Ikon

Again, nice to see people finding the tutorial helpful. @Big_11 I like the idea of using a Gen10. IIRC, they're c o n s i d e r a b l y faster than H340s. Wow, just had a look at Gen10 prices. Considering it's an EOL product, I'm surprised the prices are so high. I was expecting to see some @ $200 or so. Instead, they're $600 to $900j+

Hi. Just got several notifications by email of updates to this topic. I'm glad to see that a number of people have found my tutorial useful, and that it's worked for them. That said, I have to admit I haven't been using my H340 for quite a while. It's still sitting there, on a shelf, with the USB stick in the front USB port, powered down. Oh well, at least my efforts have helped a few people.

Is this where the boot image is normally stored?

My USB stick has to stay installed in the H340. The computer actually boots from the USB stick. AFAIK, that's the way Xpenology works; it runs from the USB stick. I understand it is possible to transfer it to the hard drive, and I think I tried it but found it more trouble than it's worth. I finally followed the advice of several people in the Xpenology forums and just went with the option of always booting from the USB stick.

-Outcome of the update: SUCCESSFUL - DSM version prior update: DSM 6.1.5-15254 - Loader version and model: JUN'S LOADER v1.02b - DS3617xs - Using custom extra.lzma: NO - Installation type: BareMetal - Intel DG33M06 - Additional comments: REBOOT REQUIRED

- Outcome of the update: SUCCESSFUL - DSM version prior update: DSM 6.1.5-15254 - Loader version and model: JUN'S LOADER v1.02b - DS3617xs - Installation type: Bare metal (Acer EasyStore H340) - Additional comments: no reboot required

Internal USB storage? Can you tell me where it's located?

The 1 second delay I get. What had me wondering was why it didn't behave that way after the reboot. Your tip about the keyboard did the trick. I had a Logitech Unifying Receiver plugged into one of the USB ports. Taking it out allowed the bootup to proceed without stopping. So I guess XPEnology likes to run headless

Thanks. That will help. However, good news: I have been able work out how to install XPEnology onto the H340 reliably and repeatedly. I just created a new topic with my findings: Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to the world of XPEnology, but I would be remiss if I didn't give special thanks to @Polanskiman. Thanks.

Through much trial and tribulation, I have finally been able to repeatedly, and reliably, install XPEnology onto an Acer Aspire EasyStore H340 NAS. There were a great many failures, but it turns out one thing was the key to success. Here are the steps I followed: I downloaded the MBR version of Jun's loader image: DS3617xs_DSM6.1_JunsMod_V1.02b_MBR_Genesys.img. It seems it has to be the MBR version. The GPT version simply doesn't work. This is probably because the H340 dates from 2009 and doesn't understand GPT. I downloaded DSM_DS3617xs_15217.pat. There was no particular reason for picking the DS3617xs: it simply seemed like it might be the most versatile. I took a 2TB HDD and used Disk Manager on my Win10 desktop to remove any existing partitions and ensure it was initialised as MBR. As far as I know, the H340 can't use drives larger than 2TB, so the maximum disk space would be 8TB, minus the space for DSM itself. I prepared a SanDisk Cruzer 8TB USB stick as per Polanskiman's excellent tutorial. I used the tool pointed to by Polanskiman to generate a serial number. I installed the 2TB drive INTO THE TOP SLOT of the H340. NOT USING THE BOTTOM SLOT IS THE KEY ITEM TO SUCCESS. I attempted to install XPEnology/DSM onto various drives in the bottom slot; they all failed. On my Win10 desktop, I opened a window to my DHCP server. I also opened a command prompt window. I inserted the USB stick into the front port on the H340. I haven't tested installing with the stick in a rear port. I also ensured there was no keyboard or mouse connected to the H340. I pressed Power on the H340. I watched the LAN Activity LED closely. Once it started blinking I moved to step 9. I watched my DHCP Server's list of active leases until it showed me a new one, which was for the H340. I used the IP from the DHCP server's to start a continuous PING of the H340. I opened Synology Assistant. Http://find.synology.com doesn't work for me. After a couple of Searches, Assistant found the H340 and said it was Not Installed. I right-clicked on the H340 in Assistant and selected Install. I watched the progress until, at around 28%, 600 seconds, the install windows said the H340 was rebooting. I watched the continuous PING. After around 6 Request Timed Outs, and 30 Destination Unreachables, at around 61%, or 235 seconds, the Write Configurations began. It completed very quickly and said the installation was successful. I was then able to connect to DSM and complete the initial configuration items. I rebooted a couple of times to ensure the system comes up cleanly each time. I then used the Shutdown command to shut down the H340. This is the one thing that still doesn't work properly. The system does power down, but only for a few seconds, then it begins to power right back up again, almost like it was doing a restart instead of a shutdown. I've tried the Power Button package I found on the net. It also shuts the system down, but again it powers right back up. The only solution I've found is to wait until the light on the USB stick goes out, then pull the plug. I may connect the H340 to a power bar to simplify things. If someone can offer a suggestion, that would be great. After powering down, I added a 2TB drive to the bottom slot of the H340 and powered back up. Fortunately, XPEnology/DSM still managed to boot up OK, and the new drive was found by DSM just fine. Since the top 3 slots of the H340 are supposed to be hot-swappable, I added another 2TB drive to slot 2 (2nd from the bottom). It was also discovered without issue. It seems the whole key to getting XPEnology onto an EasyStore H340 is to NOT use the bottom slot for the XPEnology/DSM drive. I know the bottom slot is considered special when H340s are used to run Windows Home Server 2011, so I can only assume something about the way the bottom slot is handled by the system interferes with getting XPEnology installed. I do not pretend to say I've exhausted every combination that might, or might not, work. What I've posted is simply what started working for me, so I've stuck with it. I think an H340 makes a very nice Synology box, and they can be found very cheaply on eBay.

Thanks again. The reason for the video card is so I can see and get into the BIOS. That way, I can, hopefully, force the system to boot always from the USB stick. I will give your other suggestions a try.

More update: At least on the H340, maybe because I have to use Jun's MBR .img, rather than the GPT .img, it doesn't seem to be enough to have the hard drive formatted as a single partition. Even deleting any partitions using Disk Manager doesn't seem to work. The only way I've consistently gotten results is to use the CLEAN command in DISKPART. That's the only configuration that seems to allow the H340 to get an IP. Other configs just lead to the LAN LED never coming on at all. Without LAN connectivity the server can't be found by DS Assistant and the install can't proceed. Even then, once the copying of DSM to the hard drive is complete, and the system reboots, it never gets an IP and DS Assistant can't complete the install. I've even tried putting a jumper on the debug pins on the H340's motherboard, which apparently is required to get video, keyboard, and mouse working, but hitting Enter on the keyboard did nothing. I have an PCIeX1 video card on order, so I'll see what that shows me.

I may have identified part of the issue with the H340. I pulled out an old Intel DG33M06 board and powered it up. This gave me a monitor and keyboard to work with. When I went to install XPE using the MBR version of the DS3617xs loader I noticed that there didn't seem to be a timer countdown. If I hit Enter the install proceeded. After the reboot, there was again no countdown timer, so I hit Enter again and the installation completed successfully.... and quickly. When I tried the EFI loader on the DG33M06, I noticed that the menu was displayed only very briefly then the installation proceeded. After the first reboot, however, the menu came up and stayed up, until I hit Enter, at which point the installation completed successfully. So, my hunch is that the H340 isn't working partly because it's sitting there waiting for a menu selection to be made. I tried plugging in a USB keyboard and hitting Enter, but it didn't proceed. However, I noticed that the LAN LED hasn't been coming on, so I'm going to do it again using a SanDisk Cruzer 8GB stick. Is there a way to skip the menu and, perhaps, hard-code the menu choice into grub.cfg? Oh, BTW, on the DG33M06 (Core2quad 2.33GHZ, 4GB RAM) XPEnology is really fast.

Thanks so much @Polanskiman. I readily admit I'm completely new to XPEnology, and a lot of it is confusing. But, your tutorial worked so well the 1st time..... Format the HDD, as in, create 1 large partition and format it NTFS? I've re-imaged USB keys so often I can do it blindfolded now I did find out you should not use DISKPART to CLEAN a USB stick. I've got 2 toasted SanDisk 8GB Cuzer to prove that. The biggest bugbear is that it all went SO well the first time. What the????

Hi. I've got a bit of a strange situation. I hauled an Acer H340 out of storage and thought I'd try to install XPEnology on it. I followed Polanskiman's tutorial and, on the 1st attempt, it all worked like a charm. However, when I went to redo the install (to test if it's repeatable) I haven't been able to install again at all. I've tried several different USB sticks, including ones that worked before, but no go. What's happening now is the install is proceeding all the way to the point of the first reboot (after step 3: Install DSM to hard drive). I've watched the H340 closely when the reboot is supposed to take place and, indeed, all the LEDs except for Power go out briefly then come back on. The LAN LED starts to blink again as well, but it appears the system never gets a renewed IP address. I've tried using Express Setup and Complete Setup (where I disabled DHCP and hardcoded the IP info). Neither work. The install times out, tries to do step 4: Write configurations, but of course it can't because it can't talk to the box. Anyone have any idea what's going on? Also, is it necessary to wipe out and rewrite the .img to the boot USB stick each time I try a new install? I have also been using DISKPART to CLEAN the drives for each new install attempt. Is that required? BTW, the one time the install completed and I logged into the H340, the performance was really good. Everything was 'snappy'. I think it will make a good XPEnology box, if I can ever figure out the installation.