Please help- can I fix the disk?

As is most likely the case in another recent thread, where replacing the HDD hasn't helped, and replacing the PSU hasn't helped either.
I agree there have been several recent reports of problems that appear to be a fault on the motherboard of the Humax but my recollection is that there have been far more boxes fixed by changing the hard drive. The motherboard problems seem to occur quite suddenly whereas this hard drive has had problems for years.

If it helps MikeJH I have a 500GB Seagate PVR drive in good working order removed from an HDR-2000T a couple of years when it was replaced by a higher capacity drive. £12 plus postage on a sale or return basis.
 
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If I put it in the Humax and it formatted it I would lose everything on the disk including the copy of Windows Vista I presume?
Yes... but if it offered to format and you declined, you wouldn't have erased anything and you would have proven the interface. The fly in the ointment is "only" being 80GB (large at the time), but I think the HDR-FOX will go down to 64GB (no promises). But the big question (which you have not stated) is whether the drive is SATA2. Knowing the make and model will help.

Is this any loss to me or to anyone else if I decide to sell it or give it away to a charity for instance?
No. A PC of that vintage would be much better off running a light version of Linux (google "lightweight linux"), and I very much doubt anybody would want it even as a gift.

Linux I don't really know where to start it would have to be a USB I don't have any disks apparently.
Do you mean the PC has no optical drive? Live Linuxes can run from USB if your PC is able to boot from USB. That very much depends on the capabilities of the motherboard/chipset.

Let's not lose sight of the target here. The aim was simply to try to decide whether the HDD is the cause of the problem or something else, so that we know whether we're barking up the right tree. This seems like a lot of faffing about just to do that.

Taking up ML's offer of (I presume) a tested HDD would confirm, but be an unnecessary cost if it turns out the fault is elsewhere.

Reviewing your OP:
On the menu tree the data storage and recording settings are greyed out. I've done the formatting thing twice more just in case to no avail.
Please confirm: Menu >> Settings >> System >> Data Storage

I took it to the same local tv repair shop but after trying and failing to fix it he said it must be a problem with the motherboard or firmware.
The question is what did they do to come to that conclusion. As we don't know, we have to take it with a pinch of salt.

To cut a long story short it's most likely a disk problem (I'm pretty much a newbie so don't know if it could be some other hardware problem but live tv and epg are working perfectly)
I don't think you can say that (live TV and EPG will work even if the HDD is disconnected). A fault in the services required by the HDD will also manifest as "a disk problem".

Your command line stuff says the operating system is unable to even detect a HDD connected, let alone format it, so if you are getting your format option from Menu >> Settings >> Installation >> Factory Default (which also wipes your tuning etc), that's a case of the factory reset operation being too dumb to realise there isn't a HDD available, so it's a red herring.

Is it worth getting it to Richer Sounds which we bought it from or another tv repair place or even a computer repair shop?
Not Richer Sounds, no. They wouldn't know what to do with it. TV repair: also no. Maybe the answer is to take just the HDD to a computer repair shop and ask them to test it, which is what I was trying to do in the first place. (Except computer repair shops won't be open until non-essential businesses can open again.)
Are you willing to take the HDD out and test it on a PC (under instruction)?
 
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I agree there have been several recent reports of problems that appear to be a fault on the motherboard of the Humax but my recollection is that there have been far more boxes fixed by changing the hard drive. The motherboard problems seem to occur quite suddenly whereas this hard drive has had problems for years.

If it helps MikeJH I have a 500MB Seagate PVR drive in good working order removed from an HDR-2000T a couple of years when it was replaced by a higher capacity drive. £12 plus postage on a sale or return basis.
Thank you very much Martin another very kind offer. :) Did you mean 500 GB if it's from a Humax recorder? Something else to consider thank you.
 
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Yes... but if it offered to format and you declined, you wouldn't have erased anything and you would have proven the interface. The fly in the ointment is "only" being 80GB (large at the time), but I think the HDR-FOX will go down to 64GB (no promises). But the big question (which you have not stated) is whether the drive is SATA2. Knowing the make and model will help.


No. A PC of that vintage would be much better off running a light version of Linux (google "lightweight linux"), and I very much doubt anybody would want it even as a gift.


Do you mean the PC has no optical drive? Live Linuxes can run from USB if your PC is able to boot from USB. That very much depends on the capabilities of the motherboard/chipset.

Let's not lose sight of the target here. The aim was simply to try to decide whether the HDD is the cause of the problem or something else, so that we know whether we're barking up the right tree. This seems like a lot of faffing about just to do that.

Taking up ML's offer of (I presume) a tested HDD would confirm, but be an unnecessary cost if it turns out the fault is elsewhere.

Reviewing your OP:

Please confirm: Menu >> Settings >> System >> Data Storage


The question is what did they do to come to that conclusion. As we don't know, we have to take it with a pinch of salt.


I don't think you can say that (live TV and EPG will work even if the HDD is disconnected). A fault in the services required by the HDD will also manifest as "a disk problem".

Your command line stuff says the operating system is unable to even detect a HDD connected, let alone format it, so if you are getting your format option from Menu >> Settings >> Installation >> Factory Default (which also wipes your tuning etc), that's a case of the factory reset operation being too dumb to realise there isn't a HDD available, so it's a red herring.


Not Richer Sounds, no. They wouldn't know what to do with it. TV repair: also no. Maybe the answer is to take just the HDD to a computer repair shop and ask them to test it, which is what I was trying to do in the first place. (Except computer repair shops won't be open until non-essential businesses can open again.)

Thank you for that load of very useful info. I'ved looked on the PC's hard drive and it says SATA II so SATA 2 yeah? The idea of just fitting the hard drive and seeing if it offers to format you mean as it starts up rather than as part of the factory default option? That seems a great idea I'll see if I can do that. I've extracted the Humax's disk so I'll try to get the drive from the pc. Thanks.
 
The idea of just fitting the hard drive and seeing if it offers to format you mean as it starts up rather than as part of the factory default option?
Yes

Another idea: as the PC seems to be SATA2 compatible, you should be able to find somewhere to plug the 'fox HDD in and then boot Vista and see if you can format it.
 
Yes

Another idea: as the PC seems to be SATA2 compatible, you should be able to find somewhere to plug the 'fox HDD in and then boot Vista and see if you can format it.
Thanks I'm having great difficulty detaching the power cable from the pc's drive and getting it out. I might find it easier getting the humax's drive in but not sure.
 
Don't ignore this:
Yes in the Settings menu when System is highlighted Data Storage is one of the options but when System is selected Data Storage is greyed out and inaccessible. Similarly when Preferences is selected Recording is greyed out and inaccessible.
 
... I've dug out the old PC from the garage it has a celeron 1.8 GHz processor and a 80 GB hard drive and seems like 2.5GB RAM which I was surprised at for its age. On start-up it recommended I go into start-up repair so I selected that and it's still in that .... Hallelujah it's just finished starting up.
Just out of curiosity, how does the innards of the pc look? What I'm getting at - are there any rust spots on the motherboard or the internal sections of the pc? Roughly how long did it take to start up? Were there any particular messages before it offered the start up repair (eg did it complian about date/time, CMOS or BIOS?) Just trying to figure out how much we can rely on an old pc that has sat in the garage for a number of years.
 
Yes in the Settings menu when System is highlighted Data Storage is one of the options but when System is selected Data Storage is greyed out and inaccessible.
This confirms the HDR-FOX doesn't think there is a drive attached. Any formatting offered during a Factory Reset operation is a red herring.
 
A PC of that vintage would be much better off running a light version of Linux (google "lightweight linux"), and I very much doubt anybody would want it even as a gift.
I assume you haven't tried offering old PCs on Freecycle? I have always had a surprisingly strong response.
 
I assume you haven't tried offering old PCs on Freecycle? I have always had a surprisingly strong response.
I was going by the reluctance displayed to take old kit for the 'computers for schools in lockdown' programme, when you might have thought they would be grateful for anything! They only wanted bulk cast-offs resulting from businesses upgrading on a two- or three-year cycle – anybody with the odd tablet or notebook to offer got declined. Charity shops won't touch that kind of thing because they don't have the expertise/time to verify it's working and safe (even items on sale for charity have to conform to standards). Freecycle sounds like a possibility which had dropped off my radar, I guess it could also be offered through Facebook or Gumtree, and my local tip has a re-use cabin.

Actually, I don't think MikeJH's tower is any less powerful than my notebook (which is quite happy running Win7), although the HDD would be in serious need of upgrading (or add a second drive). Even if the tower itself were ditched, there's a monitor, keyboard, etc which might be worth hanging onto (if you didn't bundle them with the tower for the recipient's convenience).
 
Just out of curiosity, how does the innards of the pc look? What I'm getting at - are there any rust spots on the motherboard or the internal sections of the pc? Roughly how long did it take to start up? Were there any particular messages before it offered the start up repair (eg did it complian about date/time, CMOS or BIOS?) Just trying to figure out how much we can rely on an old pc that has sat in the garage for a number of years.
Hi, the innards looked absolutely fine much to my relief the outside was dusty but it had only been in there 2-3 years I think in a thick plastic canvassy bag-for-life from Sports Direct so it wasn't directly on the floor. It didn't indicate where the problem was but it asked if I wanted to go back into a previous state (sorry can't recall the exact wording) so I agreed to that because I didn't know what it would do otherwise. I think it took 3/4 to an hour to start up. I went into a start-up menu or something and noticed the date was at Nov 2019 which intrigued me because I was pretty sure the last time I'd had it on was quite a while before that. There doesn't seem to be any issues with its functioning. I don't know what I will end up doing with it may be explore Linux and learn more about computing. The hard drive doesn't seem to want to come out and the power connection seems welded on so I think I'm giving up on getting it out. :o_O::mad:
 
If there's a CEX outlet anywhere near you it could be worth checking their website for second hand PVR HDDs. For example, the Seagate Pipeline 500GB model ST3500312CS with a 2 year warranty is currently widely stocked for £8.00.
 
If there's a CEX outlet anywhere near you it could be worth checking their website for second hand PVR HDDs. For example, the Seagate Pipeline 500GB model ST3500312CS with a 2 year warranty is currently widely stocked for £8.00.
Thanks Dino yet more options to consider.
 
If there's a CEX outlet anywhere near you it could be worth checking their website for second hand PVR HDDs. For example, the Seagate Pipeline 500GB model ST3500312CS with a 2 year warranty is currently widely stocked for £8.00.
Interesting
 
I was going by the reluctance displayed to take old kit for the 'computers for schools in lockdown' programme, when you might have thought they would be grateful for anything!
With Freecycle you tend to end up with single parents with limited incomes desperate to have any computer for their child. The demand might not be so high now with the government distributing devices to underprivileged children but I think it will still be there.
 
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