says degraded too and both lights are blue. One odd this is, when it starts up one of the hard drive lights turns from blue to a pink/purple for about a minute and then back to blue. As I'm writing this I just noticed it happened again... about 20 - 30 mins after startup. Any thoughts? These drives aren't even 6 months old.

I'm running firmware rev 1.05 and I too get the random pink light. Not sure what it means, but it can happen with any drive bay.

Also worth mentioning, I'm unable to create a RAID1 or RAID0 volume. When I attempt to create one, it stops formatting at 94%. I've reset back to factory defaults, set the page timeout to 90 minutes, and disabled drive power management. No go, same issue every time I try. I even went so far as to low level format both drives and force them into SATA-1 mode with a jumper without any resolution to this issue. I'm afraid my drives are *NOT* compatible with the DNS-323.

FYI I'm using two Western Digital 500GB drives model WD5000AAKS

yes - those drives do not work!!!!

Shows degraded in status page, both leds are blue. When writing to the device, only the right drive blinks (I am assuming it only writes to disk 2 then).

It started happening after I copied all my data to it and started accessing it from more than one process (i.e., real life usage, not copying data over to it)...

And I already copied data over twice (clean format with 1.05 firmware)

So disappointed...

[JoeHombre]

After reformatting my two 500GB Samsung HDs and copying the data back to it -- said Sync Completed. I checked the status periodically as the data was being copied to the 323 and it said Sync Completed with both LEDs blinking.

This remained so until about 11 hours later when while my Norton Anti-Virus program was running, the left LED stop blinking and the status went to Sync Degraded.

At one point D-Link Tech Spt said, the 323 has a problem with large drives. Another Spt person said if I had a HD using S.M.A.R.T to disable it. As far as I know my HD do not have that feature.

Joe

Originally Posted by Unregistered

yes - those drives do not work!!!!

They are on D-Link's 'compatible' list....see here:

http://support.dlink.com/faq/print.asp?productid=2399

I have FW 1.05 and I too have a degraded condition with the right blue light on. I was wondering the other day how do I know when a drive kicks it.

Did someone say pink light? What does that mean?

[JoeHombre]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I have FW 1.05 and I too have a degraded condition with the right blue light on. I was wondering the other day how do I know when a drive kicks it.

Did someone say pink light? What does that mean?

I too have FW 1.05. In my case, the right LED acts as expected (steady blue when idle and blinking blue during file activity). The left LED “was blue” but did not blink during file activity. The HD status said Sync Degraded. After, I "forced" the DNS-323 to re-Sync the two HDs, the left LED turned amber (looked pink to me) indicating a failed HD.

In my testing, when the status said Sync Degraded, the left HD did not mirror the right HD. Meaning that I did not have an exact copy of the right HD on the left HD.

After, many email exchanges, DLink Tech Spt said that in the next FW release (no date provided), there will be a fix for this issue. At this point I can not tell if the HD has failed or if the DNS-323 is at fault.

Joe