Question Buffalo DriveStation cabinet replacement

[bamiral]

I have a 10 year old Buffalo DriveStation HD-QH16TU3R5 that won't power up. I've bought a used similar cabinet to use that does power up. What issues might I encounter moving the 4 RAID drives into the new cabinet? My primary concern is that the drives remain intact as there are many valuable files.

 

[USAFRet]

I have a 10 year old Buffalo DriveStation HD-QH16TU3R5 that won't power up. I've bought a used similar cabinet to use that does power up. What issues might I encounter moving the 4 RAID drives into the new cabinet? My primary concern is that the drives remain intact as there are many valuable files.

Dare I ask if there is an actual backup of these "many valuable files"?

What type of RAID array?

What does Buffalo say about how it was instantiated, and how to recover in an instance like this?

 

[bamiral]

There were backups on Carbonite, but that contract terminated and the data is no longer available. A major sin, of course, but trying to revive the unit so that it can be correctly backed up. A drive failure would have been easily recoverable, but the cabinet power failing is not and was not anticipated.

Most likely, it is RAID 0 or 5 (striping).

Buffalo has been limited in their support as the unit is 10 years old and off of warranty. They suggested checking the various forums.

These cabinets do not seem to have much intelligence built into them, so I am hopeful that the drives can be moved into a new cabinet without issue.

 

[USAFRet]

Most likely, it is RAID 0 or 5 (striping).

"Most likely..."

This is kind of critical information.

Some of these enclosures instantiate the RAID with specifics from its motherboard.
Some don't.
Another enclosure may or may not work.

And you almost certainly need to put the drives back in the same order.

 

[bamiral]

Yes, I'm aware that they need to go in the same order. The question that I am trying to get definitively answered is if putting them in a different cabinet would work seamlessly, or would it automatically trigger reformatting, etc..

My hope is that someone very familiar with the design of these old units has information about the 'intelligence' of the cabinet. In opening the malfunctioning unit, it does not appear that there is much on the boards, so I remain hopeful that the replacement cabinet will function as desired.