I have a 16TB Buffalo Terastation used for on-site backups, but the filesystem has become corrupted. Buffalo support advised me to format the disk before recreating the RAID array. I wasn't aware that selecting the format option would initiate a long format, which can take days to complete. Now, it's been almost 3 days and it's still formatting, and we really need a faster solution. Is there any way to expedite the process or a workaround to redo the RAID array without having to wait indefinitely?
3 Answers
If you're feeling adventurous, you could remove the drives and connect them to a Linux machine. Then run `wipefs -a` on each drive. On Windows, you can use `diskpart` and the `clean` command. After that, plug the drives back into the Terastation and see if it recognizes them as blank drives to set up the RAID array. I've done something similar before with different NAS brands, and it usually works.
If you don't need the backups anymore, you might want to restart the whole process and see if you can use a quick format option instead. Remember, this is a consumer-level product, so it's not like enterprise equipment that takes sure longer.
I feel your pain! Buffalo Terastations have always been slow with formatting. My old 8TB unit took several days to format years ago. I remember being able to see progress updates in the web UI, but the built-in display doesn't show much info.
The backups have been lost since the shared drive became inaccessible, and support instructed me to format the disk because they said recovery wasn’t possible. But I didn’t see any quick format option on the web interface; it only shows "Check disk, format disk, dismount disk, Rediscover disk."