Firmware updates are my favorites!

WDDrive

On Oct 2, one of my NAS drives downloaded a firmware update. The drive has been up, and as long as things are working, I typically don’t mess with them. That is after all why you spend money, set up a reliable network, and work hard to make the spells and incantations persistent. 

That way, if the power fails, when the power comes back on, all of your devices power-up in a usable state.

SO, what this means is that I don’t spend much time in the management consoles of the various devices, unless I need to change something.

Which brings me to today.

I wanted to set up a network scanning share from the multifunction printer / copier / scanner / fax, to the NAS. Which required creating a user ID for the printer.  Enter the management console for the NAS… Except the console isn’t there. The NAS responded that the storage was there, but the web interface rejected my attempt at login. It didn’t tell me the login was wrong, it said that the interface wasn’t even there.

Okaaay, Power down then power back up. Ahh, there’s the interface, and it’s all different. Great! Now I have to do is accept the new terms and conditions. No probem.

New screen opens, then… There are no users, all the shares are missing, and suddenly I’m thinking 2TB of data has just vanished.

The drive is a 3TB drive which I had approximately 2/3 full.

Breathe, just breathe, it will be OK. Deep breath ok, so what is going on?

AbsentMinded

Wait. I’m logged in using my standard administrative login which I created, so at least one of the users must exist. I check again, now there are two users. The drive is really busy too. I take my hand off the power switch… 

 An hour later it looks like the data is in fact there as are the users. Whew! I was really worried.

Now what the hell was I trying to do?