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HDD Test behaviour ? (Error code 5 before and after reformat)

Tim Day

Tim Day

Member
So my hummy (stock 1.02.28) started showing all the signs of file system corruption or drive failure: recent recordings not playable/truncated (older stuff ok), noisy drive while recording - (I'm pretty sure what triggered it was a foolish switching the hummy off with the remote, then almost immediately switching it off at the plug... bad idea: I'd forgotten the hummy seems to like to have a little chunter to itself after a remote off and it's probably not good to interrupt it)

Anyway
  • spent ~2 days copying my backlog of trashy teenage vampire movies off to a 1TB external USB drive.
  • Did a HDD Test: Fail with error code 5. Dialog box suggests recovering by a reformat.
  • Reformatted.
  • Then ran the HDD Test again. This is the bit I don't get: it's still reporting error code 5.
Things like powering off between the format and the follow-up HDD test don't make any difference, nor does copying something back between formatting and testing.

Any ideas what's going on here ? (Seems unlikely error code 5 actually means all's well ???) If error code 5 isn't cleared by a reformat, that suggests it's a real HW problem.

Thanks for any advice
Tim
 
Tim Day said:
Any ideas what's going on here ? (Seems unlikely error code 5 actually means all's well ???) If error code 5 isn't cleared by a reformat, that suggests it's a real HW problem.
Click to expand...
I haven't seen a list of what the error codes mean. It sounds like a hardware problem to me and I suggest you ring Humax and see what they say. Certainly there is no error code if the test passes.
 
Humax support confirmed error 5 is basically hard drive hardware failure... another return. Interestingly they gave me the option of a drive swap, or a replacement unit. (My instinct was "better the devil you know..." and just get the drive fixed. But thinking about it... what if the drive failure is caused by a dodgy PSU or something...)​
 
I'm also getting HDD problems:
- CF Disk Diagnostic gives SMART Status "FAILED", Reallocation_Sector_Ct "FAILING NOW", count 12623 !!!!
- Humax HDD Test gives Error 5 - try reformat.

Can somebody clarify that, if I reformat, I will need to reinstall Custom Firmware.

I assume I will therefore not beagle to restore Recording Schedule/Favourites.

Is there anything specific that I should be aware of in the process.

I need to try the reformat as if it doesn't fix the problem I need to get on to Humax quickly - my two years is up on 30 November.
 
I have just had the same on one of my boxes, and the reformat has not fixed the problem.
 
I'm copying recordings off at moment. Hope to reformat later this evening.
Will let you know the outcome.

Brian, did you have to reload CF etc. after reformat?
 
HarveyB said:
I'm copying recordings off at moment. Hope to reformat later this evening.
Will let you know the outcome.
Click to expand...
I would think your disk is kn*ckered like Brian's and the format will not work.
You have a very large number of reallocated sectors.
Get on to Humax straight away!
 
HarveyB said:
I'm copying recordings off at moment. Hope to reformat later this evening.
Will let you know the outcome.

Brian, did you have to reload CF etc. after reformat?
Click to expand...
I have not bothered as the box will not pass the HDD Test, and I suspect that yours will be the same as you have a much higher reallocated sector count than I do.
 
I used FTP to transfer mine to my laptop, and am currently transferring them to my other box.
 
You could now do box to box transfers directly as af123 has built an FTP client (package tnftp).
 
HarveyB said:
I'm also getting HDD problems:
- CF Disk Diagnostic gives SMART Status "FAILED", Reallocation_Sector_Ct "FAILING NOW", count 12623 !!!!
- Humax HDD Test gives Error 5 - try reformat.
Click to expand...

The built-in Humax HDD test just asks the disk firmware to do a short test via SMART. As far as I can tell, error code 5 means that the test failed. That doesn't always indicate something terminal and a reformat could fix it in some cases (if just one sector was suspect for example).

However, with 12K reallocated sectors, it isn't looking good for that disk.

Can somebody clarify that, if I reformat, I will need to reinstall Custom Firmware.
Click to expand...

Not reinstall the Custom Firmware (that's in flash memory) but you will lose all packages and settings and will have to go through the initial bootstrap process again - which is just point a web browser at the box and clicking the button to download and install the full web interface.

If you're going to return it to the manufacturer, I suggest you put the custom firmware in RMA mode and reboot which will remove it from the hard disk, then re-flash to standard firmware.
 
prpr said:
You could now do box to box transfers directly as af123 has built an FTP client (package tnftp).
Click to expand...
I tend to use mongoose + rsync to synchronise files between my Humax boxes but FTP works too!
 
Af123, thanks for the response.
Have just finished disk transfer and will reformat and retest tomorrow. Then decide whether return is necessary.

Mind you I think that with that many bad sectors, you are right about disk being on the way out.

If it goes back, I need to decide whether to use YouView box or rig upmost T2 HD in the interim.
Anyone know how long Humax take to replace box?
 
Well, I've reformatted disk after several attempts with it saying it was too big - orig disk!

Any way still getting failure. Will call Humax on Monday.

Webif disk analysis gives the following (any ideas in the meantime):

Runtime Error: disk.jim:142: smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365
[7405b0-smp-linux-2.6.18-7.1] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-11
by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net === START
OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART Self-test log
structure revision number 1 Num Test_Description Status
Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error # 1 Short offline
Completed: unknown failure 90% 4766 0 # 2 Short offline
Completed: unknown failure 90% 4757 0 # 3 Short offline
Completed: unknown failure 90% 4757 0 at file "disk.jim", line 142


Oh! reallocation Sector ct now = 12629
 
brian said:
Your results are very similar to mine.
Click to expand...
Interesting, How long have you had your box then.

The disk to big to format problem was interesting. I read that somebody else had same problem.
I had to reformat it 12 months ago (pixelation problem). It reformatted fine then.

This time it complained about capacity twice.
I gave up trying then found that it was not doing real time tracking!!

I restarted the box and it then said it needed to reformat. I said OK and it formatted - strange!
 
My box was purchased in September 2010

I also had the too big to format issue, but worked after a reboot.

The HDD Test still failed with the Error code : 5

You don't expect the HDD to fail before the original "Rocket" remote control batteries.:rolleyes:
 
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