Recover recordings from HDR Fox T2 HDD

[The_Steve_B]

Hi, my HDR Fox T2 has recently stopped working with the HDD, and I am trying to recover as many recordings as I can from the HDD.
The screen froze on my HDR (which it often did), so I switched off and on at back to restart it. However, it seemed to crash on restart, and kept cycling the startup process. It got as far as displaying HUMAX on the TV screen, a green screen briefly flashed up, and then it auto powered off and back on again. This keeps looping until I switch it off. I can't hear the HDD spinning up.
After extensive searching in Google, I have managed to get the HDR to power on if I disconnect the internal HDD SATA and power cables inside the HDR. The HDR works fine for watching TV, but obviously no means of recording anything!
If I connect the HDD cables again, the power up crashes and loops again. I've tried replacing the HDD with one from an old Windows PC, but get the same problem.
I'm a bit reluctant to buy a new HDD and try it, in case that makes no difference.
So... I am now trying to recover as many recordings as I can from the HDD. Once I have copied the recordings, I plan to reformat the HDD and try it in the HDR again to see if that makes any difference.

I have plugged the HDD (1 TB) from the Humax into my Windows 10 PC using a USB caddy, and I can see the disk in Disk Management - it shows as Disk 2 with 3 disk partitions - one for 1 GB, one for 920.5 GB and one for 10GB. As expected it has no drive letter.
I have then run humaxrw.exe in the Command Window as Admin, but with the command humaxrw 2: -r -l (or .\humaxrw 2: -r -l as suggested in some threads), I get the message 'Unknown partition table'
If I try a drive number of 3, I get the message 'PhysicalDrive3: No such file or directory'.

Do anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
Many thanks in advance

 

[prpr]

Don't use humaxrw. That is for the 9x00 machines with a proprietary filesystem, not the T2.
T2 uses a standard Linux filesystem. So you need either a Linux filesystem driver for Windows, or a Linux booted PC (live disk probably).
Anyway it doesn't sound like the disk is the problem.

 

[Ezra Pound]

My understanding is that humaxrw.exe is for reading files from a Humax 9000 series so I don't think you need to use it anyway

 

[The_Steve_B]

Thanks for such quick replies

I've installed a Linux filesystem driver and can now access all my recordings from my PC, so can copy the ones I want to keep across to my PC.
I get the feeling you are right about the disk - it is probably OK, so likely to be a fault with the T2 itself.
I also tried connecting the internal power cable from the drive back to the T2 whilst it was running OK with the hope I would be able to access the disk and copy recordings via USB (as people with a similar start up problem have tried), but the T2 just crashes/powers off and goes back into the start up loop until I disconnect the drive again.
Sad days, I think a repair will be beyond my capabilities.

I think it also means the recordings that I can now access from the disk will all be encrypted. Do you know if there is any way I can decrypt the files from the SD recordings without the use of my T2?

 

[MartinLiddle]

I also tried connecting the internal power cable from the drive back to the T2 whilst it was running OK with the hope I would be able to access the disk and copy recordings via USB (as people with a similar start up problem have tried), but the T2 just crashes/powers off and goes back into the start up loop until I disconnect the drive again.
Sad days, I think a repair will be beyond my capabilities.

Try downloading a Linux live CD distribution, boot your PC into Linux temporarily and try using the various utilities to repair the file system. People here will guide you through the process if you want to go down this route.

I think it also means the recordings that I can now access from the disk will all be encrypted. Do you know if there is any way I can decrypt the files from the SD recordings without the use of my T2?

Try reading this thread https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/windows-version-of-offline-decryption-hfodu.8770/

 

[The_Steve_B]

Thanks again for the reply.
I've copied all the recordings files I need from my T2 drive onto my PC, and have just successfully decrypted the first of the recordings using the hfodu2 tool. Works a treat!
Thanks for all your help.

 

[Black Hole]

Sad days, I think a repair will be beyond my capabilities.

Not necessarily. You've obviously found your way inside, so take a look at the PSU and see if any of the capacitors (cylindrical cans) look as if they are bulging slightly (typically the normally flat end becomes domed).

 

[The_Steve_B]

Hi Black Hole.
I'd visually checked the capacitors, and all look good as new. No signs of bulging or domed ends (at least to my untrained eye).

 

[Black Hole]

Might be a source of spares then

 

[prpr]

I wouldn't have thought it was beyond the wit of man to attempt to knock up an alternative (external) power supply with the right voltages, current capabilities, connectors etc.

 

[Black Hole]

I wouldn't have thought it was beyond the wit of man to attempt to knock up an alternative (external) power supply with the right voltages, current capabilities, connectors etc.

Indeed not, and I have postulated the same... but until I get the right motivation it ain't gonna happen (not by me, anyway). However, that said, we don't know this is a PSU problem yet.