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Disk Fail (?) and replacing disks

M

mattlittle

New Member
I have a HDR-Fox T2 1TB running custom firmware.

When I look at the web portal for the device, it tells me that my disk has errors. I'm not sure what a 'normal' error value caused by old age is and if I am seeing a 'normal' disk get old or if the disk is about to die. Anybody help on that one?

If I have to replace the disk, I might as well go for a 2TB disk 'just in case'. I am competent at partitioning disks and using linux so I will use the following guide to set the disk up: http://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/2TB_Disk_Installation_Blog

The Seagate disks recommended on this site for replacement are a little old now so I was looking at this disk instead:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/2TB-Desktop...UTF8&colid=3QYSEL03SNEA8&coliid=IUSZ44SGLPRHW

Does anybody have any experience of it or could anyone recommend a better 2TB disk from a reputable retailer (ideally direct from Amazon)?

Thanks :)
 
mattlittle said:
When I look at the web portal for the device, it tells me that my disk has errors. I'm not sure what a 'normal' error value caused by old age is and if I am seeing a 'normal' disk get old or if the disk is about to die. Anybody help on that one?
Click to expand...
Can you post the output from the hard drive diagnostic please and then we can give you an opinion. A few reallocated sectors are normal.
 
mattlittle said:
First bullet point in the spec says:

"24x7 reliability - these drives are designed to last in always-on, streaming digital audio/video environments such as PVRs, DVRs and surveillance video recorders"

I looked at this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/AV-GP-Enter...=UTF8&qid=1395150861&sr=1-4&keywords=av+drive

And it didn't seem too different.
Click to expand...
My bad, I only read the description in the link. I don't see how one drive could meet both duty cycles, so either the description is wrong or the link text is wrong (wouldn't be the first time, particularly as I have caught some supplies advertising the HDR-2000T as a Freesat system).
 
Ezra Pound said:
If your firmware is 1.03.06, 1.03.11 or 1.03.12 the Humax will format a new 2TB drive for you
Click to expand...


Even better. From memory, I am on .11 so that should save me a step! I then just need to copy all my recordings from the current drive to the new one (don't really want drive caddies sitting behind the hummy)
 
Went to get the values from the web interface last night and couldn't get through to the web UI. After about 30 minutes of playing with routers, etc it appears that I have 1.03.12 OTA update.

I'll reinstall the custom FW and have a look at the disk values again.
 
Right, reinstalled custom FW and had a look:

!! WARNING !!

There appear to be some hardware problems with the internal hard disk on this device.

Disk realloc sector count is: 176 (was 91)


Is this 'normal' degredation or is the disk on its way out?
 
mattlittle said:
Right, reinstalled custom FW and had a look:

!! WARNING !!

There appear to be some hardware problems with the internal hard disk on this device.

Disk realloc sector count is: 176 (was 91)


Is this 'normal' degredation or is the disk on its way out?
Click to expand...
That is a big jump in the number of reallocated sectors but the total of 176 is not enormous. My rule of thumb says 500 reallocated sectors on a 500GB drive (1000 on 1TB) is the threshold to start worrying if you don't have any obvious problems. Some people are using disks with several thousand reallocations.
 
Thanks Martin.

I think that the jump is because I haven't used the interface for a while and it was probably 91 when I last dismissed the Disk Error. That might have been last year.

Good news though as it sounds like I am (hopefully) some way from a disk in a critical condition.
 
for what it's worth, my G-grade box (1TB) came from Humax with 2,155 (sic) reallocated. That figure hasn't changed since, in the few weeks I've been using it.
 
cdmackay said:
It's reading 651 now. We've had it running a few weeks, but it's not on 24x7. I estimate it perhaps had 500 hours on it when it came.
Click to expand...
Interesting; in my tests the thing that mattered was when the rate of sector reallocation per day started to increase. As currently your rate of change is zero then things are fine. What I was seeing was that for many months it was on average about 2 or 3 reallocations per day but then the rate shot up and I replaced the disk when the rate reached about 50 sectors a day which was after 11600 power on hours.
 
cdmackay said:
mmm, I dunno, I didn't think to check.

It's reading 651 now. We've had it running a few weeks, but it's not on 24x7. I estimate it perhaps had 500 hours on it when it came.
Click to expand...
More than 2000 reallocated sectors on a disc that has only been in use for 651 hours is very high. I have one on 4400 hours which does not have a reallocated sector yet. As it is stable, it is OK at the moment but it is looking like a candidate for early failure. Hopefully it will fail in the warranty period so you can get Humax to replace it.
 
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