Post on 14-Oct-2014
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HOW TO FLASH/PREPARE NEW HDD FOR BUFFALO NAS
Before you can flash firmware into new HDD of Buffalo, you must have it in EM Mode
Booting into EM?
What is EM and why is it not documented in the user manual? : EM is known both as Engineering
Mode and Emergency Mode. The simplest answer that I can give is to help recover the NAS device
to its original function. The reason it's not documented is because if you're unsure of what you're
doing you can, in fact damage your NAS to the point of non-functionality.
In lieu of this being said I will note now: Engineering Mode is for NAS firmware recovery purposes
and is not to be utilized to let your NAS limp to its death. You may attempt booting into EM for
data recovery purposes but it is not guaranteed to allow you to access your data if corrupt
firmware is involved or not.
How can I tell if my NAS is in EM?
The most surefire way to tell if your NAS is in EM mode is by looking at the NAS Navigator. Since
the NAS Navigator is a universal program which allows it to see multiple products (i.e. you don't
need a different NAS Navigator program to see a LinkStation Pro Duo and a TeraStation Pro II) you
don't need to download a separate application for each NAS.
An alternate method (for those units equipped) is to look at the front LCD readout (commonly on
the TeraStation series) and see if the unit has an IP address. More to the point within the NAS
Navigator program next to the hostname of the NAS you should see "-EM". Sometimes when you
attempt to put a NAS into EM the NAS Navigator will not show "-EM". This is acceptable if your
goal is to attempt to update the firmware or access the files of the NAS as it is being seen on the
network.
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What do you need to begin?
1. TFTP Recovery Package *
2. Recovery Firmware *
3. Latest Firmware (if any) *
4. A PC with Microsoft Windows installed (Windows XP / Vista or 7)
5. 2 clean 2.5” HDD (no partition at all) – you can use Windows to clean the
HDDs before putting it into NAS.
Attention: ALL OF YOUR DATA ON HDD WILL BE ERASED DURING THESE
STEPS, PLEASE BACKUP BEFORE PROCEEDING. It requires 2 HDDs during
these steps otherwise you will experience FORMATTING FAILURE error.
6. Optional: a DHCP-enable router (you can use your current router; there’s
no need any special setup in router for this process).
* please contact if you didn’t receive any supporting email that contains these
packages, we prepared everything for you so you don’t need to download
from anywhere.
How to put Buffalo NAS into EM Mode for Firmware Update
1. You can connect NAS and PC directly via LAN port either connect through DHCP-
enabled router.
2. Change your PC’s IP to 192.168.11.1 / Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 / leave the
Gateway blank (please refer here how to change the Windows IP:
http://www.wikihow.com/Change-your-IP-Address-%28Windows%29
(if you connect your PC to router, router will complain and won’t let you go to
Internet, please don’t worry and ignore it, we just use this IP for few minutes
and change back to DHCP Status).
3. Put your HDD into Linkstation Box (please note that 2 HDDs are required during
these steps)
4. Make sure that your NAS is OFF and connect to your router (or PC directly via
LAN port).
5. Turn off Windows Firewall & other Antivirus Programs on your PC
6. Run the file TFTP Boot.exe included, you should see TFTP report listening on
192.168.11.1:69 and accepting requests (in Vista, TFTP can initialize only for up &
running Ethernet NICs, try to plug cable to a running device so the NIC is running
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at the moment TFTP boot). Please DO NOT PROCEED TO NEXT STEP if you don’t
see TFTP is listenning on 192.168.11.1 port 69 as below
7. Turn ON the NAS, you will see the NAS reports error with 6-time-error-flashing of
Info LED (it means “Kernel Not Found” – it’s normal)
8. Hold the Function button of your NAS for 1 to 2 seconds until you see the Info
LED stops flashing in RED (the Function button is located on the side of the NAS),
you see the LAN LED will flash in Green rapidly.
9. Please wait for a while, you will see this on TFTP Boot (2 packages are served to
NAS at 192.168.11.150) – please remember to turn off Windows Firewall
otherwise you can not get this, Windows Firewall and other antivirus programs
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block all TFTP packets
10. If you connect NAS with PC directly, now you’re safe to change your PC’s IP
back to DHCP IP for firmware updating.
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11. Run LSUpdater.exe, you will see our Linkstation in EM Mode, then select the
Debug Menu in control menu of LSUpdater window
Then select the Debug Menu by clicking on the top left icon of the LSUpdater
windows
You will get this
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12. Check all options in config section
Attention: if you connect NAS and PC directly, you have to perform an IP address
change to 192.168.11.150 and subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 (same subnet with
PC), if you connect NAS and PC via DHCP router, there’s no need to change NAS’s
current IP since it gets valid IP from router already.
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(Note: IP changes just apply to the case that you connected PC & NAS directly via
LAN cable, it won’t apply if you connect NAS and PC via DHCP router).
Press OK to return to main window of LSUpdater, ou will see it has new IP
192.168.11.150 (same PC subnet) or a valid IP was provided by DHCP router, click
Update
You will get this, answer Yes to accept HDD formatting
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(Please refer to troubleshooting below if you experience Formating error like this)
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Then you will see it transfers firmware to Linkstation
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When it finishes, it will reboot the NAS and perform writing firmware to HDD
stage (it will flash I25 code as writing firmware – 2 long flashes and 5 short
flashes). DO NOT TURN OFF NAS AT THIS STAGE
13. Then you can unplug current direct cable and plug the cable from your router
into the NAS, it will get new IP from your DHCP in your network, then you can see
it on the network as below (sometime it asks you to sync date&time from your PC
to NAS, click Yes if you want to change Date&time to correct setting)
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14. Right click on it, choose Web Admin
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15. Change language to English: you can login into the NAS Web Admin with default
username/password (they’re case sensitive)
Username: admin
Password: password
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16. Choose the forth menu on the top
You will get this
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At the bottom of the page, you will find a button and there’re two combo boxes,
please click on the button, then change the combo boxes to English and CP437
respectively, then click the button at the bottom to apply the change.
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17. Logout and login, you will see its language changes to English
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Troubleshooting:
Sometime, LSUpdater just reported that it can not connect to NAS and update failed
if you perform big HDD format with NAS, don’t panic, it is just timeout problem since
NAS has to format big HDD and it stops sending signals to LSUpader while it’s doing
that. You just go back to step of Debug Menu and the NAS will continue from the
previous states (don’t worry, it won’t begin from cratch again), but this time DO NOT
CHECK Rebuild partition table.
If you get formatting error, just close LSUpdater and rerun it, select Debug Menu as
instructed, however, this time DO NOT CHECK the option “Rebuild partition table”
(because it’s formatting the HDD and responded error, it should finish the formatting
now). Please give it sometime to format HDD
Then it will transfer firmware as usual.
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I hope that my tutorials will help you in the situation I experienced with these Buffalo
NAS, if you have any problem with them, please contact me at danghai2k@gmail.com,
I’m always there to help you out.
You can also find all of my items from here:
my eBay items - Buffalo NAS / Wireless devices / gadgets
Thank you very much for your purchases and hope you had a good deal.
Much appreciated if you can leave me a feedback on eBay profile after you
finishes checking the item.
Thanks!