Recover a non working "bricked" Linkstation

Any information how to recover a non working, bricked Linkstation should get here.

Try to Reflash
First see if your Linkstation is on a different IP than you are used to. Use a port scanner. Also your LS may now be on a different subnet than your router you will have to change the subnet on your router/computer to 192.168.11.XXX  You could also use a crossover cable to attach your computer directly to the linkstation. Before you try to reflash see if you can open a telnet or ssh session to your LinkStation with PuTTY first, or if your Samba shares are acessable at \\<>

Several port scanners are listed below:

Reset Button
 * Angry IP Scanner - http://www.angryziber.com/ipscan/
 * SoftPerfect Network Scanner - http://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/
 * Nmap - http://insecure.org/nmap/

If you double press the reset button on the rear of your LS (press quickly with a one second pause between successive presses) this will
 * 1) Launch Telnet process (on port 1234)
 * 2) Start apservd which opens port (udp 22936) on your linkstation. All 3 Windows applications which came with your Linkstation (HD-HLAN FWUpdate.exe, IPSetup.exe and LsBackup.exe) are using this open UDP port to communicate with your Linkstation
 * 3) Start your linkstation on a static IP: 192.168.11.150

EM Mode


 * 1) In EM Mode your Linkstation will default to a static IP: 192.168.11.150 and open the same UDP port:

If you can get to this point you can try The LinkStation firmware flasher

Firmware Reinstallation
The following steps can be used to "reanimate" a Linkstation, this is also generally accepted as the easier method to upgrade your Linkstation's hard drive.

Open LinkStation
(see Disassemble the LinkStation)


 * disconnect disk from internal mainboard and power.

Remove all partitions
For a USB-IDE connection: parted /dev/sda For IDE direct connection: hda = Primary Master hdb = Primary Slave hdc = Secondary Master hdd = Secondary Slave
 * connect disk to a PC with knoppix via a USB-IDE adapter or directly to the IDE controller. If you change the IDE setting on your hard drive to match it to a "Slave" setting, remember to put the jumper back to "Master" before connecting back the hard drive to the Linkstation
 * start knoppix in terminal mode "knoppix 2"

So if you used Primary Master you would type: parted /dev/hda

After this, the commands are the same for USB & IDE direct: rm 1 rm 2 rm 3 rm 4 quit


 * (optional) For Windows users who do not wish to become familiar with Knoppix, Google and get "Explore2fs". When the LS drive is connected to the IDE controller on your pc, this application may allow you to retrieve data from the LS disk and copy (export) it to your Windows drive. You can then use Windows Computer Management --> Disk Management to delete the partitions on the LS drive and continue with the directions as posted here.