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General discussion

Buffalo Linkstation and Win XP pro problem

Mar 29, 2006 8:14AM PST

Hello all,

I just purchased a Buffalo Linkstation 250gb NAS, and one of my machines cannot map the drive.

I connected it to my D-Link Wireless Router and installed it without an issue. My laptop -also running Win XP pro- can see and map the drive. (whether wired or wireless!)

My desiktop cannot map the drive. The software included with the drive runs and shows the drive and the IP address. I can log-on to the drive via a browser and change any setting.

But, when I Select Run from the Start Menu and type in \\BIGDRIVE and press enter .. I get "The Network Path was not found"

I tried searching for the drive, but it was not found!

I called Buffalo tech support and they said it was a Windows problem and I should unmap any other drives and then map this one first. I disconnected my card reader because that occupies drive letters, and even uninstalled my iomega zip drive, but it didn't work.

Please help!

Terry

Discussion is locked

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Did you fix it?
May 5, 2006 8:27PM PDT

Hi, I have EXACTLY the same problem.. Any help would be appreciated

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I fixed it!!!
May 6, 2006 1:35AM PDT

I'll do my best to explain.

I spoke to a networking person I know and they said the problem was with the way I initially setup my home network.

My desktop computer was initially setup without a router. A direct connect to the cable modem. When I later added a router, everything seemed to work fine. I did, however, have trouble seeing other computers and drives on the desktop machine. I worked around this by accessing the desktop from the other computers.

I should have paid more attention to this problem because it was an indication that my network was in a somewhat limited configuration.

This is the part I do not explain too well... If I ran IPCONFIG from the command prompt, it would show 192.168.0.0 as the IP address of my computer. But the router's IP address was also 192.168.0.0. I am not sure how this happened, but it had something to do with the initial configuration (before the router).

When I added \\BIGDRIVE to the router, it grabbed an IP address and was only visible to other, newer machines added to the router. The desktop could not see it.

WHAT I DID TO FIX IT:
I forced the IP address of the router up to another number: 192.168.0.1
Made sure the desktop was another number: 192.168.0.150
Also, I made sure that \\BIGDRIVE was yet another number: 192.168.0.101.

After that (and a number of restarts of the desktop, router and \\BIGDRIVE, and suddenly everything was available.

I hope my somewhat weak explanation helps!

Terry

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Same problem, NOT fixed...Suggestions???
Sep 7, 2006 11:15PM PDT

I'm experiencing the same problem that others have noted here ie when I try to access my Buffalo LinkStation 250gb network drive, I get the dreaded "the network path was not found" message. What's so frustrating is that my LinkStation has been installed and working on the same system for over a year, no real problems. This problem just cropped up in the past week or so.

I'm able to access all the drive settings via the web interface, and the IP Configuration Utility immediately scans and finds the drive. I've received a couple of responsed from Buffalo Tech Support, but none of their suggestions has worked for me so far.

I'm running XPMCE on a Dell 8400, cable modem. My LinkStation is attached to a D-Link 614 wireless router.

So far I have tried:

* using the \\IP method to address the drive
* manually changing the IP address to a fixed value
* disabling firewall software (Sygate)
* disabling AV (Norton v2005)
* disabling Windows Defender
* renaming the drive
* runing the disk scan/repair utility
* moving the LinkStation away from other equipment
* removing/reinstalling Client for MS Networks and File and Printer Sharing
* Changing the TCP/IP WIN/Advanced setting to Enable NetBIOS

I use the drive mainly as a backup source, and I don't think there is too much on there that would be lost, but not having the frequent (nightly) backups of my essential data files is causing me concern. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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FINALLY fixed
Sep 9, 2006 11:54PM PDT

After the 3rd round of communications from Buffalo tech support I arrived at the following solution:

I turned FTP filesharing on in the Linkstation and was able to access my data folders one at a time using an explorer window and the address ftp://<ip address>. Using this method, I backed them up to my HD. (took some time)

I installed an updated firmware file (v1.47) from the Buffalo tech support website using the " /force" install parameter. (this also took some time). My original files were intact after this process was completed.

After this was done, everything was working as it should be. Apparently, the binary files somehow were corrupted. I just wish I knew how/why this happened so it could be avoided in the future. The LinkStation lives a sheltered life, in a place where it doesn't receive any bumps, and is powered by a filtered, battery backed UPS of considerable capacity.

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It is a Windows problem.
May 5, 2006 11:38PM PDT

But let's share how windows finds \\BIGDRIVE. Windows has to resolve that name to some IP address. Sadly there is no detail about how you set up Windows to resolve names to addresses.

But you could find the IP address of said drive and try...

\\192.168.0.101 instead but use the IP of BIGDRIVE.

Bob

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Still stuffed
May 6, 2006 4:10AM PDT

Thx for the posts. However, I've tried IP Changes... Treid \\IP address of my Linkstation....Any other ideas that may help?.. Oh, and I checked to ensure I was running the correct firmware.. i.e 2.05...??

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Light reading.
May 6, 2006 5:21AM PDT
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Network path not found
May 12, 2006 2:52PM PDT

I had a similar problem. My Linkstation is plugged into a Linksys switch. I could ping it and open the configuration page through a web browser. But when I typed \\Linkstation, I got the message 'network path not found'. Buffalo tech support asked me to turn off my Firewall (I Use Norton) temporarily and retry. I was then able to access the drive.

I then entered the IP address for the Linkstation in the trusted site tab in Norton and turned the firewall back on. I have not had problems since. Good Luck