1TB Fox T2 Freezing, unable to format HDD

Webreaper

New Member
Hi all,

Wondering if anyone can give some advice. I bought a 1TB Fox T2 HDR last year, and it's been terrific so far (with the custom firmware etc). In installed the latest custom firmware a few weeks back, but about a week ago the device started to freeze. It works for about 30s after I power-cycle the device, but then pauses for long periods, eventually responding but basically unusable. I can watch TV, but recordings stutter and pause.

The Web-IF shows a warning about partition alignment (I didn't take a copy of the error).

I telnetted in and ran fix-disk, but it repeatedly tells me it's succeeded on the same sector, and then it just sits there - doesn't seem to do anything.

I think the best thing to do is to format the hard drive; I've seen somebody else mention that's solved it for them. I haven't backed up my recordings, but don't really care about them - pretty much everything I wanted to keep can be pulled down from a torrent site anyway, so I can restore my recordings that way.

However, when I go to format, it tells me the drive is too large. Again, seen this problem on the forums a few times, so I think the right thing to to is to telnet in, use the cli, and fdisk. However, I'm not a unix person (Windows dev background) so unsure of the parameters I should enter. Can anyone give me the exact command-line?

I've also reached out to Humax - my one-year warranty expires in July (I think I registered for the 2-year humaxdirect one, but don't remember) so if all else fails I can get the unit swapped. But I'd like to get it up and running.
 
However, when I go to format, it tells me the drive is too large. Again, seen this problem on the forums a few times, so I think the right thing to to is to telnet in, use the cli, and fdisk. However, I'm not a unix person (Windows dev background) so unsure of the parameters I should enter. Can anyone give me the exact command-line?
The instructions in the af123 blog post at http://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/2TB_Disk_Installation_Blog should help. They relate to a 2TB drive so some of the numbers need modifying. You need to keep the first and third partitions the same size but reduce the size of partition 2 by reducing the end block and modifying the start and end block of partition 3.
 
Thanks. Don't suppose you have the exact command, do you? :)

BTW, the fix-disk appears to have completed and has helped a lot - the Humax isn't freezing all the time at the moment now.
 
Thanks. Don't suppose you have the exact command, do you? :)
There are a series of commands to be entered. The exact details will differ slightly depending on the make and model of drive. What is the full output of
Code:
gfdisk -lu /dev/sda
 
Here's the output:

NU Fdisk 1.3.0a
Copyright (C) 1998 - 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.


Disk /dev/sda: 1000 GB, 1000202273280 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953520065 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 8 2104510 1052226 83 Linux
Warning: Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 2104512 1932539166 965217330 83 Linux
Warning: Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 1932539168 1953520062 10490445 83 Linux

Warning: Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
 
I am puzzled why webif is giving a partition alignment warning as everything looks fine to me. I would wait for further advice from af123 or xyz321 who are the real experts in this area.
 
The text I see in the WebIF is:

!! WARNING !!
There appear to be some hardware problems with the internal hard disk on this device.
Disk realloc sector count is: 8
Disk pending sector count is: 7
Disk offline sector count is: 7

Going to the disk Diags page I see this:

SMART data read from device /dev/sda

Disk Information
SMART Status
PASSED
Device Model
ST1000VM002-1CT162
Serial Number
W1G0JJMD
LU WWN Device Id
5 000c50 05c8ed094
Firmware Version
SC23
User Capacity
1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes
512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
ATA Version is
8
ATA Standard is
ATA-8-ACS revision 4
Local Time is
Thu Apr 17 15:27:04 2014 BST
SMART support is
Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is
Enabled
Attributes
IDNameFlagsRaw ValueValueWorstThreshTypeUpdatedWhen Failed
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-- 9094520 105 099 006 Pre-fail Always -
3 Spin_Up_Time PO---- 0 097 097 000 Pre-fail Always -
4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 1168 099 099 020 Old_age Always -
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 8 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always -
7 Seek_Error_Rate POSR-- 72529492 078 060 030 Pre-fail Always -
9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 3064 097 097 000 Old_age Always -
10 Spin_Retry_Count PO--C- 0 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always -
12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 1168 099 099 020 Old_age Always -
184 End-to-End_Error -O--CK 0 100 100 099 Old_age Always -
187 Reported_Uncorrect -O--CK 18 082 082 000 Old_age Always -
188 Command_Timeout -O--CK 0 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
189 High_Fly_Writes -O-RCK 2 098 098 000 Old_age Always -
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O---K 50 050 040 045 Old_age Always In_the_past
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate -O--CK 0 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK 1167 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
193 Load_Cycle_Count -O--CK 1168 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 50 050 060 000 Old_age Always -
197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--C- 7 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----C- 7 100 100 000 Old_age Offline -
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -OSRCK 0 200 200 000 Old_age Always -
Self-test logs
No.DescriptionStatusRemainingWhenFirst Error LBA
# 1 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3060 2909328
# 2 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3060 2909328
# 3 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3060 2909328
# 4 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3060 2909328
# 5 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
# 6 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
# 7 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
# 8 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
# 9 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#10 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#11 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#12 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#13 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#14 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#15 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#16 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#17 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#18 Short offline Interrupted (host reset) 00% 3058 -
#19 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3058 2909328
#20 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3057 2909328
#21 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 3057 2909328
 
OK so there is no partition alignment issue which makes more sense. The reallocated sectors are not an issue; it is the pending sector count. As fix-disk hasn't been able to fix the problem then (providing you are happy to lose all the existing recordings) I would be tempted to do a security erase following the instructions at http://hummy.tv/forum/threads/fix-d...-unrecognised-partition-type.4579/#post-58050 and then let the Humax format the drive again.
 
Thanks, I'll give this a go. My only concern is that if I reboot and it prompts to format, but then fails because it thinks the disk is too big, I'd then be screwed. :) Do you think that's likely?
 
Thanks, I'll give this a go. My only concern is that if I reboot and it prompts to format, but then fails because it thinks the disk is too big, I'd then be screwed. :) Do you think that's likely?
It is really hard to know what will happen in these situations as there are very few data points to judge from. My best guess is that if the security erase works then everything will be fine. Please let us know how it works out so we have another data point.
 
Thanks for all the input. I reached out to Humax support who told me I should revert to the previous firmware. I did that and the issue and disk error persisted. I tried running the disk repair (from Humax's firmware) and it managed to format the disk, but when I ran a disk check the error 8 was still there. So I've asked them to replace the device. We'll see what happens.
 
That's because they are no longer in production. You can either hope a refurb comes up, or take the hit and replace the HDD yourself. Other options are "not an option".
 
Well, I'm not replacing the disk myself. That'll be for Humax to do - if they're stupid enough to sell me kit with a one year warranty but don't hold enough stock to replace the device when it breaks, it's not my issue!
 
I will like what they offer. They sold me it with a warranty, it's up to them to honour it.

If they have to take my unit back and replace the HDD, that's up to them....
 
That's not how it works. They are entitled to offer you a similar item (in this case a HDR-2000T) or a refund.
 
Well, that would be annoying.

So go in then... Indulge me. If I can't get a fox t2, what pvr/device should I look at?
 
We don't like any of the alternatives much, for us it's a HDR-FOX (refurb if necessary) or nothing!
 
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