External Hardrive

[mahrkpat]

Re: External Hardrive

little update:
- managed to format into NTFS yesterday evening with the disc management function, after that it was recognised by my pc (so HDD works, and therefore can't send it back or claim warranty...)
- was not recognised in box ('need FAT32 format') - that I knew but tried it anyway
- did not work to format into FAT32 with the disc management
- did not work to format into FAT32 with the EaseUS Partition Master
- started to format into FAT32 with (my good old) FAT32Formatter ; this morning I saw it stopped after about 10% and got some partition errors, clicked 'ok', and now it seems it's continuing again ... - I'll let it run and we'll see what happened when I come back this evening ...

Wow, what a history for just a little HDD which costed me less than 100EUR I think - but there's still hope

Because you tried all this different methods to format to FAT32 it would suggest that there is definitely something wrong with your hard drive, FAT32 is a well known format and there should be no problems formatting a hard drive unless something is wrong.

[bokkie]

Re: External Hardrive

pan has an external hard drive. Yes the drive is fine til its used with the box. pan has a cheap box like myself. I have never recorded anything on my box so far but all my Hard drives, 2 X 1TB, 1 X 500GB and 1 X 250GB, are fine with my box as media player. Will wait to hear back from pan about his last attempt.

I thought he had a Protek. They are similar to spiderbox in that they come with a gift and cost around £250.
I did a quick ****** search and one of the online satellite stores sold them with a prepared hard drive. They suggested that store bought hard drives won't work as they require a hard drive preparation software.
not sure if this is just a marketing ploy or not?

[pan1300]

Re: External Hardrive

hi guys

little comment on your previous posts (still waiting, don't know what happens atm at home with the formatting ):
- sorry microchick, but I wouldn't call my protek box a 'cheapo' ; costed me a more than 200EUR and has satisfied me more than I thought it would (personal opinion)
- my 500GB HDD is an external one, 2,5", power over usb, the protek has only 1x usb (so no other possibilities)
- @mahrkpat: as yesterday evening I've managed to format into NTFS, so HDD works fine

Perhaps I need to pay attention to some kind of partition settings or something else?

To be continued

reaction to bokkie's post:
True, it's a protek ; it isn't true that bought hard drives don't work, and there isn't a hard drive preparation software ; however it is true that not all brands and types of HDD work (known problem, had discussions about this issue somewhere else) ; had problems before with my 1TB, but the 500GB worked perfectly for about 6 months, only now the problems start ...

[microchick]

Re: External Hardrive

ChkDisk and ScanDisk will show the results and will find out if it can repair the hard drive. If not then it would be time for a little more investment or giving up recording for a little while.

I thought he had a Protek. They are similar to spiderbox in that they come with a gift and cost around £250.
I did a quick ****** search and one of the online satellite stores sold them with a prepared hard drive. They suggested that store bought hard drives won't work as they require a hard drive preparation software.
not sure if this is just a marketing ploy or not?

It could be a marketing poly because when i bought my Panasonic TV the guide suggested that the Live/Pause and recording function will only work with a Buffalo make external hard drive. I tried a Western Digital on it. The TV recognised it, formatted it and it was working fine. I still copy files to the Hard drive via PC and the TV records to it via USB. But Panasonic is still getting commission from Buffalo.

[bokkie]

Re: External Hardrive

If you still have trouble and need to buy a new hard drive, maybe you should buy through this store.
They say the hard drives will work with protek so you could hold them to that if it doesn't.

[pan1300]

Re: External Hardrive

hi bokkie

which store do you mean? do you have the brand/type/capacity? PM is ok if you don't want to advertise here.

[microchick]

Re: External Hardrive

Hi Pan, Whats the news then?
I have mentioned about some DOS Commands in my earlier posts
Have a look at this link for some info
--http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255867
Good Luck

[PYO]

Re: External Hardrive

This problem is definitely a partitioning issue.
The best way is to create new partition table. There is an option to change the existing one, i.e. resize, check, etc.
I used PartitionMagick for this, but mine copy is somewhat outdated and is not free, so I found GParted CD/USB linux image with GUI for this tasks.

[bokkie]

Re: External Hardrive

They're called satellite superstore. I'll pm you the link

[thecrazybandit]

Re: External Hardrive

I use western digital 250gig hard drive formatted from a spiderbox and its has been working for over a year now with no problems

[pan1300]

Re: External Hardrive

hi guys

little update: just now I got a replacement HDD (again Transcend 500 GB, USB 3.0) - tried it on the box without formatting into FAT32, and very surprisingly it directly worked... fingers crossed ...

[bokkie]

Re: External Hardrive

Hopefully this one doesn't give you any trouble pan. Good luck.

[pan1300]

Re: External Hardrive

hi guys

still struggling with my external hdd's

The new Transcend 500GB wasn't autoconnected in about 50% of the cases, so nothing recorded when programmed with epg after standby.

Just tried another of my hdd's (Samsung - 250 GB) - couldn't format with fat32 (errors), but formatting with the box itself worked. Timeshift, recording and automatic connecting seem (seem, only tested for about 2 hours) to be ok.
Problem is that it's a HDD of 250GB, but the box says it's only about 116 GB (was the same before the formatting) - my pc/laptops see the 250GB (1 partition - primary drive and ok).

Any suggestions to make the box recognise the whole 250 GB ??

[rindler]

Re: External Hardrive

try to reformat the hard drive using something like gParted instend of the format from the receiver... sometimes works

[pan1300]

Re: External Hardrive

hi rindler

thanks, will perhaps try that later on, now happy it's working a bit - although sound on the timeshift is really bad.

Before I formatted with the box, it also worked, and also 116GB was shown - as said, on laptop and pc the 250GB is shown correctly, apparently the box is somewhere the problem. So I doubt reformatting again will help.