USB Drive, formatted worked first time, won't second...

Cambridge

Cambridge

New Member
We bought a WD My Passport 1TB drive for extra storage. Oowered on the Humax, plugged it in, formatted it from the Menus (no option for format type so I assumed it reformatted to EXT3 as copies worked fine after reformat). Copied a load of recordings to it over a couple of hours, all fine. Checked and replayed recordings from USB storage, all 100%. Powered the Humax down and then removed the USB drive (didn't see any options to remove the USB drive "safely" as with a computer).

Next day I plugged the drive in first then powered on the Humax (and as with a similar thread) it just froze on the start screen. Powered it off via the mains, unplugged drive, and reset. Then tried connecting USB drive after Humax boots up, the drive is definitely fully powered, spinning with access / power light working, but Humax can't see it (so I don't think it's a power/hub required issue).

I went for a 1TB rather than 2 to ensure it'd all work ok.

Any ideas? Desperate for more space for children's Christmas programmes! Thank-you!
 
I had a similar issue with a WD passport a couple of years ago, but this was an older USB 2.0, 500 GB model. The problem was seen occasionally if the drive was plugged in before start-up. There is a free program called 'Ext2FSD' which allows Ext2 and Ext3 formatted drives to work in Windows. I found that if you run this on a PC then plug in the WD drive, the files can be seen in Explorer and then when you plug it back in to the Humax they are available again. The problem with this drive was properly fixed by going to the WD website (WD.com) and updating the firmware.

It can take 30 seconds or so for a Humax to properly shut down, but if the light has gone off on the drive it is fine to disconnect. Usually disconnecting a USB drive from the Humax while it is still on is OK as long there is no ongoing copy operation. To be safe, there is a remove USB drive option in a hidden menu: http://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/Hidden_Service_Menu_-_HDR-FOX_T2
 
I had a 500 GB USB2 WD drive. The Humax froze as Cambridge described if the WD was attached when the Humax was turned on. If the Humax powered down completely without the WD attached and was then switched back on and left for a few minutes and then the WD drive was attached it usually showed up ok - but sometimes it was necessary to repeat the entire process to get it to show. I didn't find the hidden menu eject made any difference - although I may have been missing something. I am now using a 1TB USB2 Freecom drive formatted as NTS and have had no problems with it - it shows up even when attached at power on.
 
Drives with power-up problems can be solved by connecting them via a separately powered USB hub.
 
Seems to working in the main, I followed Montys advice accessing via a PC and then tried again and all was fine. I don't think it's a power issue, as had it running all night with a massive set of copies and all was fine. However when left overnight and powering the Humax off (whilst leaving a huge copy queue), in the morning, the drive is still powered and spinning, but the Humax won't awake from it's off-mode. Had to remove the USB drive, and pull the mains plug from the Humax to get it to restart. Irritating but at least we've freed up a third of the space.
 
Glad it is working again. If the problem comes back, I recommended checking to see if there is a firmware update for the drive. It is safest to leave the Humax on when copying. I presume that if you put it into standby with copying ongoing it should not power down until completion, but I am not sure about this. I did it accidentally once, and like you, it got stuck a sort of non-responsive standby and needed to be switched off at the mains before it would switch back on again.
 
That's exactly what happened, totally unresponsive standby. Flashed the firmware on the drive too as suggested. I guess a better approach would be for me to put a custom firmware on the Humax so it can read and write NTFS, but always been a little apprehensive about that, so this is a working compromise at the moment! Thanks again for your help :)
 
It's still probably the problem that BH highlighted in his last post. If the a combination of the Hummy power requirements and the start-up current of the drive is trying to draw too much current from the Hummy PSU, it is possible that the PSU can't provide this amount of current and won't start properly.
 
As I've been doing this again recently to clear out some space, ready for Christmas, I'd thought I'd update this thread with my process and tips.

I can now get the USB drive (a WD Passport Ultra with no option for external psu and no available updated firmware) to work all the time by following this procedure.

1 - Connect the USB drive to my PC and access it via the Ext2Mgr (it's Ext formatted), Ext2Fsd project/drivers from here: www.ext2fsd.com
2 - Enter the hidden menu and eject the USB drive twice (not once) via the USB > USB Eject command, without the USB drive actually being connected.
3 - Connect the drive to the rear USB socket on the Humax (not the front one), whilst the Humax is still on and it recognises it, and away you go.

(I power off once complete and remove the drive, as it seems to always hang on reboot with it reconnected, regardless if it's been "ejected" or not, it's happily been on over night copying masses of file without issue and then powers off automatically when complete

I've also noticed a reliable way to speed up copying (in my experience anyway), if you put the Humax on a channel that's not broadcasting live content (i.e. has just a holding page), like BBC3/4 during the day, or CBeebies during the evening, it seems to copy over files much, much faster than normal.

Hope that helps someone else, took me ages to get the drive working reliably, but this routine seems to work all the time.
 
Cambridge said:
I've also noticed a reliable way to speed up copying (in my experience anyway), if you put the Humax on a channel that's not broadcasting live content (i.e. has just a holding page), like BBC3/4 during the day, or CBeebies during the evening, it seems to copy over files much, much faster than normal.
Click to expand...
That's interesting.
 
Cambridge said:
if you put the Humax on a channel that's not broadcasting live content (i.e. has just a holding page), like BBC3/4 during the day, or CBeebies during the evening, it seems to copy over files much, much faster than normal.
Click to expand...

I would think that the Humax HDD is not being used for the live buffer so can be accessed for the copy/stream continuously. Allowing the process to run much faster.
 
It would appear that this supposition is correct as you can't pause a place-holder. I just tried on BBC3HD.
 
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