This blog post is about a D-Link DNS-320 rev A1.
Introduction
I was at a car boot sale and purchased this NAS box for £5. It’s old, but I think I got a good deal, especially as there were a couple of SATA hard drives already in the box.
This blog post details what I did to setup the box and how I’m going to use it.
D-Link DNS-320 rev A1 front panel
D-Link DNS-320 lower rear area
Resetting the D-Link DNS-320 rev A1
I couldn’t access the “ShareCenter” web interface, so I decided to reset the box. I unfolded a paper clip and followed the 30-30-30 second reset rules here: https://www.router-reset.com/reset-manuals/D-Link/DNS-320-rev-A1
The default IP address was 192.168.0.32 and the default admin password is blank.
Firmware and configuration
The box was running firmware version 2.01 dated 05/12/2011. I visited https://support.dlink.com/ProductInfo.aspx?m=DNS-320 and downloaded the latest firmware, which at the time of writing is from 2014. I unzipped the archive and then via the web browser installed the newer firmware.
I then changed the admin password, set a different IP address, created a user for accessing files and configured a few other options.
Hard drives
Via the administration web interface I looked at the hard drive status, and unfortunately only one drive was showing with a degraded raid status.
I noted down which hard drive was showing and then shut down the NAS box, by pressing the power button on the front until a LED started blinking.
On the working drive (320GB) were files, which upon research were for a couple that I believe had died. I wanted to respect their privacy and sadly formatted the drive.
I removed the faulty hard drive and replaced with a Seagate Video 3.5″ 2TB hard drive I recently removed from a Sky set-top box. The 2TB hard drive only cost me £3 GBP. I don’t recommend the Seagate hard drive for NAS use.
I’m not intending to leave this NAS on for long periods, otherwise I would have installed different SATA drives. If I was going to leave the NAS running for long periods, I probably would invest in a couple of WD RED 3.5” SATA hard drives, which I use in another NAS box.
Via the web interface, I configured the user settings to allow read/write access to both hard drives. I then ran a S.M.A.R.T. test on both hard drives.
Then I ran a scan disk of both hard drives.
How I’m using the D-Link DNS-320
I already have another D-Link NAS box which I leave on most of the time. This NAS box I only intend to use for short bursts of time, and I won’t leave on that often.
I’m primarily going to use the NAS box for my video editing work, as I’m recording quite chunky files. Whilst it would be a shame to lose the files, I’m not going to use the RAID functionality of the box.
The files will be access via two different PCs, and I prefer using a NAS rather than a shared folder from a hard disk one of my Windows PCs. My other NAS box, which is also a D-Link box, I use for backups.
Conclusion
With the original cost of £5 for a NAS box and working SATA hard drive, and then adding a £3 SATA hard drive, I’ve got some additional easy to access storage for my video editing work. The D-LINK DNS-320 rev A1 is old, but with the firmware update, I’m looking forward to using it.
If I want to increase it’s functionality I can via the ‘Applications’ section, but I’ve got no plans to do this.
Also I should note that Jamie Lentin has information about installing Debian Linux on the D-Link DNS-320 and DNS-325.