Recover files from Failed Buffalo Hard Disk

 

namely a Buffalo LinkStation 421e

1. Remove drive from Linkstation

2. attach drive to PC

3. boot PC with Knoppix CD

4. open terminal and type:

 parted -l

to make sure drive is showing up

5. type mdadm --assemble --scan

you should see some messages saying something like /dev/md/101 has been started with 1 drive (out of 2). Have no idea why drive is seen as raid even if you don't use raid with your linkstation but it is split up into a whole bunch of partitions and the 6th one should be largest and have all your data.

6. Now open up file manager and the disk from your Linkstation should now show up and you can recover and copy all your data without having to pay a fortune!

 

had to write this up because you'll find all kinds of crazy advice about having to modify partitions,etc whereas you can see here it only takes one line and you aren't making changes to original drive in case something goes wrong!