MY 2 NAS DRIVES DISAPEARED 6 MONTHS AGO

jasontheplumber

Ive literally been on every forum (except this one) for help but had no luck at all

ive done all the obvious things and many many more

id say ive spent 12 hours a week for the last 6 months on this issue

my 2 nas drives (wd my book live)  both dissapeared from my pc. i can view films etc on them via an ipad or phone through vlc,but only wirelessly. i cant drag any downloads onto them now as they dont show up
ive tried a handfull of pc repair shops too and nobody has turned up even after the promise of a days pay for 10 minutes of their time

its really getting me down now as im sure i have exhausted every avenue of what to do

if it helps i also cant login to my virgin media router either unless i do it wirelessly

ive also tried a wireless adapter in my pc but they still dont show up  can anybody assist?

mickevh

Let's cover off a few basics: (It sounds a bit like your network has become partitioned, but we will get to that.)

1) Have you changed anything recently e.g. new router, extra Wi-Fi AP, HomePlugs, changed ISP, etc. - basically is there anything that "changed" at the time problem started?

2) How are the MyBooks physically connected to your network, (Wired/Wi-Fi?)

3) If "wired" are the MyBooks connected directly to your router or are they via any HomePlug or powerline type links?

4) Just so we know what level to pitch the conversation at, would you know what we meant if we asked you the "ping" something or would we have to describe it?

5) What operating system is your PC - Apple/Linux/Windows?

6) Do you MyBooks obtain their IP addresses automatically or do you manually ascribe them? (if you don't understand what that question means, don't worry about it - again, your answer will give us some idea at what level to pitch the conversation.)

It might be an idea to post up a diagram of your network showing what is (physically) connected to what and how (ethernet/Wi-Fi/HomePlug) - it doesn't need to be pretty, it's the topology that's useful for us to know. Better still if you can include the IP addresses of everything.

There's a few data networking professionals (and radio hamms, cable monkeys and I believe occasionally an electrical engineer) and NAS experts who regularly read these columns, so take heart - between us all, I would hope we can sort you out.

jasontheplumber

ill answer as many as possible buddy.
1. im on 300mbp with virgin have been for years,i did for a while put virgins modem into modem mode and buy an Archer c7 tp link router.  i could see the nas drives then for a while but the wifi went down 10 times a day so i put the virgin router back into normal mode and put the tp link router back in the box (luckly it was only cheap as i dont useit now).  on the advise of friends and the net i then bought some BT Whole home discs and my internet has been up and working great now for 2 months

2 the my books are connected to my network through a tp link port switch. my smart tv and xbox are connected to the same one with no issues. i have tried plugging the nas drives directly into the virgin router but no luck there either.

3 yes i know how to ping if i open a command line

4 as far as i know the MyBooks obtain their IP addresses automatically

wiz

Just as a test. Make a folder on your nas and give everybody full permissions, then see if you can see it on your pc.

mickevh

Here's a few things to check, then I guess we'll be into forensic diagnostics:

I don't know the BT WI-Fi solutions, but check whether it includes a DHCP Server (note "Server" not "Client" - it could have both.) If so, disable it. Your network should only have one active DHCP Server and ideally it should be in your ISP router. If you make such a change, give it 24 hours for IP addressing to sort itself out (it'll do so automatically.)

If you already have only one DHCP Server active, then it would be a good idea to tell it to "always give the same IP address" to your MyBooks (and any other "infrastructure" components such as you BT discs.) It's highly unlikely to happen, but DHCP allocated IP address can potentially change, so best to be safe. Head into your routers DHCP Leases table (it may have various names) and find the IP addresses of your MyBooks. Most SOHO kit these days will have an option you can tick to "always allocate this device the same IP address" - again the nomenclature may vary. It would also be worth you making a note of the IP addresses as we're going to be pinging them.

Next we'll be into a realm of pinging everything from everything else to see what works and what doesn't and at the same time check your IP addresses are all consistent and you haven't inadvertently partitioned your network.

If you have a laptop with Wired and Wi-Fi NIC's, it's ideal for this sort of testing, if not a PC cabled to your router should be just as good but you'll need to find "somethign else" to test Wi-Fi. Connect a laptop to your router with cable and turn off said laptop's Wi-Fi if it has it. Then open up a CMD window and ping your router, your MyBooks and for good measure I'd ping the BT discs also.

What you're looking for here is that everything answers - the times aren't important though most should be pretty quick - and that the IP addressing is consistent. In a small SOHO LAN, everything will probably by a 192.168.X.Y where 192.168.X is the same for all and the Y differs for each device.

Then un-cable your PC, connect to the routers Wi-Fi (if it's turned on) and repeat the test.

Then connect to your BT discs and repeat the tests.

This should give you a picture of what works and what doesn't and whether the IP addressing is consistent. If all good, they you've proved the fundamental connectivity of your network is OK and the issues lie elsewhere - potentially in the MyBooks themselves.

Things to look out for (as well as anything that simply does not answer) are any devices where the IP addresses are out of scope - e.g. 192.168.X.Y where the X differs or any addressing that is completely different. Similarly any 169.254.A.B addresses - these are called APIPA addresses and occur because a device cannot "find" a DHCP server and literally "make up" and IP address to use. This would indicate the network is "broken" somewhere preventing traffic from/to clients and the DHCP Server in your router.

I think that's probably enough for one post, so let us know how you get and the results will guide how we proceed further.