Well if you're talking about the Goflex Home then the storage unit is NOT the Goflex device, so maybe it isn't the programmer who is an idiot after all.
The Goflex Home is a minicomputer with its own flash RAM and Linux operating system. It can have one or more storage devices attached to it (or none, but then it's not much use).
What the message is telling you is that while the dashboard can find the goflex device it can't find the attached storage.
On the other hand, the dashboard software is crud and you are better off without it. I do everything I need to do without the dashboard software.
ps. you're too late, most of the people on the Goflex home forum either already think the product is garbage or have worked through the problems and are happy, so anything you post isn't going to make much difference. If you are easily frustrated (and I'm guessing you are) maybe a Network Attached Storage isn't for you.
Check out forums for alternative NAS products and you'll find angry people there too.
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For the sake of your own health and sanity, if your data is important to you, keep a second copy on another storage (a backup)
It's a big leap from "Dashboard can't connect" to "the drive is dead" 