Cannot contact my NAS

Addey

I have a NAS540 that I can no longer access via File Explorer on my computer. Connecting via web browser works, so I can manage settings, see all files, etc., but only download singe files at a time, no folders. That in essence means my backups are useless, since they are thousands of folders with tens of thousands of files. The NAS Startup Utility does not find my NAS, and no network shared folders I create in the Zyxel setup (in the web browser) are to be found, the NAS itself isn't even visible when trying to map the folder.

So in essence, I can connect to the NAS, it is available on my wireless network, but not connect so I can see it in Windows File Explorer. NAS is connected to my router via cable, PC is connected wirelessly to the router. The PC uses Windows 10 Enterprise. I really need help in getting the files off of the NAS and onto another storage medium. I'm very close to ripping out the HD and trying to connect it directly to the PC, but don't know if that's even possible.

Mijzelf

no idea why I only can see three of them, and not the most important one…

Did you have to login to access the network location? If not, you might be using a guest account, which of course has no access to the admin share.

As a work-around you can use ftp. Enable ftp access for the shares you want to access, then you can use filezilla (client) to access your files. Explorer used to have a build-in ftp client either, but I suppose that is removed by now. But you can try to put 'ftp://<ip-of-nas>' in the explorer address bar.

Mijzelf

How are you trying to access the NAS using explorer? Typing \\<ip-of-nas>\ in the address bar should always work.

I'm very close to ripping out the HD and trying to connect it directly to the PC, but don't know if that's even possible.

Yes, that is possible. But not using a Windows system. Any Linux distro should work. When you have a raid array, you should connect all the raid members at once.

One caveat, you have a 540. If you happen to have firmware <5.10, a Linux system won't be able to mount the filesystem(s), due to an uncommon block size of 64kB.

Addey

Thanks for your reply

I only have Windows, never used Linux (and my only PC is my work PC, so can't go and reinstall that…). I have updated the firmware to the latest version though, so it's at v5.21

I've tried mapping a shared network folder (but the NAS isn't found as an alternative to map from), and connecting via the NAS Startup Utility (which was my goto earlier, now the NAS isn't found by the Utility). Trying to use File Explorer to go to \\ip-address\ gives an error message, with error code 0x80004005 Unspecified error :(

Now, suddenly, the NAS appeared as a network location in my file explorer, without me doing anything. Here, only the folders Music, Photos and Videos are available. I have all my backups in the Admin folder, which is not visible. I have tried copying some of the backup folders over to one of the three other folders, but they will only accept music, photo and video files, not everything else… If I could just get the Admin folder to show up here, I'd be good to go, but no luck so far. Admin, photo, music and video are all listed as default shared folders in the Control panel, so no idea why I only can see three of them, and not the most important one…

Mijzelf

no idea why I only can see three of them, and not the most important one…

Did you have to login to access the network location? If not, you might be using a guest account, which of course has no access to the admin share.

As a work-around you can use ftp. Enable ftp access for the shares you want to access, then you can use filezilla (client) to access your files. Explorer used to have a build-in ftp client either, but I suppose that is removed by now. But you can try to put 'ftp://<ip-of-nas>' in the explorer address bar.

Addey

Thanks, FTP worked, both via file browser and FileZilla (after I found a non sponsored version of the installation file, the original one from the FileZilla front page was full of adware…), so busy copying my backups over to another drive now. Thanks for the help!!