I will never, ever, buy a Buffalo product again. I tell this story as a warning, and perhaps as help to anyone who owns one who experiences what I have. May you fare better than me.
I have a 1TB Buffalo Linkstation that I use for backups. Have never liked the thing - it's slow, the interface is a pain, but I always figured what the heck it's a backup drive.
Anyway, tonight I was tinkering with my wife's new laptop and I noticed that the drive that was mapped to it wasn't available. I blamed Windows 8 - who can blame me? So I walk over to my main workstation and, oddly enough it's showing the big red X on mine as well. So I bring up NASNavigator2 to see what's going on... instead of the normal LS-whatever name I see some gobbledygook characters and a big red "EM Mode" warning. Emergency mode.
So just reset the thing, right? Wrong. I try to reset the thing and it asks for my password. Now, I am absolutely sure of my password because I always use this password for this sort of account, precisely so I don't forget it. Doesn't work. Jump on Google to find out howto do a reset - you're supposed to turn the switch to off, hold down a button and turn the power back on again...
The power switch doesn't work. No, really - I turned it to "off" and nothing. Lights are still on, drive is still humming. Finally, I pulled the power, held down the button and plugged it back in... that seems to have done... something. It didn't reset my password, but now I can see my drive and my files. Problem solv... er, no. I can't actually open anything or copy anything; when I try I get an error saying it can't find the drive.
But at least now there is a new error. Says I need to flash the firmware. Okay, so I head to Buffalo's website and download a copy of the firmware updater. I run that, it finds my NAS, I click update and it wants the password. I try the default password, no go. I try the password I know I used - it lags long enough that it appears to be the right password, still no go. Error about how it can't connect to the drive, and now in the updater program the NAS has the gobbledygook name.
So I call Buffalo's support line. Not expecting much. I get through a few menu options and am on hold to talk to an agent. Then, after holding for a few minutes, I am told by a recording that (and I paraphrase) if I am using a LinkStation NAS with NAS Navigator 2 (which I am) I may see spurious error messages because Navigator 2 isn't correctly reading a message about an available firmware update, and that I should update NAS Navigator 2 and my firmware.
Obviously in my case, the error is not spurious. I can't access my drive.
But, what the hell. I download the new NAS Navigator 2 program and install that. I can see my drive! It still has the gobbledygook name, but I can see my files... and copy them! I immediately copy the stuff I think I need to my Passport drive. Which I am glad I did because as I am writing this, I just got a popup saying that there was a "message" from the drive and now it appears to be inaccessible again.
tl;dr - If you have a Buffalo NAS and you start seeing messages about it being unavailable, I would strongly suggest copying off anything that is important to you ASAP. Because despite what Buffalo says, the message isn't necessarily spurious - at least in my case it wasn't. Apparently this issue is caused by some sort of firmware update, and occurs whenever your Navigator software receives an update notification.
My plan tomorrow is to go and buy a new NAS - one not made by Buffalo. Suggestions would be appreciated.