crashing and green screen

[Tik33]

thanks @Martin - I'll give that a go and report back!

 

[Tik33]

hi Martin
i've tried the seagate for windows tool

I would suggest using the manufacturers diagnostic tools on the drive whilst it is out of the Humax eg Seatools for Windows available from

but it's not showing up the humax drive - (it's finding my SSD laptop drive)- and the linux reader is finding it - any thoughts? I'd really like to try and run diagnostic tools on the drive if possible - hence keen to try and run diagnostic tools on the Humax drive while it's out of the box and connected to the laptop.

is it not being detected because it's not formatted as a windows drive?

any way around this?

thanks!

 

[/df]

Or because it's mounted in Windows through some EFS driver?

You may have more success with a stand-alone tool. There is a Seatools Bootable that can be installed to a bootable USB.

Or maybe try some bootable toolset, such as UltimateBootCD, which includes some Seagate tools.

 

[prpr]

In my experience, things don't work very well/at all with such tools if connected by USB. You need a proper SATA connection. As you're using a laptop, this gets rather tricky. You can't beat a proper PC...

 

[Tik33]

Or because it's mounted in Windows through some EFS driver?

You may have more success with a stand-alone tool. There is a Seatools Bootable that can be installed to a bootable USB.

Or maybe try some bootable toolset, such as UltimateBootCD, which includes some Seagate tools.

thanks - I'm planning to use the seagate bootable USB and see if that works.

In the meantime I ran some diagnostic tool on the drive - it came up with lots of errors... I wanted to post here - but the results seem to have disappeared

In my experience, things don't work very well/at all with such tools if connected by USB. You need a proper SATA connection. As you're using a laptop, this gets rather tricky. You can't beat a proper PC...

yes, you're right - space constraints...

 

[Tik33]

hi everyone, so thought I'd post an update in case it helps any others in a similar situation.

I downloaded the seagate bootable from USB and ran the 'fix disk' programme. It ran overnight and I then copied the files across on to my external drive.

I have put the HDD back into the Humax and it hasn't crashed yet (after a few hours).

There are still plenty of movies left on the drive that display via the Humax but didn't display when I took the drive out of the Humax.

any thoughts on this?

I'm now thinking that I should try and do a transfer of the files from the Humax itself (while it hasn't crashed).

given that the humax was crashing - what would be the quickest way to do this while it remains stable?

I tried connecting the external drive straight into the usb port at the front of the Humax and using the opt + button, but the Humax said that there was not enough storage. I'm assuming that this is due to the incompatible formatting. However, it could be because it's not a compatible USB stick

given that all my backup files are on the external drive under an exfat format - I don't really want to reformat the external drive.

I read on this forum that FTP is also an option - is this best done from the custom firmware? I've tried to read the guide, but wasn't clear on my next steps - is there a step by step process of how to transfer over FTP somewhere?

i read that some people have transferred/backed up using filezilla - but I've not used it before.

thanks again!

 

[Matthew]

I'm now thinking that I should try and do a transfer of the files from the Humax itself (while it hasn't crashed).

I did some experiments on this, I found the fastest way was via LAN using both SAMBA and FTP (I was transferring to a 2nd box) so I used SAMBA to read and FTP to write (of course if destination drive is installed on the PC that's not needed) I was using a linux machine, so just had 2 windows open and just had to drag drop between them to copy.

Note if using windows it won't like the Humax Samba version so takes some effort to get working.

 

[Black Hole]

There are still plenty of movies left on the drive that display via the Humax but didn't display when I took the drive out of the Humax.

any thoughts on this?

Like, encrypted files, you mean?

 

[Black Hole]

I read on this forum that FTP is also an option - is this best done from the custom firmware? I've tried to read the guide, but wasn't clear on my next steps - is there a step by step process of how to transfer over FTP somewhere?

i read that some people have transferred/backed up using filezilla - but I've not used it before.

Filezilla is an FTP client which provides a file manager-like interface; there's no need to be scared of it. You will need to install the betaftpd package and turn off the native FTP server (Menu >> Settings >> System >> Internet Setting >> FTP Server = OFF), otherwise FTP access is permitted to the media folders only.

For a general introduction, see my trail guide (post 1), but note comment above.

 

[Tik33]

I did some experiments on this, I found the fastest way was via LAN using both SAMBA and FTP (I was transferring to a 2nd box) so I used SAMBA to read and FTP to write (of course if destination drive is installed on the PC that's not needed) I was using a linux machine, so just had 2 windows open and just had to drag drop between them to copy.

Note if using windows it won't like the Humax Samba version so takes some effort to get working.

thanks - unfortunately I don't have linux - so working off windows

 

[Tik33]

Like, encrypted files, you mean?

sorry, wasn't clear.
I meant that it was surprising to me that when i took the Hdd drive out of the humax and connected it directly to my laptop - a bunch of recordings were missing.
I could see the recordings under 'media' when I reconnected the drive back to the Humax.
I haven't tried to run any of the files yet - I'm assuming that they are corrupted and hence why they don't show up - but before I attempt to play them, wondered if anyone had any thoughts on why they would show up via Humax and not when I access the drive via the Linux reader

 

[Tik33]

Filezilla is an FTP client which provides a file manager-like interface; there's no need to be scared of it. You will need to install the betaftpd package and turn off the native FTP server (Menu >> Settings >> System >> Internet Setting >> FTP Server = OFF), otherwise FTP access is permitted to the media folders only.

For a general introduction, see my trail guide (post 1), but note comment above.

thank you - i did find and have read it - just to be clear - I need to install both the betaftpd package and filezilla?

 

[prpr]

Note if using windows it won't like the Humax Samba version so takes some effort to get working.

It works alright on my "windows".

 

[Tik33]

thank you - i did find and have read it - just to be clear - I need to install both the betaftpd package and filezilla?

don't worry about answering this one - installed both, started to transfer files and the humax froze again - think I'm going to have to wipe the disk (reformat) - have ordered a new 2tb one anyway.

thanks again for your help - will try and uses filezilla to restore the old files

 

[Tik33]

ok an update to this problem - not looking good ;-(
the new drive arrived today and so I installed it.
The humax turned on for a few seconds, and then the screen went green and nothing happened.
I had a hunch that this may be the HDMI input/output and so I plugged in the scart cable. TV signal became stable.
I then was able to navigate to menu to look for 'reformat disk'. I may have made a mistake as I found myself in the 'restore factory defaults with a box to 'reformat' disk which I checked. The machine then started processing that request and stopped.
I rebooted and navigated to the system menu. The 'data storage' is greyed out.
I accessed the Telnet menu and it also says that the disk is not mounted.

Is the machine dead? is the drive dead? or have I made a blunder?

any thoughts on the green screen / scart / hdmi issue?

will be very annoying if I've just spent £75 on nothing!

thanks again!

 

[Tik33]

update!
i unplugged the new HDD and put in the old one - could still access some of the files - am now wondering if the problem has been the HDMI all along!?
anyway, I have plugged the new HDD into my laptop via the SATA and nothing happened - however, I have just noticed that while I ordered the Seagate 2TB Pipeline Internal Hard Drive , the label on the HDD says 'video 3.5 hdd' - is that the same? could that be the reason that the HDD is not recognised by the Humax?
thanks

 

[/df]

Possibly your new disk is more dead than the old one. However the old one wasn't originally seen from the laptop -- you'll need to run the Seatools Bootable to check the new drive in the same way if you haven't already.

If that's the case, initiate a return and replacement -- or refund: you might prefer https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223316396350 or https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264128232321 and save £40 - or search for ST2000VM003 for more options at £60 and under.

The label is fine and appears to match the image on the linked EBuyer product page. It's a Video HDD because it supports additional functions (beyond those in a desktop drive) for video file storage.

 

[Black Hole]

One would hope that, somewhere on the drive, there is another label with more detail on it (such as "ST2000VM003").

 

[Black Hole]

I then was able to navigate to menu to look for 'reformat disk'.

Menu >> Settings >> System >> Data Storage >> Format Storage. The "format" offered during a Menu >> Settings >> Installation >> Factory Default operation is only a quick format (erase file system) and not at all what you want.

am now wondering if the problem has been the HDMI all along!?

No, probably not.

 

[Tik33]

Possibly your new disk is more dead than the old one. However the old one wasn't originally seen from the laptop -- you'll need to run the Seatools Bootable to check the new drive in the same way if you haven't already.

If that's the case, initiate a return and replacement -- or refund: you might prefer https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223316396350 or https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264128232321 and save £40 - or search for ST2000VM003 for more options at £60 and under.

The label is fine and appears to match the image on the linked EBuyer product page. It's a Video HDD because it supports additional functions (beyond those in a desktop drive) for video file storage.

thanks DF - I tried to run seagate tools from my laptop - didn't work. Tried to run disk check - it saw a (very small - 4 gb) partition but kept coming up with an I/O error when I tried to format/initialise the disk I am thinking it is a HDD error by process of elimination that nothing can seem to read it even though that surprises me (although it could easily have been chucked around by postage people I suppose?)
is there any foolproof way to see if a disk is dead before returning it?
I could at least read the old one using a Linux reader and it was being read / written when booting off the seagate bootable USB tool - neither true of the new disk