2tb drive

Shush

New Member
I've just installed the custom firmware to my machine with the sole objective of installing a 2tb drive.

When the drive is fitted the machine displays 'initializing disk' but hangs and doesn't do anything else, it doesn't do this when I fit a smaller (1tb) disc in, what am I doing wrong?

It did exactly the same thing prior to installing the custom firmware.

I can connect to the unit as its hardwired to my router, it opens up a web browser that invites me to install the full browser, but gives an error when I click it.

Help!
 
I've just installed the custom firmware to my machine with the sole objective of installing a 2tb drive.
I don't know what instructions you've been following to come to the conclusion that CF is necessary for a 2TB drive, or that installing CF will allow you to fit a larger drive than the native firmware will support. Be careful you have not been looking at instructions for the HDR-FOX.

The HDR-FOX supports drives up to 2TB without additional aid. Support for >2TB is not automatic simply by installing CF, it requires additional configuration. Neither of these can be assumed to apply to Foxsat, make sure you are looking at information specific to Foxsat CF.
 
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I believe the maximum size supported by the Humax software might be 1TB. It used to be the same on the T2, but a Humax upgrade extended it to 2TB, although it was able to be worked around in the interim using the CF. The Foxsat being an older box probably never got the upgrade.
I don't know whether you can partition and format the disk manually using a similar methodology as on the T2 (the specifics are different) and then it'll just work.
You have made sure the interface speed is correct though, haven't you? Which 2TB drive?
 
I am talking about the Humax Foxsat HDR machine
We know that, we're just not familiar with it, nor the Foxsat CF. I don't know whether the Foxsat CF has the ability to enable larger drives.

Well, it's quite clear in the product listing:
  • Product Type: Hard Drive
  • Host interface: Serial ATA III, Hard drive capacity: 2000 GB, Hard drive size: 3.5".
  • Data transfer rate: 6 Gbit/s, Number of products included: 1 pcs

You need to visit the Seagate website, look up the drive model data (ST2000VM003), and see what you have to do to make it SATA II speed.
 
If I fitted a SATA 1 drive to the machine what would happen, would it format it to 1TB which is the maximum standard?

This machine has been fitted with 2TB drives but I'm having some problems, I have a SATA 1 2TB drive I can use, just swap it with the new one.
There are no jumpers on the new drive, I'm afraid I assumed it would throttle itself back.
 
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I can't answer. You'll just have to hope a Foxsat expert picks up the thread before too long.
 
The FoxSat with CF is a computer running Linux, which you can access. There seems no reason to me why this can't be done on board, but I haven't tried it.
 
I made a mistake, the hard drive does have a jumper but even when its in place the machine just hangs on 'initializing', cant get past that.
Looks like Im going to have to learn Linux.
 
The ST2000VM003 product manual is here: https://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/support/docs/manual/ce/Pipeline HD Series/100633414u.pdf

Highlights:
• High instantaneous (burst) data-transfer rates with a default of 6Gb/s.
• Limit settings for 1.5Gb/s and 3.0Gb/s are available via S.M.A.R.T. Command Transport command.
3.2 Configuring the drive

Each drive on the Serial ATA interface connects point-to-point with the Serial ATA host adapter. There is no master/slave relationship because each drive is considered a master in a point-to-point relationship. If two drives are attached on one Serial ATA host adapter, the host operating system views the two devices as if they were both “masters” on two separate ports. Both drives behave as if they are Device 0 (master) devices.

Serial ATA drives are designed for easy installation. It is usually not necessary to set any jumpers on the drive for proper operation; however, if users connect the drive and receive a “drive not detected” error, the SATA-equipped motherboard or host adapter may use a chipset that does not support SATA speed autonegotiation.
...however, so far as I can see nowhere does it explain what to do if jumpers are necessary. The mechanical drawing shows a row of four jumper pins without comment, so how did you know where to fit one?

1636013125384.png

It seems to me contact with Seagate Tech Support is required.
 
I made a mistake, the hard drive does have a jumper but even when its in place the machine just hangs on 'initializing', cant get past that.
The link in post 9 seems to indicate "initialising" is an expected symptom of the Foxsat firmware unable to cope with the 2TB drive. Whether it is also a symptom of being unable to communicate with said drive, I don't know. You might be fighting two problems.

Are the symptoms different according to whether you have the jumper fitted or not? I suggest leaving the jumper off for now.

If you are able to bring up the CF's Telnet command console, there is certainly enough expertise assembled here to talk you through what to do to check what's what and what to tweak. fdisk -l would be a good start.
 
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Looks like Im going to have to learn Linux.
I'm afraid so.

As @MartinLiddle has already said, the Foxsat HDR will only automatically partition and format drives up to 1TB. Google "foxsat upgrade to 2tb" and you'll find plenty of discussions/instructions on how to achieve the upgrade to 2TB. If you're unfamiliar with Linux I'd personally suggest connecting the drive to another machine (either internally or via a USB caddy) and booting from a "live cd" from one of the Linux distros (Debian, Ubuntu etc.). Then use a graphical tool such as GParted to partition and format the disk. I've never used it personally but there's actually a GParted live CD (https://gparted.org/livecd.php) which may well suit your purposes.
 
If you're unfamiliar with Linux I'd personally suggest connecting the drive to another machine (either internally or via a USB caddy) and booting from a "live cd" from one of the Linux distros (Debian, Ubuntu etc.).
Are you saying we won't achieve the desired effect using command line tools on the Foxsat itself, with a little hand-holding? Shirley the first item on the agenda is to ensure the Foxsat can communicate with the drive at all, and we will only be able to do that using the actual Foxsat hardware!
 
Are you saying we won't achieve the desired effect using command line tools on the Foxsat itself, with a little hand-holding? Shirley the first item on the agenda is to ensure the Foxsat can communicate with the drive at all, and we will only be able to do that using the Foxsat hardware!
No, not at all. Feel free to hold hands as much as you like!
 
Shirley the first item on the agenda is to ensure the Foxsat can communicate with the drive at all, and we will only be able to do that using the actual Foxsat hardware!
Quite so. The command is ls /sys/block and check the output includes an item labelled hda.
If so, then it's just a matter of moving on to fdisk and then mke2fs.
If not, then the jumper thing needs investigating first.

And don't call me...
 
I made a mistake, the hard drive does have a jumper but even when its in place the machine just hangs on 'initializing', cant get past that.
Seagate have a command line tool called SeaChest that looks as though it might configure the SATA speed for you.
From the help:
--phySpeed [0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5] (Seagate Only)
Use this option to change the PHY speed to a
new maximum value. On SAS, this option will
set all phys to the specified speed unless the
--sasPhy option is given to select a specific phy.
0 - allow full negotiation (default drive behavior)
1 - allow negotiation up to 1.5Gb/s
2 - allow negotiation up to 3.0Gb/s
3 - allow negotiation up to 6.0Gb/s
4 - allow negotiation up to 12.0Gb/s (SAS Only)
5 - allow negotiation up to 22.5Gb/s (SAS Only)

WARNING: Changing Phy speed may affect all LUNs/namespaces for devices
with multiple logical units or namespaces.
See https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/software/seachest/ and of course be very careful when using this sort of utility.
 
Seagate have a command line tool called SeaChest that looks as though it might configure the SATA speed for you.
From the help:

See https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/software/seachest/ and of course be very careful when using this sort of utility.
Not sure how well it works, probably dependent on the drive.
 
Well I've had most of the day at this but it's paid off........

In the end, I removed the jumper as advised by Black Hole, then used Gparted to make partitions as in post 13 here......


Incidentally the poster here used the same drive as mine.
I had no idea what I was doing with Gparted but managed to work it out, plugged the drive back into the machine, and waited for 'initializing', but it just went straight to TV, looking in the menu there is now 981hrs worth of recording time.
There's no way it will ever be filled, just like doing these things as a challenge.

Thanks for all the feedback guys.
 
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