I think my disc is failing

xyz321 said:
Do you see any lines marked in red under the WebIf >> Diagnostics >> Hard Dusk page?
Click to expand...

Yes (though they appear more orange than red - maybe red is the next level?)
Started off at 12 (raw value) and is now 26. Value=100, worst=100. IDs 197 and 198
I get lots of beakups, but certainly not only when recording anything at the same time. Also, old recordings do not have any problem. This is relatively new behavior.
197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--C- 26 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----C- 26 100 100 000 Old_age Offline -
197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--C- 26 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----C- 26 100 100 000 Old_age Offline -
 
If ids 197 or 198 are non-zero, you are highly likely to get picture breakups.
This should be fixed by upgrading to CF version 2.19 and running fix-disk with the -l option. However, if these numbers are increasing then it is probably time for a new disk.
 
xyz321 said:
If ids 197 or 198 are non-zero, you are highly likely to get picture breakups.
This should be fixed by upgrading to CF version 2.19 and running fix-disk with the -l option. However, if these numbers are increasing then it is probably time for a new disk.
Click to expand...

My current software is 1.02.32 with firmware 2.18.
The new drive has arrived but I'm fine with trying 2.19. Is the -l option new? I don't remember the options I saw the last time |I ran fix-disc.
The only issue with running fix-disk is how long it takes, as I may not have time to replace the drive if I have to wait ages for fix-disk to run.
Edit: I just upgraded to 2.19, and am loading mtce mode so I can try fix-disk.
Now running long test. Last time I tried a long test it counted down to about 8000 and then froze on that value. I'm wondering if a scheduled program can interrupt the test?
Edit2. fix-disk is reporting a corrupt block that cannot be deleted and saying that I might want to delete it. Then there is a debugfs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010) line. I am not back at a prompt but there is no sign that it is still running or any option to actually delete the bad block. I guess I will leave it running, but not sure what to do next.
OK, it's still doing something. I just gave an option to attempt repair and reported that re-writing the sector was successful. There is a rather long delay between reporting a bad sector and giving an option to try and fix it.
 
Nightmare isnt it! However i hope you get it sorted, i did and i am a complete IT novice, the guys here guided me through a treat.
On one side of things its a shame the HD does not seem to last as long as one might expect ( 2 and a bit years for me) but at least the box is such that we can replace components and not just end up with an expensive paperweight.
 
martypants16 said:
Nightmare isnt it! However i hope you get it sorted, i did and i am a complete IT novice, the guys here guided me through a treat.
On one side of things its a shame the HD does not seem to last as long as one might expect ( 2 and a bit years for me) but at least the box is such that we can replace components and not just end up with an expensive paperweight.
Click to expand...

True. I have enough paperweights :)
Edit: Well, the waiting count is now down to 900. So far it's been running 7.5 hours! Guess it's my fault for having a 1Tb drive! Still, a number of sectors re-written. Soon I will be able to view the potential horror wrought on my programs list.
 
AlWilson said:
My current software is 1.02.32 with firmware 2.18.
The new drive has arrived but I'm fine with trying 2.19. Is the -l option new? I don't remember the options I saw the last time |I ran fix-disc.
Click to expand...
It has been around for a couple of versions now. When fix-disk is run without options it will normally perform a short test. If there are still pending sector errors which can not be located with a short test it will run a long test. The -l option forces a long test.
The only issue with running fix-disk is how long it takes, as I may not have time to replace the drive if I have to wait ages for fix-disk to run.
Edit: I just upgraded to 2.19, and am loading mtce mode so I can try fix-disk.
Now running long test. Last time I tried a long test it counted down to about 8000 and then froze on that value. I'm wondering if a scheduled program can interrupt the test?
Edit2. fix-disk is reporting a corrupt block that cannot be deleted and saying that I might want to delete it. Then there is a debugfs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010) line. I am not back at a prompt but there is no sign that it is still running or any option to actually delete the bad block. I guess I will leave it running, but not sure what to do next.
OK, it's still doing something. I just gave an option to attempt repair and reported that re-writing the sector was successful. There is a rather long delay between reporting a bad sector and giving an option to try and fix it.
Click to expand...
It took about 2-3 hours to run a long test on my 500GB disk but may take longer if it finds errors. When an error is found fix-disk will normally attempt to find the file which contains the error - this can take a few minutes.
 
xyz321 said:
It has been around for a couple of versions now. When fix-disk is run without options it will normally perform a short test. If there are still pending sector errors which can not be located with a short test it will run a long test. The -l option forces a long test.

It took about 2-3 hours to run a long test on my 500GB disk but may take longer if it finds errors. When an error is found fix-disk will normally attempt to find the file which contains the error - this can take a few minutes.
Click to expand...
Well, it finished and reported less than 10 sectors successfully re-written (didn't report any failures). Afterwards I went back to WebIf and ran disk diags, and the two red entries were still there and the counts reported were the same. However, a program recorded afterwards played back without any glitches.
I'm out of the country now and will be back in the UK on Thursday evening, so I will see how it's been. Either way, I have a replacement drive now so maybe I will just replace it.
Thanks for all the help and advice!
 
xyz321 said:
Yes, it definitely sounds like the disk needs replacing. Sorry to have wasted your time.
Click to expand...
No! You have not wasted my time. Time spent trying new things is time spent learning, and I very much appreciate your help, and that of other on this forum.
It's really great how the members of this forum get involved helping others. Hopefully I will soon be able to share my experiences of performing the drive replacement.
Thanks again to you and the other members who have offered their advice and knowledge. It shortens the gap between newbie and contributing member :)
 
Hi Guys. Just a quick update to say that since running fix-disk (long check) all new recordings have been clear. I still have the new drive to fit (and report on) and will do this sometime soon (I'm very bust now!). I'll do the swap, install webIf again and copy back the schedules from my PC. Then I hope I can just put the original drive in a caddy and set it copying the recordings back again.
Don't know whether it's best to use the copy facility from the hummy menu, or run the backup/restore package? As I will only want to copy back the recordings I guess the menu option will be good enough, though it will take a few days to complete!
Can anyone advise me whether the option to copy to and from USB via the hummy menu will always copy ALL files? It would be good to update my backup without repeating the recordings that have already been copied.
Thanks and Best regards to all.
Alan.
 
If you have two USB caddies and your new drive is a Seagate you could try cloning your drive with Seagate Disc Wizard. This is free and is essentially a stripped down version of Acronis True Image. I did this with a 1 TB drive. It took about 8 hours but copied everything including about 600 GB of programmes and custom firmware and settings. It also automatically aligned the partitions on the new AF disc.
 
Hi MontysEvilTwin,

I have Acronis true image and I also have a drive cloning caddy with two bays that, in theory (and according to user manual) should copy direct from one drive to the other. However, I did not think that would work with the kind of drive format that the hummy uses. I don't remember the format types, but I know it's not a very 'usual' one.
By the way, I also have 1tb and the new drive is Seagate. Actually the first time I have seen a drive specifically labelled 'Video 3.5 HDD'.
 
The Humax formats hard drives using EXT3 , True Acronis 2o10 can defiantly 'see' the EXT3 partition on my USB HDD so I think it should be able to handle it O.K.

acronis-ext3.jpg
 
I have a copy of Acronis True Image 2010, I bought it a few years ago to back up a Windows PC before upgrading from Vista to Win7. It does read the Ext3 filesystem and does not need to do a sector by sector copy, but I would not use it for this task because this version will not automatically align the partitions of an AF drive: I think this feature is in the 2012 version onwards. I would use the free Seagate Disk Wizard as this is based on a later version of True Image and will correctly align the partitions. The interface is exactly the same as the Acronis version, and the way in which you clone the drive is identical, it just has some of the other features of the software disabled.
 
AlWilson said:
Hi MontysEvilTwin,

I have Acronis true image and I also have a drive cloning caddy with two bays that, in theory (and according to user manual) should copy direct from one drive to the other. However, I did not think that would work with the kind of drive format that the hummy uses. I don't remember the format types, but I know it's not a very 'usual' one.
By the way, I also have 1tb and the new drive is Seagate. Actually the first time I have seen a drive specifically labelled 'Video 3.5 HDD'.
Click to expand...
I don't know if a 2 bay cloning device will work or not: I presume it is one of those ones that copies without the use of a PC. The method I suggested needs a Windows PC plus two caddies/ USB ports, with the clone mediated by the Acronis/ Seagate software. If the caddy can also be connected to a PC and mount the two drives separately you can probably use this to clone the drive using the PC and software. My other post discusses which software version to use.
 
I've just been looking online and it seems that most of these drive cloners can also be used as a docking station to mount the drives on a PC, so it should be OK to use for cloning with the Acronis/ Seagate software.
 
Yes, the device I have can mount the two drives to the PC, so I will use this method. I'll google for the seagate wizard. I have Acronis at home (I think 2010) but when I have used it in the past I have not found a way to clone directly from one drive to the other. Instead I took a drive image and then restored to the new drive. I'll download the seagate utility and see what it does.
 
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