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4TB Disk Issues

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drmaybe

New Member
I installed a 4tb (ST4000VM000) disk in mid 2018 without any issues, but in the last few months my Fox started, occasionally, to not want to start up properly, going into a short loop of displaying the usual Start System then the custom firmware version messages, and then it would restart and repeat this loop. Initially this could be fixed by resetting using the power switch on the back. This started to become more and more frequent until yesterday when nothing could fix it it, and leaving it for hours it just continued to loop and I couldn't connect to it to run the fixdisk options. Not sure if it was the box or the disk having an issue I did a little reading I tried disconnecting the drive and it did enable the box to start up. I had a spare 1tb disk that I've installed & everything seems to be ok with this at the moment. Using a dock I can successfully connect with the problematic 4tb disk and can view the recorded programmes on it, so it's not completely kaput. Is it possible to run the fixdisk options on the old disk in the dock as an external disk, otherwise I can't seem to connect to it any other way to run any tools on it. Also the 4tb disk only has about 60gb free - this may have no bearing on the behaviour and is probably coincidental, but it appears the behaviour got worse as the disk filled up to its current state. Is this disk fixable or is it likely going to need replacing?

Any ideas as to how to proceed would be gratefully received!! Thanks in advance!
 
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You could try connecting the drive to a PC running Linux, and use command line file system repair tools from there.
 
It was only meant as a general what do you think based on symptoms and behaviour type question on first appearances. I know literally nothing about linux, but presumably I could run the command line tools from a virtual machine?

Edit adding SMART info:

s43.jpg
 
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drmaybe said:
presumably I could run the command line tools from a virtual machine?
Click to expand...
My recommendation is to boot your PC from a Linux Mint live DVD - Mint is "Windows-like" in its user interface, so won't be too unfamiliar, and Linux is compatible with the HDR-FOX disk formatting and file system. Booting from a "live" CD/DVD (or USB drive) runs the OS from RAM, independent of your normal boot without affecting anything on your normal OS (unless you do so deliberately), and is not subject to the intricacies of virtual machine support.

Steps:
  1. Download the live DVD image;
  2. Burn the image to a DVD using an ISO burner program - eg "ImgBurn";
  3. Reboot the PC, if necessary intervening at the BIOS stage to force boot from DVD.
Simples, and very well worth having in the tool box because you can also sort out PC problems Windows won't let you get at. You can also find live Linux boot DVDs on the cover of newsagent Linux magazines, which saves a download and burn.

Download for Linux Mint (and instructions for building a boot USB drive) here (choose the Cinnamon desktop): https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

With Mint running, you can click an icon in the bottom toolbar to bring up a command window, which will work more-or-less the same as the command line on the HDR-FOX, with the same commands (except the custom firmware ones), so you can use fdisk, mkfs, tune2fs, etc. Just make sure you know which drive is which (a good clue is the disk sizes reported in fdisk -l).

If you want to be absolutely fool-proof, disconnect your PC's normal boot drive.
 
Black Hole said:
... a command window, which will work more-or-less the same as the command line on the HDR-FOX, ...
Click to expand...
To make it even more similar, type sh to get the dash shell instead of bash.

Whereas on the HD/R you can install bash and then type bash to get that shell instead of dash.

As the SMART stats seem unimpeachable, you have to "hope" that there's filesystem corruption, which you would be able to fix with e2fsck. Otherwise the HDR power supply may be getting marginal, such that the 1TB disk works but the 4TB, presumably drawing more current, can fail.
 
/df said:
Otherwise the HDR power supply may be getting marginal, such that the 1TB disk works but the 4TB, presumably drawing more current, can fail.
Click to expand...
That seems the most likely to me, but presumably the OP is unable to do anything about that at present.
 
That's great, thank you all for your advice, will try this now & get back to you!


Edit: OK got Mint running OK and experimenting with it, but to be quite honest a little lost on what commands should be run - would appreciate any guidance on what I shoud be doing to test the disk! I am currently trying to find out myself and get a crash course as well!

Edit 2: Have got a test running (using steps here: tecmint.comSLASHfsck-repair-file-system-errors-in-linux/ I'm not allowed to post external links yet sorry! ) can see activity on the disk in the dock and mint says pass 1: checking inodes, blocks and, sizes. I assume this test needs to be done on all the partions? Also is there any way of showing the test progress in the terminal box?
 
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You seem to be on the right track. There should be 3 partitions to check, of which the largest, #2, is the most likely to be problematic. The -C option will show you progress bars.

If you run e2fsck directly, the option is -C0, or run (in a second terminal tab or window) kill -USR1 $(pgrep e2fsck) while the check is running.

If it doesn't work out, my spies say that the program GParted is available in a Linux Mint Live session, and the password for the Live user is empty (ie "") in case you are prompted when starting it.

Using GParted, pick the device that corresponds to the HDR disk with the pull-down at the right end of the toolbar; then select each partition of the disk in turn from the display below and run Partition>Check. In the display that results you can click the little right arrowheads to expand the display of the operation being run. The main one is just fsck with canned options.
 
OK, that ran OK on the 3 partitions, now I get: /dev/sde1: clean, /dev/sde2: clean & /dev/sde3: clean message with a number of files and blocks for each partition. Is that it completed now, or are there any further steps I should/need to do?

Thanks again for your patience up to this point!
 
I think that's about as much as you can do. If you put it back and the problems are still there, suspect the PSU or the motherboard.
 
OK, will give it a go. If things do go wrong again, do you think putting a smaller capacity HDD, maybe a 2 or 3tb would make a difference, assuming the PSU could be struggling with the 4tb? Obviously I'd give it a go (!), but appreciate your opinions as I didn't even consider that to to be a possible issue until you mentioned it! Is there anyone who could replace the PSU if required or is it just easier to track down another box? Also I don't know if you've seen how much the recommended 4tb drives cost atm, I've seen them for around £170 ish, which is kind of crazy really!

Thanks again for all your help, I'll update this tomorrow!
 
drmaybe said:
maybe a 2 or 3tb would make a difference, assuming the PSU could be struggling with the 4tb?
Click to expand...
Impossible to say. Supply current isn't governed by disk capacity, a 2TB drive could be identical to a 4TB drive (just with lower capacity).

drmaybe said:
Is there anyone who could replace the PSU if required or is it just easier to track down another box?
Click to expand...
We're picking up HDR-FOXes off eBay for around £50 at the moment, you can either scavenge one for the PSU or "move in" if it passes its goods-in tests: Commissioning, Disassembling, and Repairing an HDR-FOX (click). I recommend the latter, because you don't know if the problem is actually the switch/regulator on the motherboard.

I have "investigate options for non-Humax replacement PSU" on my lock-down job list (but it is a very long list).
 
Black Hole said:
Impossible to say. Supply current isn't governed by disk capacity, a 2TB drive could be identical to a 4TB drive (just with lower capacity).
Click to expand...
According to the Seagate data sheets the startup current for the 3TB and 4TB drives is slightly lower (1.8A) than the 2TB and smaller drives (2A). It may just be a more precise measurement but it certainly doesn't appear to be higher.
 
Tried the 4TB again and no dice, exactly the same behaviour as before (restarting/looping after displaying the custom firmware version). Also this morning the box was frozen in standby, with the 1TB disk installed, as it has been for a couple of days. That did 'fix' itself after switching off & on again... So to be clear, you recommend getting another box & shifting the 4TB over to that after testing it?

Thank you all again for your input & advice, I do really appreciate it! I'll keep this thread updated as & when.
 
You could try using the 4TB in a caddy as a USB attached disk to the Humax with your smaller drive as internal drive
 
Yes, they should be decrypted. So I'm on the lookout for a new box! In the meantime I will just use the 1TB internally & start clearing the 4TB in it's dock! I know you can't say for certain but do you think the 4TB disk could also have any serious faults caused by the problems I've had recently with the box, only because it's still under warranty. Would it be worth posting SMART details etc once it's installed (& assuming it's working) in a new box? I'm really not sure how to interpret the disk test results myself.

Thanks again, much appreciated!
 
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