HDR foxT2 says 'No Disk'

There I was, doing something over the web, and the image of the remote didn't load correctly, despite several refreshes. Did a power down and a hard (power turned off, count to 7) restart, and a message appears to say 'No HDD' and there seems to be no way out of it. Disk check and similar all say 'no disk' (well, an equivalent message)

A display on-screen says no disk and offers only a disk format. I'm loath to do that as the family would like to see some of the material still on there.

I'm competent enough to just pull the disk and hook it up via socket and wire to a pc. Would I be able to grab the content and re-copy files back after it's formatted (or upload)

There's a worrying flash of overall green when it starts up that has only recently appeared. Maybe it was telling the truth about dead disk?

Dead box??
 
A display on-screen says no disk and offers only a disk format. I'm loath to do that as the family would like to see some of the material still on there.

I'm competent enough to just pull the disk and hook it up via socket and wire to a pc. Would I be able to grab the content and re-copy files back after it's formatted (or upload)
I would suggest the best way forward would be to install the custom firmware and run a utility called fix-disk which is your best chance of reviving the disk. Try reading the Wiki at https://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/Main_Page if you are not familiar with the custom firmware, particularly the sections on Installing custom firmware and maintenance mode disk check.
 
While the disk may have died it may also just have suffered some corruption that doesn't get fixed by the Humax's startup check.

As MM says, if you are using CF (and mention of the "the image of the remote" leads me to think so) the problem might be diagnosed and possibly fixed in place (but not in this forum), and I second his advice.

Otherwise you can remove the disk and connect it to a Linux PC (use a bootable Live Linux CD/DVD/USB if you don't have one) to carry out a disk check and recovery.

If the Humax can't read the files on the disk as is, it's unlikely that anything else can, so you'll have to hope that the disk and filesystem structures can be recovered. If you can make enough disk space available (and the disk isn't actually dead) you might first image the entire disk so that in case the recovery goes wrong you could try again or differently. This may be going too far for those who hold that "It's only telly".
 
Thanks folks.

I had already investigated via the Telnet menu, and ran the disk checks, which failed on startup, so I wrongly assumed that fix disk would also suffer from no disks being found.

Just gained access (family have given up on broadcast TV because 'there's nothing on' and run fix disk which has altered dozens/hundreds of blocks, but seems to have restored life. There may be some damaged files of course, but it's looking good.
The daughter is shielding with us, so the recorders (we have 2) are taking a hammering and sit at 'very full' so I'd be in the bad books if 'I' lost anything.
 
Na then, 'er indoors were in bed and asleep when t' breeakethru' came. I left t' note for us lads as were still puzzlin' ovver 't an' reported into t' darkness. Results were excellent on t' brownie point list. I'm set up for weeks now. (barring doin' summat daft)

Y
 
There may be some damaged files of course, but it's looking good.
Good. Please could you post the output from the hard drive diagnostic in the Diagnostics section of the customised firmware web interface so that we can give an opinion on the health of the hard drive.
 
Some slight news to report in. I (finally) got round to looking for the logs reference the first issue, and now find myself without remote access. Although I set up a new user - humax, password humax - ( Yes - I know about security... its just for a couple of hours)
Attempting to start webif gets a 500 - internal server error, Nothing seemed to clear it
Telnet refuses to connect.
I re-installed from USB (apparently) and no change.

so, after taking a re-read of everything, I found the enablesafemode.spk file, with its brother disablesafemode The instructions say to place on a USB stick and insert while the box is running. I did so. rebooted etc, and telnet came up - hoorah!

When I asked for statusI got an error message something like 'crypto - n.n. missing' At which I ran everything that hinted at a reset, reinstall, upgrade and so forth. Followed by reboot.

Nothing

Tried maintenance mode, and whilst it told me that maintainability mode was initialising when I telneted to the box, and an increasing line of dots appeared, it never reached a conclusion. I eventually gave in, and did some head scratching.
I had expected that calling for a reset, and reinstall etc, would have cleared any missing items, but maybe not. I don't know what to expect from maintainability mode, so it is possible that the timeout was merely a not completed initialisation. I suggest a wee bit more documentation would be helpful - though I dare say I missed finding it. Even something along the lines of 'dragons be here' as a warning, or at least 'expect initialisation to take 400 dots or 7 minutes' or whatever may be helpful.

Whilst I'm rambling - big vote of than ks to whoever provided the dots. I always liked to include some visual indication, preferably in a countdown type way. The message says 'initialising Maintenance' - it could say 'initialising 400 dots' and I could estimate whether to make a coffee, stay here, or go to then pub (I Wish)

Back to the plot...

I used the disablesafemode.spk, and on rebooting I got a message 'safe mode'
rebooted - same.
Back to telnet, called to disable safe mode on next boot, and this time I have a working system. at 1.4.8-8

Can this be called magic?


Now - to get the logs Martin called for. There doesn't seem to be a .log file named for HDDdiag, and if there was, the my resets and so on must have flushed it to digital disposal.

I'm attaching the disk status data though. Seems OK to me, but I don't know how exacting a spec the disk needs to adhere to.

Incidentally, all our handsets have suddenly reached a consensus to stop working, or at least a work to rule with sporadic operation. (3 of them) so an annoying hour of opening them up and doing a clean is tonights' occupation.


Thanks to all involved in maintaining this forum, software, and Hummys generally.

R
 

Attachments

  • Humax HDR Fox T2 (Lounge) - Diagnostics.pdf
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It's just the time it takes to boot. Wait a few seconds and retry the access.
Yes, I was expecting it to behave something like entering safe mode. I killed it in the end and went back to square one.
However, there is/was a chance that 'maintenance' involved something more exacting - remember when early PC-DOS always did a memory test on start-up? That would take a long time nowadays.

I'm a strong believer in RTFM, so I'm 'happy' to be told that I should have read more documentation. And if it's scattered around the wiki, then I should do something, as I'm the one making comments, to give a bit back and do some work to rationalise it. IF it needs it, which it may not, if only I had read it. But then, if I hadn't come across a sign to what i was looking for, then maybe it IS time an interested person reviewed it.


All is currently well, apart from still needing to open up the handsets again, for which I'm presently engaged in growing the third hand necessary.


R
 
I'd say your HDD is fine. It must have got its knickers in a twistfilesystem corrupted.
I wasn't able to run a fresh HDD diagnostic would it have produced a log file if I had.

Wait. I can do that for myself now, whilst the management is still asleep.

R
 
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