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KB ID: 1186

Product: WS5000N Series

Windows Storage Server 2012 Recovery Procedure

Last Updated: 08/29/2025

If Windows Storage Server no longer functions properly you can perform a recovery using the supplied USB device.

Note: This recovery procedure erases your data. Backing up regularly is highly recommended to avoid losing important data.

Do not connect the supplied USB device to another TeraStation unit. The recovery process performed by the supplied USB device is intended for this product only.

The USB boot switch is located on the rear of the TeraStation. It is item 13 in the illustrations below:

Turn off the TeraStation by shutting down Windows from a remote desktop. If the system does not boot, turn off the TeraStation by holding down the power button.
Connect the supplied USB device to the USB 2.0 port.
Set the boot mode switch on the rear of the unit to "USB" and then press the power button.
This starts the recovery process. During the process you will see this message on the LCD:

The recovery process will automatically erase drive 1 (disk 0 in Windows disk management) and create a new 100 GB (basic disk/simple) volume. It will then copy the Windows Storage Server image to this volume.

Note: If there are system volumes (or mirrored locations) on hard drives other than drive 1, be sure to delete the system volumes (or disable the mirrored locations) before performing the recovery procedure. If recovery is performed without deleting these volumes, Windows Storage Server may not run after recovery is performed.

If Windows Storage Server fails to run, turn off the TeraStation perform the recovery procedure again while all hard drives except for drive 1 (disk 0) are disconnected. After recovery is finished, reconnect the disconnected drives, which will appear in "Disk Management" as "Foreign". In "Disk Management", right-click "Foreign", select "Import Foreign Disks", then right-click this volume and click Reactivate Volume to rebuild the RAID array.
The TeraStation shuts down automatically when the recovery process is complete and will display the following two messages on the LCD:
Remove the USB device, set the boot mode switch to "HDD", and press the power button.

When the initial setup is finished, the TeraStation will reboot into Windows Storage Server.

After the recover process finishes, the TeraStation is set to the state below.

• Drive 1

100 MB (EFI System partition)

100 GB (Basic Disk/Simple)

The remaining space is an unallocated volume.

• Drives 2 to 4

The data on the drives cannot be viewed. They appear as "Foreign" in "Disk Management".

Note: The data on the drives may be recoverable by right-clicking the volume displayed as "Foreign" on "Disk Management" and then selecting Import Foreign Disks.

If recovery is not possible or not desired, delete all remaining volumes from all disks in disk management other than disk 1. Here is what you should now see (the example is a 4 drive unit. A 6 drive unit will show 6 disks in disk management).

Now follow these steps:

Launch the "RAID Builder" from the Buffalo Tools section on the Windows home screen.
Open the drop-menu at the top.
From the drop-down menu at the top of the screen select "Create or repair a mirrored volume of the system area".
Note: This is the only way to create a copy of the EFI system area.
Drive 1 will be automatically selected. Select drive 2 as well.
Once both drives 1 and 2 are selected, click OK.
You will see this progress window until the process is finished.
Once the process finishes you will be prompted to reboot the NAS. Click Yes.
After the reboot disk management should now show that the first two drives both have an EFI system partition and the C: drive should be mirrored on both drives.
Launch the RAID Builder again. Select "Create RAID array from the dropdown and select all available drives. Select "RAID 5" as the RAID structure. Click OK.
You will again see the progress window until the process finishes.
Once the process finishes you should get a simple notification window. Click OK.
Disk management should now show a new D: drive across all disks in the unit that is resynchronizing. The resynchronization time will vary depending on the size of the volume.