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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-323 => Topic started by: zmcmahan on January 10, 2010, 03:48:13 PM

Title: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: zmcmahan on January 10, 2010, 03:48:13 PM
I've read a few posts about file folders being given one letter, and then being empty, however found no resolutions. Example: Backing up my music will yield my music folders, but then also an empty folder with a capital letter "C". This doesn't happen all the time and not to every letter. I've also noticed that it only happens when I have folders that begin with that letter. Quite weird actually. I have not been able to replicate by clicking "Download Now"...this only happens with scheduled backups that I do overnight. I am doing scheduled downloads from Volume 1 to a Shared Folder in Volume 2, for certain things to be accessible over FTP.

UPDATE: I believe this is only happening with incremental backups.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: gee0000 on July 25, 2010, 06:23:27 AM
I'm having this issue right now. I've tried creating a new user account and tried recopying the data, still no luck. I've searched around the forums a bit but no luck. It looks like there's a user (irotjaf) in this thread that is also having the problem.

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=14130.msg82697#msg82697

Can anyone shed some light? I was thinking of trying a factory reset. Does that wipe the data off the drives?

I'm running firmware 1.08.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: jamieburchell on July 25, 2010, 04:05:40 PM
No it doesn't wipe the drives. Have a backup to hand though.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: gee0000 on July 25, 2010, 05:04:02 PM
Well, reset to factory defaults didn't help. That's disappointing. It seems like everyone else that was having this issue gave up. I suppose I will add this to the ongoing issues thread.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: irotjaf on July 26, 2010, 12:51:11 AM
I still have this issue.

And hope the data is safe (the NAS is only creating and not deleting any folder "by mistake").

Can somebody from DLINK investigate this problem. What kind of NAS is one that create folders on it's own. You never know where or what has been created by you and what by the NAS.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: jamieburchell on July 26, 2010, 07:47:12 AM
I want to help but I'm completely confused as to how you are making this happen.
What do you mean "Download now..."? So you are saying incremental backups are causing this?

I've never seen this problem in 2 years, but then I don't use any "incremental" backups facility.

Did you run a scandisk on the drives?

Could you give us an example of folder structure/what's appearing in those folders and when?
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: irotjaf on July 26, 2010, 06:39:43 PM
The problem is folders are created out of nothing. And they are named with a single letter. Here is an image

(http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/1943/dnsproblem.jpg) (http://img823.imageshack.us/i/dnsproblem.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: jamieburchell on July 27, 2010, 01:33:07 AM
And that happens as the result of running an incremental backup? Is there any significance in the folder timestamps all being the same and different from the other folders?
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: irotjaf on July 28, 2010, 12:54:08 AM
I dont know if the folders are created because the backup is "incremental" or not. The timestamp is that of the daily backup I have set at 5:30 in the morning. The problem seem to be in the Download Scheduler application. Something happens there to create these folders.

Just a guess, I kind of remember having the computer on and using the NAS at that time. Can it be that is happens when I am using the NAS only? Boh, what about the others, do you remember any coincidence?
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: gee0000 on July 29, 2010, 05:53:19 AM
I've managed to confirm that the issue does only occur with incremental backups. I haven't had the problem when doing a full volume copy. Obviously it isn't ideal to have the NAS copy all the contents from Volume_1 to Volume_2 every night, or every week for that matter.

The letters it chooses are the first letters of the names of the folders it's supposed to copy. For example, on Volume_1 I have folders Data, Media and Work, and when the incremental backups happens, it creates folders D, M and W. All these folders are empty and nothing is copied to them ever. Even if I let the incremental backup run again the next night, nothing happens.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: irotjaf on July 29, 2010, 10:52:25 AM
Great gee0000, I cannot confirm right away because there I haven't updated anything from saome days. But will check better to see if your observation is correct in my NAS too.

Thank you.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: irotjaf on July 30, 2010, 07:49:53 PM
Hello all,

I haven't changed anything in the backup folders, yet it happened again that the backup from one disk to the other have new one-letter folders.

So, the letters are not taken from folder with new material affecting the incremental backup. I don't know how does the NAS choose the letters to create these folders.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: Buhric on July 31, 2010, 02:35:33 PM
I can confirm that its not only with incremential backups...
 tried to copy over 1 folder that contains a bunch of folder over the 2nd second
and at the end. I had a bunch of empty 1 letter folders, and it ahd NOT copied over ALL the folder from the 1st drive...

And before this can resolved, I thing wee need to know how the DNS-323 does its backups/file transfers..
Is it using rsync ? or what else?
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: irotjaf on August 04, 2010, 06:21:23 PM
Can any DLINK engeneer write here a word on the problem. At least that the issue will be addressed sooner or later.

This is a pure bug. And bugs should be resolved asap, not just ignored and left in some forum thread.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: jamieburchell on August 05, 2010, 05:57:01 AM
Is it using rsync ? or what else?

I doubt it's rsync. It's not available by default.
Do you guys have any modifications installed/running i.e. Fonz Funplug (FFP) ?
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: Buhric on August 05, 2010, 01:03:47 PM
Nope I never actualy used ffplug on the DNS....
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: irotjaf on August 05, 2010, 10:50:30 PM
I have fun_plug.

That should be a tool DLINK should provide too. It's the only way to understand what is going on in the NAS when it crashes, slows down, etc. And it's the only way to have torrents running if you don't want to risk a restart every day with the official BitTorrent add-on crashing the /web/webs app.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: jamieburchell on August 06, 2010, 01:10:17 AM
I'm not condemning the use of funplug- I use it myself. I was wondering if by having it installed commands/programs that were previously available by default on the NAS are overwritten/redirected to newer versions within FFP. That might explain a difference in behaviour if the issue only occurs when it's installed. If it occurs anyway, I guess that's not the issue.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: TS on September 21, 2010, 07:24:09 PM
geez.. would someone at D-Link fix this already? its been over 2 1/2 years and happening since at least FW v 1.03.

to be helpful - it occurs with STOCK dns-323 units W/O any mods to fw, etc.

heres my setup:
2 IDENTICALLY SETUP STOCK  dns-323 units w/  1g wd green drives(1each)( if needed i can look the model nbrs up) to keep it simple ill refer to them as dns-A and dns-B
current fw is 1.06 (havent seen anything in the changelogs to justify updating, & the online backup in the new fw is a bad joke.)
dns-A is used for routine storage - copy/write to/from, playback of media files.
dns-B is -solely- used for backup of dns-A.

this is from memory since i've long since given up on the built-in backup software - just too much data on the units to risk w/ it anymore.
as others have noted; when doing an incremental backup, it seems to copy all the data =AND= creates empty folders named w/ a single letter.
-these empty folders are only created IF there is a corresponding folder starting w/ the same 1st letter.
-not all folders end up having a empty single letter folder created. ive been unable to find any common factor in this from a casual look at things.
-these single letter folders can also occur in SUB-FOLDERS. again only if there are subfolders starting w/ the same letter.
drive layout: goes thus: /Volume_1/All Files/(folders)/(subfolders)
"folders" being the root folders on my pc's hd's. ex: D:\downloads, D:\pictures, ..music, ..video...

side note "All Files" got added to make individual folder selection easier. not a bug but a failing of the backup utility since i never could get it to do individual backups by folders.

backups from the pc's to dns-A are done manually or w/ sync-backup software on each pc since they are not left running when not being used.
backup from dns-A to dns-B - for the first few weeks, i tried to use the fw utility on dns-B. just a disaster w/ the constant re-creation of empty single letter folders. gave up and stopped using it. simply cant afford the risk.
NONE of the various backup/sync programs ive tested on the pc's (win and linux) have exhibited this behavior.
I also tried swapping dns-a for dns-b. same results. unit doing the incremental backup creates the empty single letter folders.
dns-A and dns-B were connected to the same hub while i was trying to work this out, so i doubt network problems are an issue.

I'd love to use the built-in backup utility, but until someone fixes it... forget it.

I'm due to upgrade hd's on 2 computers soon so i'd be willing to use their old hd's for testing if anyone can comeup w/ suggestions.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: jamieburchell on September 22, 2010, 10:01:50 AM
How much time do you save by typing "w/" instead of "with"? :)

I don't use that feature unfortunately, so I can't say if there are problems w/ i/.

Knock up a script to do it with fun plug very easily, but I know that's not the point.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: TS on September 23, 2010, 09:45:27 AM
>How much time do you save by typing "w/" instead of "with"? :)

ah! sorry, that one slipped by me..  ;D
one tries to keep the "hearing" world and "deaf" world message conventions separate but sometimes...
actually,  it saves a great deal of time if most of your daily communication is done via a keyboard and one uses a few dozen other abbreviations as a matter of routine.

>I don't use that feature unfortunately, so I can't say if there are problems w/ i/.

if you end up with a pair and use the 2nd to backup the 1st, the feature would be a huge timesaver - IF IT WORKED...  :P
i see too many people here using raid and apparently thinking its a backup method. its not. raid in the home/smb environment is just a total disaster waiting to happen.

>Knock up a script to do it with fun plug very easily, but I know that's not the point.

i've been tempted... but i prefer to keep my "serious work" gear stock and save the experimenting/play stuff for my "toys" to minimize the chances of data loss.
the NSLU2 i retired when i got these has been a lot of fun to play with since then.

NOW.. if we could just get someone in D-Link to FIX it.... or as you and others have suggested, replace it with some other code, they would make a lot of current customers happy.


Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: jamieburchell on September 23, 2010, 12:37:27 PM
one tries to keep the "hearing" world and "deaf" world message conventions separate but sometimes...

I wasn't aware that the abbreviations were anything other than trendy shorthand slang, so forgive my ignorance. Since I've raised the subject, I'm interested to know why those abbreviations are used in the "deaf" world?

Not much has happened here from D-Link, so I think fun_plug might be the way to go. If you look in to it, you'll see it's not actually that scary and is quite safe (when you know what you're doing).
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: TS on September 29, 2010, 04:01:00 PM
I wasn't aware that the abbreviations were anything other than trendy shorthand slang, so forgive my ignorance. Since I've raised the subject, I'm interested to know why those abbreviations are used in the "deaf" world?

Not much has happened here from D-Link, so I think fun_plug might be the way to go. If you look in to it, you'll see it's not actually that scary and is quite safe (when you know what you're doing).

Thats pretty much what it usually is in forums (slang), which is one reason i try not to "slip into it" when dealing with hearing folks, besides the fact they wouldnt understand most of the abbreviations. The main reason we use it is mainly for speed & for showing emotions in text based conversations. I'm sure you've used IM's in the past, so you are probably aware that it takes a great deal longer to type out everything as compared to speaking. If you think your phone bill is terrible, be happy you aren't deaf since you would spend at least twice as long to make the same calls since both parties have to type things out. When AIM, etc became widespread, "Ma Bell" lost a lot of money since most deaf people switched to using IM's instead of making phone calls via TDD's. Don't even get me started on having to pay for a cell phone "voice" plan ill never use, before they will even let me "add" txt and messaging.
 
back on topic..

"Fun-Plug...if you know what your doing..."
ah thats the rub..<grin>

for me trick would also be to have a pair of spare drives and a week of time to play with it to verify things. Manually restoring a gig of corrupt data is not my idea of fun and "spare time" is some fantasy someone dreamed up... ;)
Having D-Link provide an official fix, would kinda give me and others an excuse to not spend all that time and effort testing alternatives. I just wish they would get on the ball and fix it. I know the yuppie MBA bean counters would scream about the cost to this quarters bottom line, but someone there needs to consider what its going to cost them down the line in terms of repeat customers.

Yeah, somewhere down the line i'll probably have to bite the bullet and use fun_plug etc. since this business of manually backing up to the 2nd drive does eat up time i could use for other stuff. like sleep...  ;D
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: jamieburchell on September 30, 2010, 01:41:57 AM
If you do find the time and the inclination to try a third party solution, this page guides you through the entire process of installing Fonz Fun Plug. It comes with a built in utility "rsync" that allows you to perform among other things, incremental backups. You will however need a bit of know-how to get the process automated, depending on what you would like to achieve.

For me, when I attach a USB hard drive to the DNS-323 and reboot it, my incremental backup to disk starts. I can share with you the scripts quite easily.

http://nas-tweaks.net/CH3SNAS:Tutorials/fun_plug (http://nas-tweaks.net/CH3SNAS:Tutorials/fun_plug)
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: monitor35 on October 01, 2010, 01:50:06 PM
For the record, I hate this "bug" and gave up using the built-in backup mechanism because of it.
I went to fun_plug and now rsync from one HDD to another, and from one DNS-323 to another, over SSH, across town.
Awe yeah, geographically diverse backups.
Title: Re: Any resolution to one letter file folders during backup?
Post by: gee0000 on October 18, 2010, 03:54:23 PM
I figured I would check back here to see if any progress had been made. Hearing that this has been an issue for 2.5 years is somewhat discouraging. Having already dumped a couple hundred bucks on this thing including drives, I think I may be stuck short of selling it.

I guess I'll have to give fonz_plug a try and see if that makes this useful again.