Rebooting loop & can't install custom firmware

[af123]

I would not use a WD purple. I've posted the reasons before, let me find the post...

https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/disk-failing.6490/#post-85348

 

[Trev]

Original suggestion crossed out.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

The most suitable WD hard drive is the EURX series (e.g. the 2TB WD20EURX) which is optimised for PVR use. There is a known issue with custom firmware 3.03 versions and this drive: see here. This is fixed in custom firmware 3.10 so anyone buying one of these should make sure they are on CFW 3.10.

 

[Ann]

Thanks af123 and MontysEvilTwin for the suggestions on drives and Black Hole for feeding the experiences back. Sounds like Seagate is more straightforward.

My hard drive is definitely dying, after the fixdisk when I connected to it via a browser, I got the message:
"There appear to be some hardware problems with the internal hard disk on this device.
Disk realloc sector count is: 1312 (was 1184)"

That's unlikely. Just stick it in and let uncle Hummy do its stuff.

Trev, from what I read elsewhere I thought that I would have to format the 2TB drive as EXT3 using my PC first - or can it now do the formatting automatically? And wouldn't I need also to partition it as per eg http://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/2TB_Disk_Installation_Blog - or are those instructions now outdated please? I was going to ask where to find gfdisk and exactly how to run it and what to input, step by step, to partition the 2TB drive properly, especially as prpr had suggested using Webshell (which I've now installed) instead of Putty, but that wiki page seems to be based on the "old" Putty/telnet.

 

[MartinLiddle]

Trev, from what I read elsewhere I thought that I would have to format the 2TB drive as EXT3 using my PC first - or can it now do the formatting automatically?

Providing you are using Humax firmware version 1.03.12 then the formatting can be done automatically for a drive up to 2TB.

 

[prpr]

My hard drive is definitely dying, after the fixdisk when I connected to it via a browser, I got the message:
"There appear to be some hardware problems with the internal hard disk on this device.
Disk realloc sector count is: 1312 (was 1184)"

You may fix it in the short term but it'll just go wrong again.

 

[Ann]

MartinLiddle, thanks very much - that's good to know, I have 1.03.12.

prpr - yes indeed, that's why I've ordered the 2TB Seagate. Fingers crossed that the current drive will last until I can replace it.

Thank you all again for your help.