Laptop HDD

Just trying to get this back on track.
I had an idea that maybe the unit fails to read any drive, and suggested trying another spare drive to make sure. But thinking about it I may be wrong about this
 
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bottletop said:
Just trying to get this back on track.
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Yes let's. Separating the OP's posts from the noise:

Steve A said:
I have a HDR 2000t and the harddrive is failing.

I thought... I could just swap out with a 1tb hard drive from an old laptop which I changed for a SSD. Problem is that the Humax doesn't even recognise the HDD! It's as if it wasn't there.

Plugged into the laptop now the laptop cannot see/find it!!

My question basically is how do I format it so it is useable in the Humax? Via laptop or Humax?
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If everything is working the way it should, you don't need to worry about formatting - so this in itself says there is a fault.
Steve A said:
It is a WD 1Tb blue.
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Steve A said:
Just to add I managed to get an old windows laptop to format it as NTFS / exFAT although neither option worked.
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If everything is working the way it should, you don't need to worry about formatting.

Points to note:
  1. The OP declares a "WD Blue", not a WD AV-25 or any other such thing. The WD Blue is not optimised for PVR use, but should work to some extent so long as it is SATA2 or 3 rather than SATA1 (the spec sheet does not specify, but googling "WD10EZEX" indicates SATA3 - note that specifications can change, and the OP has not declared a model number).

  2. The drive fails to be recognised in two places. This does not rule out the OP's 2000T having a drive controller fault, but it is at least indicative.

  3. The OP did get the drive to "work" in another PC. It is not unknown for drives to go intermittent, and it would be diagnostic if the drive was making a ticking sound when not working. In this state, mechanical disturbance can kick it into life (and kill it again). This can be as sensitive as any mechanical strain on the connector, or the angle relative to gravity

  4. It is irrelevant how the drive is formatted for the 2000T to detect it and offer to format it (the target format is Ext3).
My hunch is that this is a drive issue: the OP said the original drive was failing not that it had given up entirely. However, I cannot rule out the possibility that £40 might be spent on a SkyHawk only to find that doesn't work in the 2000T either (because of a failure in the 2000T). However, that said, there is a demand for SkyHawks and I'm sure somebody around here would be willing to take it off the OP's hands if it became surplus.

If the OP doesn't have another SATA HDD just to test it, and prefers not to commit £40 to finding out, I have recently replaced the HDD I use externally on my HD-FOX with a second-hand 320GB 2½" drive for £9. I do not expect this drive to have a long life as an internal PVR drive (or even as a HD-FOX drive!), but it would at least prove the point and should provide a year or two's service.
 
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Sorry BH I tried to remove my last post, but then you posted after!
Anyway my thoughts
WD Blue is not a particular range description you can rely on because WD change the goalposts more than once.
I would hazard a guess 1TB 2.5 data drive will be at least sata2. The other drive you mention WD10EZEX is a 3.5 drive, which is not relevent in this thread (unless that was the original drive).
But I agree with most of the other points.
The other thing to try is another power supply that is suitable for the Humax (12V 2A) in case the original one is marginal or on the way out.
 
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I've taken out hard drives and replaced them with SSDs after cloning several times as well as cannibalising defunct machines (that 3-in-1 Packard Bell piece of crap that collapsed and died trying to load a Windows update for example). What I do almost always is get an enclosure and use the HDD as an external. Never had any problems. This suggests to me, like others, that your problems originate in the removal from the laptop and are generic rather than specific to the Humax. How are you trying to connect it up? I recall that the late Jack Schofield had a couple of columns a few years back in his Guardian pieces on what to do with removed HDDs how to deal with likely problems. Might be worth searching there.
 
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