WD Elements 2TB hard drive with custom firmware?

its still processing now after 30 mins but i am going to leave it for a bit longer just to make sure :)

Is the processing icon still moving round?
It's presumably doing a full format but I wouldn't have thought it would take that long.
 
Is the processing icon still moving round?
It's presumably doing a full format but I wouldn't have thought it would take that long.

yes the icon is still spinning, it took Gparted around 20 minutes to partition it.
 
There's also a blog about it here. Since the Humax uses quite an old kernel, AFD drives should be partitioned with the optimal (1MB) alignment for best peformance. I am not sure how significant the reduced performance of a non-optimal drive would be. The blog mentions three partitions but in your case it would be a single partition since you have an HD not an HDR.
 
Happy New Year to everybody!

After taking a few days to decrypt and move 432gb of recordings onto a pc hard drive. Everything went quite well and the only issue was that hd files would not play on Windows Media Player with sound. That was overcome as VLC does play them fine. So I'm happy with that.

I decided to experiment with my 2tb hard disk to see if it would reformat. My reason was that at least one other person was having problems and I knew that I had managed to format my 2tb previously.
I Gparted the drive (ext3), then the Humax would not format it, to finalise it. I even had it running for 8 hours with no result.
I assume there is something with the updates that prevent the box from formatting larger hard disks? I have seen suggestions that this may be the case!

I noticed a post in the other place and it suggested:
1) Formatting the disk starting and ending with 1mb into the disk.
2) It also suggested copying over a few folders from an already working (smaller sized) disk.

What I did was followed 1)
I had already used a Sata HD (500mb) with the humax box and had it working fine (this was my backup in case of a disaster). The custom firmware was already applied.
After formatting the 2tb, I had to restart gparted (correction PartedMagic then mount devices) with both the Sata and 2tb drives connected to my pc via USB.
I then copied every file over from the Sata HD to the 2tb. Note .tsr is hidden, so you'll need to "show hidden files".
I then installed the standard firmware on the Humax - Connected the 2tb and restarted the box.
I went into settings/system/data storage. Then assigned the disk for data storage.
There was no need to format the disk as it was accepted.
I then installed the modified firmware and I've ended up back to where I was before I decided to try and format the 2tb drive (everything more or less working fine).
I did have to set up the web interface afterwards and re-install the package.

So it has been a successful exercise and I hope it works for others too.

I still only have one issue.
I just cannot get the box to start in HDR mode with the use of the remote. I've no problem doing so via telnet.
I have got a little further on than previous. I know for certain that I can move "Trigger-HDRModeNextBoot" from "ModSettings" to the root of the drive. This is confirmed as having been moved with, on screen display, Filezilla and a network connection.
On re-booting via the remote, the humax just boots back into HD mode. The strange thing is that "HDRModeNextBoot does move back to "ModSettings" as expected?
 
Happy New Year to everybody!

After taking a few days to decrypt and move 432gb of recordings onto a pc hard drive. Everything went quite well and the only issue was that hd files would not play on Windows Media Player with sound. That was overcome as VLC does play them fine. So I'm happy with that.

I decided to experiment with my 2tb hard disk to see if it would reformat. My reason was that at least one other person was having problems and I knew that I had managed to format my 2tb previously.
I Gparted the drive (ext3), then the Humax would not format it, to finalise it. I even had it running for 8 hours with no result.
I assume there is something with the updates that prevent the box from formatting larger hard disks? I have seen suggestions that this may be the case!

I noticed a post in the other place and it suggested:
1) Formatting the disk starting and ending with 1mb into the disk.
2) It also suggested copying over a few folders from an already working (smaller sized) disk.

What I did was followed 1)
I had already used a Sata HD (500mb) with the humax box and had it working fine (this was my backup in case of a disaster). The custom firmware was already applied.
After formatting the 2tb, I had to restart gparted with both the Sata and 2tb drives connected to my pc via USB.
I then copied every file over from the Sata HD to the 2tb. Note .tsr is hidden, so you'll need to "show hidden files".
I then installed the standard firmware on the Humax - Connected the 2tb and restarted the box.
I went into settings/system/data storage. Then assigned the disk for data storage.
There was no need to format the disk as it was accepted.
I then installed the modified firmware and I've ended up back to where I was before I decided to try and format the 2tb drive (everything more or less working fine).
I did have to set up the web interface afterwards and re-install the package.

So it has been a successful exercise and I hope it works for others too.

I still only have one issue.
I just cannot get the box to start in HDR mode with the use of the remote. I've no problem doing so via telnet.
I have got a little further on than previous. I know for certain that I can move "Trigger-HDRModeNextBoot" from "ModSettings" to the root of the drive. This is confirmed as having been moved with, on screen display, Filezilla and a network connection.
On re-booting via the remote, the humax just boots back into HD mode. The strange thing is that "HDRModeNextBoot does move back to "ModSettings" as expected?

Thanks for the great guide! I am just formatting my 2tb hard drive again with gparted. When you say that you copied the files from one drive to the other in gparted, how was this done as I cannot see the option to view files or folders in there?
 
Thanks for the great guide! I am just formatting my 2tb hard drive again with gparted. When you say that you copied the files from one drive to the other in gparted, how was this done as I cannot see the option to view files or folders in there?

I use PartedMagic, which I must have downloaded sometime in the past, just for formatting in ext3 for the humax.
It has the facility to mount devices and then you can access drives/folders/files from there.
It was then just the case of selecting the correct drive/s, clicking on "show hidden files" and then copying and pasting between the drives.

Google partedmagic. It's still available to download free.

Keep us informed of how you get on. :)
 
I have recently obtained a WD Elements 2TB drive but unlike the OP I have an HDR not an HD. I decided to try formatting in on-the-box using the new maintenance mode in the latest version of custom firmware (1.15). When first connected, I noticed that it was already formatted with NTFS and had been mounted by the ntfs-3g package. I could have continued to use it as is but in the spirit of adventure I decided to trash the partition and format to EXT3. The following procedure gives the basic commands to partition and format a disk, it may be wrapped up in a script in future. Note that this proecdure is good for disks up to 2TB.

Maintenance mode stops the humaxtv application from running in order to free up memory for the disk format (or checking) application. When entering maintenance mode you should be aware that the picture will freeze and the box will appear to lock up, only telnet will still be available. Make sure there are no active recordings or programmes scheduled to start while you are in maintenance mode. It takes roughly 20-30 minutes to format a 2TB disk. To enter maintenance mode type the following at the telnet prompt:

Code:
touch /var/lib/humaxtv/mod/maintenance.boot

reboot

The telnet session will then be closed and the box will reboot. After a few seconds you should be able to telnet back into the box but the picture will be frozen etc.

Disk are shown as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb,... Partitions on those disks are /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 etc. On the HDR, disks are labelled according to the order that they are found on boot. Any attached USB disks are seen first followed by the internal disk. This means that if no external disk is attached the internal disk will be /dev/sda and then any new disk attached will become /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc etc. If however the box is booted with a disk already connected that USB disk will become /dev/sda and then the internal disk will be seen as /dev/sdb. The best thing is to always check the disk order after a reboot or connecting a new disk.

Type 'fdisk -lu' to see a list of disks and their partitions; it should produce something similar to this:

Code:
fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907024896 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1            2048  3907024895  1953511424  7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1              2    2104514    1052256+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2        2104515  955787174  476841330  83 Linux
/dev/sdb3      955787175  976768064    10490445  83 Linux

Here the new disk is /dev/sda which has been preformatted with an NTFS partition /dev/sda1. It was connected before booting into maintenance mode. If the disk had not been preformatted, the partition /dev/sda1 would not be shown but the disk /dev/sda would still be in the above listing.

If, as above the disk has been preformatted then the operating system may have mounted it. To check type 'df -h'.

Code:
df -h

Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                16.2M    16.2M        0 100% /
tmpfs                    61.0M    36.0K    61.0M  0% /tmp
tmpfs                    61.0M        0    61.0M  0% /media
/dev/mtdblock1            2.0M    532.0K      1.5M  26% /var/lib/humaxtv
/dev/mtdblock2            2.0M      1.2M    772.0K  62% /var/lib/humaxtv_backup
/dev/mtdblock2            2.0M      1.2M    772.0K  62% /usr/browser/config-ocontroller-si-rootfs.txt
/dev/sda1                1.8T        0G      1.8T  0% /media/drive1
/dev/sdb1              1011.4M    38.7M    921.4M  4% /mnt/hd1
/dev/sdb2              447.6G    422.0G      2.9G  99% /mnt/hd2
/dev/sdb3                9.8G      1.0G      8.3G  11% /mnt/hd3
If it is present in the above listing unmount all of its partitions using 'umount <Filesystem>' e.g. in the case:
Code:
umount /dev/sda1

Partitioning the disk

The drive can now be partitioned using the fdisk command. It is very important to make sure you are using the correct disk to avoid the loss of any data. The fdisk command has an interactive mode which takes simple one letter commands. Type 'fdisk -u /dev/sda' if partitioning the /dev/sda disk, then p to print the partition table, this should show the same info as above. Ignore the initial warning about the number of cylinders when first starting fdisk. If you mess up at any stage type 'q' or Ctrl-C to quit without saving any changes. The fdisk command only makes changes to the partition table when the 'w' command is used to exit normally.
Code:
fdisk -u /dev/sda

Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that the previous content
won't be recoverable.

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 243201.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
  (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907024896 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1            2048  3907024895  1953511424  7 HPFS/NTFS

At this point there are two options
  1. Relabel the partition as Linux and reuse it or,
  2. Delete the partition and make a new one.
Both options will require the partitions to be (re)formatted afterwards.

If option 1 then the system ID has to be changed from 7 to 83 using the 't' command:

Code:
Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): 83
Changed system type of partition 1 to 83 (Linux)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907024896 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1            2048  3907024895  1953511424  83 Linux
Type 'w' to save the partition table and exit from fdisk or type 'q' to quit without saving any changes. Then proceed to 'Formatting the partition' below.

If instead we are using option 2 above where it has been decided to delete the partition and create a new one, the partition is first deleted using the 'd' conmmand.
Code:
Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1              1      243202  1953511424  83 Linux

Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System

Command (m for help):
A new primary partition is created using the 'n' command. I recommend setting the start sector to 2048 since that should ensure proper alignment with some disks (including the WD). Just accept the default last sector value (by pressing return) if you are only creating one big partition.
Code:
Command (m for help): n
Command action
  e  extended
  p  primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First sector (63-3907024895, default 63): 2048
Last sector or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (2048-3907024895, default 3907024895): Using default value 3907024895

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907024896 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1            2048  3907024895  1953511424  83 Linux
Next type 'w' to write the new partition or 'q' to quit without saving.
Code:
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table

Formatting the partition

Now that the partition table has been modified we can format the partition with an ext3 filesystem:
Here we use the partition (/dev/sda1) not the disk (/dev/sda) as an argument to the mkfs.ext3 command: e.g.
Code:
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1

mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
122101760 inodes, 488377856 blocks
24418892 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=0
14905 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
        102400000, 214990848

Writing inode tables:    63/14905
This last operation will take about 20 minutes for a 2TB disk. After this is finished type 'reboot' to exit maintenance mode and resume normal operation. The Humax UI should now see the new disk.
 
I have recently obtained a WD Elements 2TB drive but unlike the OP I have an HDR not an HD. I decided to try formatting in on-the-box using the new maintenance mode in the latest version of custom firmware (1.15). When first connected, I noticed that it was already formatted with NTFS and had been mounted by the ntfs-3g package. I could have continued to use it as is but in the spirit of adventure I decided to trash the partition and format to EXT3. The following procedure gives the basic commands to partition and format a disk, it may be wrapped up in a script in future. Note that this proecdure is good for disks up to 2TB.

Maintenance mode stops the humaxtv application from running in order to free up memory for the disk format (or checking) application. When entering maintenance mode you should be aware that the picture will freeze and the box will appear to lock up, only telnet will still be available. Make sure there are no active recordings or programmes scheduled to start while you are in maintenance mode. It takes roughly 20-30 minutes to format a 2TB disk. To enter maintenance mode type the following at the telnet prompt:

Code:
touch /var/lib/humaxtv/mod/maintenance.boot

reboot

The telnet session will then be closed and the box will reboot. After a few seconds you should be able to telnet back into the box but the picture will be frozen etc.

Disk are shown as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb,... Partitions on those disks are /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 etc. On the HDR, disks are labelled according to the order that they are found on boot. Any attached USB disks are seen first followed by the internal disk. This means that if no external disk is attached the internal disk will be /dev/sda and then any new disk attached will become /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc etc. If however the box is booted with a disk already connected that USB disk will become /dev/sda and then the internal disk will be seen as /dev/sdb. The best thing is to always check the disk order after a reboot or connecting a new disk.

Type 'fdisk -lu' to see a list of disks and their partitions; it should produce something similar to this:

Code:
fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907024896 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1            2048  3907024895  1953511424  7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1              2    2104514    1052256+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2        2104515  955787174  476841330  83 Linux
/dev/sdb3      955787175  976768064    10490445  83 Linux

Here the new disk is /dev/sda which has been preformatted with an NTFS partition /dev/sda1. It was connected before booting into maintenance mode. If the disk had not been preformatted, the partition /dev/sda1 would not be shown but the disk /dev/sda would still be in the above listing.

If, as above the disk has been preformatted then the operating system may have mounted it. To check type 'df -h'.

Code:
df -h

Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                16.2M    16.2M        0 100% /
tmpfs                    61.0M    36.0K    61.0M  0% /tmp
tmpfs                    61.0M        0    61.0M  0% /media
/dev/mtdblock1            2.0M    532.0K      1.5M  26% /var/lib/humaxtv
/dev/mtdblock2            2.0M      1.2M    772.0K  62% /var/lib/humaxtv_backup
/dev/mtdblock2            2.0M      1.2M    772.0K  62% /usr/browser/config-ocontroller-si-rootfs.txt
/dev/sda1                1.8T        0G      1.8T  0% /media/drive1
/dev/sdb1              1011.4M    38.7M    921.4M  4% /mnt/hd1
/dev/sdb2              447.6G    422.0G      2.9G  99% /mnt/hd2
/dev/sdb3                9.8G      1.0G      8.3G  11% /mnt/hd3
If it is present in the above listing unmount all of its partitions using 'umount <Filesystem>' e.g. in the case:
Code:
umount /dev/sda1

Partitioning the disk

The drive can now be partitioned using the fdisk command. It is very important to make sure you are using the correct disk to avoid the loss of any data. The fdisk command has an interactive mode which takes simple one letter commands. Type 'fdisk -u /dev/sda' if partitioning the /dev/sda disk, then p to print the partition table, this should show the same info as above. Ignore the initial warning about the number of cylinders when first starting fdisk. If you mess up at any stage type 'q' or Ctrl-C to quit without saving any changes. The fdisk command only makes changes to the partition table when the 'w' command is used to exit normally.
Code:
fdisk -u /dev/sda

Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that the previous content
won't be recoverable.

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 243201.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
  (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907024896 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1            2048  3907024895  1953511424  7 HPFS/NTFS

At this point there are two options
  1. Relabel the partition as Linux and reuse it or,
  2. Delete the partition and make a new one.
Both options will require the partitions to be (re)formatted afterwards.

If option 1 then the system ID has to be changed from 7 to 83 using the 't' command:

Code:
Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): 83
Changed system type of partition 1 to 83 (Linux)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907024896 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1            2048  3907024895  1953511424  83 Linux
Type 'w' to save the partition table and exit from fdisk or type 'q' to quit without saving any changes. Then proceed to 'Formatting the partition' below.

If instead we are using option 2 above where it has been decided to delete the partition and create a new one, the partition is first deleted using the 'd' conmmand.
Code:
Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1              1      243202  1953511424  83 Linux

Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System

Command (m for help):
A new primary partition is created using the 'n' command. I recommend setting the start sector to 2048 since that should ensure proper alignment with some disks (including the WD). Just accept the default last sector value (by pressing return) if you are only creating one big partition.
Code:
Command (m for help): n
Command action
  e  extended
  p  primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First sector (63-3907024895, default 63): 2048
Last sector or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (2048-3907024895, default 3907024895): Using default value 3907024895

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907024896 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1            2048  3907024895  1953511424  83 Linux
Next type 'w' to write the new partition or 'q' to quit without saving.
Code:
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table

Formatting the partition

Now that the partition table has been modified we can format the partition with an ext3 filesystem:
Here we use the partition (/dev/sda1) not the disk (/dev/sda) as an argument to the mkfs.ext3 command: e.g.
Code:
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1

mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
122101760 inodes, 488377856 blocks
24418892 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=0
14905 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
        102400000, 214990848

Writing inode tables:    63/14905
This last operation will take about 20 minutes for a 2TB disk. After this is finished type 'reboot' to exit maintenance mode and resume normal operation. The Humax UI should now see the new disk.

I followed every step of this sucessfully, up until the last step when i get an error.

Code:
humax# mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
-/bin/sh: mkfs.ext3: not found

Does anyone know why i have this error and how i can fix it?
 
I followed every step of this sucessfully, up until the last step when i get an error.

Code:
humax# mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
-/bin/sh: mkfs.ext3: not found

Does anyone know why i have this error and how i can fix it?

Have you definitely upgraded to version 1.15 of the customised firmware?
If not then you need to upgrade, otherwise try:

Code:
/sbin/mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
 
Have you definitely upgraded to version 1.15 of the customised firmware?
If not then you need to upgrade, otherwise try:

Code:
/sbin/mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1

Never mind! ITS WORKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had already formatted with gparted to ext3 so looks like it didn't need formatting again, i just went into settings and could select the HDD for PVR!

Thanks so much everyone for all your suggestions and support, my 2TB HDD is now working with my HD-FOX T2! :D
 
Picture Proof!

2zrkjtz.jpg
 
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