Cannot correct HD Problem

Peter H

Member
Hi,
I would appreciate some advice on maintence/need to replace HD as my relocated sector count is increasing quickly and is now at 714!
I was getting intermittent picture "breakup" and blank screen before it resumed, it also sometimes reported no signal but have checked aerial input signal quality which is OK!

The HD is a pipeline 1TB ST31000424CS and has a power on of 9036 hours.
I have done a full diskcheck 3 times and it had lots of problem inodes which it corrected. It had 2 multiple inodes on one particular recording but seemed to have froze while correcting them on one file (waited an hour).
When I did the last check one of the multiple inodes had been corrected but cannot seem to remove the other.

How should I generally need the testdisk running to correct multiple inodes?

Is the HD likely to fail soon!?

I have been looking at Seagate Iron Wolf 1TB and Seagate Sky Hawk 1TB. The Sky Hawk has a £10 premium is it worth the extra!
Are both likely to have the same noise levels (I cannot find info on this parameter)?

I did some reading on the Wiki and assume I will still need to align sectors using linux fdisk on a new HD?

Thanks for your time
 
I would appreciate some advice on maintence/need to replace HD as my relocated sector count is increasing quickly and is now at 714!
That is worth worrying about.

The HD is a pipeline 1TB ST31000424CS and has a power on of 9036 hours.
Quite low.

I have been looking at Seagate Iron Wolf 1TB and Seagate Sky Hawk 1TB.
I don't recall seeing mention of the HDDs* you list on here before; if you move away from the tried and tested models you're on your own (plenty of existing discussion here if you look for it). There are specific usage-optimised "features" you need to avoid - PVR use requires low but sustained data transfer rates, and no regular head parking. Drives optimised for fast random access are unnecessary.

I did some reading on the Wiki and assume I will still need to align sectors using linux fdisk on a new HD?
Why wouldn't you just use the standard formatting available through the Humax menus? That used to be limited to 1TB, which is why there are instructions for manually formatting, but is now good for up to 2TB. More than 2TB requires special measures - see Things Every... (click) section 12.

* See Glossary (click), entry "HDD".
 
The HD is a pipeline 1TB ST31000424CS and has a power on of 9036 hours.
And how many start/stop cycles? Is it still under warranty?
How should I generally need the testdisk running to correct multiple inodes?
Overnight.
Is the HD likely to fail soon!?
It doesn't look good.
I have been looking at Seagate Iron Wolf 1TB and Seagate Sky Hawk 1TB. The Sky Hawk has a £10 premium is it worth the extra!
Iron Wolf is a NAS drive, which you don't really want. The Sky Hawk would seem the most preferable from Seagate's current range, but I have no personal experience.
Are both likely to have the same noise levels (I cannot find info on this parameter)?
It's in the manual. No difference you are going to notice.
if you move away from the tried and tested models you're on your own
Trouble is, they're hard/impossible to buy new now.
 
Thanks for the answers which confirm I need to start worrying and as I thought, it has not had a high usage.
The reason I looked at other HDD's was that I found the pipeline seemed to have been discontinued. I will look again.
The reason I had not thought of using the standard formatting was that I had read about the need to make sure the HDD was aligned and as I use linux I had not thought the Humax would align correctly.
I will RTFM before delving too deeply.
FWIW I also had a high temp warning come up so I might need to make a disk image just in case!
Thanks
 
I had read about the need to make sure the HDD was aligned and as I use linux I had not thought the Humax would align correctly.
What's your use of Linux got to do with the Humax?
Just let it partition/format normally and then check with the 4kalign diagnostic.
You may wish to re-make the filesystems as described on the 2TB blog page, but this is nothing to do with the alignment/partitioning stage.
 
Maybe I was unclear, I was just saying that while reading different threads about problems if disks were not aligned, some of the suggestions were to use "fdisk" and as the Humax uses ext2 fs I assumed it was a linux based system!
I am quite new to the HDR Fox T2 and did not realize it had formatting tools.
I normally partition disks on my Linux box which was what I was going to do.
I need to read some more.
Thanks
 
The Humax is a linux based system, but except for very large drives the built in formatting is adequate and you don't need to use any external box or tools
 
Last edited:
OK thanks.
Just one last simple question, do I format from Custom S/W or does it automajically set itself when an unformatted disk is installed!!?
Thanks
 
The on screen menus will either prompt you to do it or do it automatically on a blank disk (I can't remember which as it's been so long).
Make sure you are on the latest firmware versions first.
 
Thanks,
I have "Humax Version: 1.03.12 (kernel HDR_CFW_3.13)" which I think is the latest. I assume I can format a new disk, put the problematic one back in an enclosure and copy across the recordings I want to keep.
Regards
 
Thanks,
I have "Humax Version: 1.03.12 (kernel HDR_CFW_3.13)" which I think is the latest. I assume I can format a new disk, put the problematic one back in an enclosure and copy across the recordings I want to keep.
Regards
Yes, take a note of customised firmware settings since you will need to reinstall and reconfigure most packages onto the new disk.
Recording schedule and favourite channels should survive since they are stored in flash memory.
 
Hi,
Yep, was going to do just that.

As the HDD relocation in now increasing quite quickly and the TV picture is breaking up often I was forced to take action!
I have removed a WD 500Gb drive from my old Digitalstream removed partitions (just in case the Humax did not like them!) and am about to put the drive back into the Humax for formatting.
Will confirm sucess or otherwise!
Thanks
 
Hi,
For info, I regurgitated the old data onto my temporary old Digitalstream disk and all is OK.

I did try using rsync as prpr advised but got into owner problems using grsync on my fedora box so put the drive in a caddy and copied recordings.
I assume I should have used the command line interface (CLI)!

Out of interest I used smart on Fedora and smart gives a different (good) result!
I thought the s.m.a.r.t details were contained on the disk, is that correct?
I will investigate further as the possible faulty disk has about a tenth of the usage of my DS disk!!
Regards
 
Thanks for confirming.
Is there a way to see the script for the disk diagnostic output, if so I will try again to get the Humax results on my Linux PC?
FWIW since replacing the HDD there does not seem to be any more "Breakups" when viewing a channel directly, but there is on earlier recordings as expected, so I hope it was the drive beginning to give up but it would be nice to confirm on different H/W.

Regards
 
Hi,
I have some feedback from WD and am still waiting for suggested replacement from Seagate. I had a problem in getting feedback as the HDD serial number from my Humax is not recognized! They said it was OEM and I should contact the box manufacturer. HDD manufacturers do not guarantee anything will work in an OEM pvr's.
I will update when I have more information
FWIW I have seen several succesful installs of Sky Hawk and WD Purple and Blue but I think the Purple is more suited for NAS's.
Maybe a more suitablely headed thread would attract inputs discussing newer drive experiences to help the Fox T2's life to be extended.

Regards
 
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