How can I defrag my VIP211's usb EHD? Tried e4defrag on a linux box, but it says the file system is not an ext4 system, but properties says 'ext3/ext4'...
defrag DISH EHD
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Well, that's because it's not ext4! The EHDs for the DVR's are some number of ext3 partitions, depending upon the size of the disk. I have not looked at the file system on a 211 EHD.
That said, I agree with Jim. I wouldn't worry about it.
Previous three (3) EHD's crashed after two (2) years every time... Had this one for four (4) years and it is beginning to 'act-up'... corrupted recordings (can't play), problems recording an HD movie while watching an HD movie (will suddenly need to 'find signal'...), stops recording an HD movie part way thru even though reporting recorded fully - most of recording 'missing', etc.
Used to be able to record one (1) HD satellite movie and one (1) OTA HD movie, while watching one (1) HD recording... but last few weeks this locks up and begins 'finding signal'...
Maybe, it's time to copy everything to a new drive, and toss the old one? I doubt that this is really a fragmentation related problem.
This doesn't sound like the drive is acting up, it sounds like the receiver is having issues.
Regardless, defrag'ing a drive is so 1990s.
I expect it would. IIRC, the only thing ext3 is doing beyond ext2 is adding journaling. The VIP receivers didn't do journaling anyhow. So I expect e2defrag to work, though I have never tried that.
I still don't think you'll actually need to do that.
SO, not enough space on my LINUX hard drive to copy the contents of the EHD so I can recopy and thus defrag... and no defrag available for the unknown ext2/ext3 EHD... (linux sux)
And since this is how the previous three (3) EHD's died... kept corrupting recordings, rebooting and signal searching... finally to continuously reboot and never run until the dead EHD is unplugged... then the EHD is in such bad shape it is unrecoverable/unusable...
SO, just going to trash the EHD contents (gonna happen anyway when it crashes!) by letting the VIP211 format it and then the 'problem' will go away - or not. If not then buy another EHD (#5)
And since this is how the previous three (3) EHD's died... kept corrupting recordings, rebooting and signal searching... finally to continuously reboot and never run until the dead EHD is unplugged... then the EHD is in such bad shape it is unrecoverable/unusable...
SO, just going to trash the EHD contents (gonna happen anyway when it crashes!) by letting the VIP211 format it and then the 'problem' will go away - or not. If not then buy another EHD (#5)
The default ext2, ext3, or ext4 file systems used in most Linux based OS's are designed to limit fragmentation of files as far as possible. When writing files, it tries to keep the blocks used sequential or close together by allowing extra blocks when the file is first stored. This renders defragmentation effectively unnecessary until the drive is nearly full. GParted can be used to defragment drives by a knowledgeable user.
How did you try to copy it? If you use DD, it's totally agnostic to any formatting as DD does bit copying with the right parameters. And I assume that your target drive is the same or larger size?
And BTW, if you do use DD, don't be surprised, if the target drive was larger, that it shows smaller as DD will also overwrite the drive headers. Best to use the same size drives.
Re-boots and corruption only seem to happen to satellite HD recordings... OTA HD recordings and all SD recordings don't trigger it ~ nor are they ever corrupted... And live HD Satellite video seems not to trigger it - may be the dish node on the roof is going bad? There's three of them...
Oh wow. That is hard to comprehend because the data rate is highest with OTA HD, and less with satellite HD, and less still with satellite SD. The OTA HD recordings will stress the disk the most.
Since (satellite?) SD recordings and live HD channels don't trigger the issue, I don't think this could be the LNBs. There are 3 of what? LNBs on the dish, or 211's?
Three (3) 'focal point devices' (LBN?) for the parabolic reflecting dish...
..so, more probably the receiver?
Yup; the LNB's.
I have never seen such symptoms before. This is a tough one because we have two conflicting symptoms. I think it has got to be either the 211 or your EHD as you originally supposed. The recording and playback of OTA HD most suggests that it's the 211. But if it's the 211, why does it have no problem playing back recordings of SD channels or playing live HD channels? Maybe a more experienced person than me can offer additional insights. Do I understand that the 211 works fine w/o the EHD attached?
Edited to add this one additional thought. On the old VIP DVRs and Hopper EHDs, the OTD HD channels, which are not even encrypted when they reach the receiver, are in fact encrypted if we move them to the EHD. Perhaps the 211 is different and it does not waste cycles encrypting the OTA HD channels. That would make them easier to record or play back from that EHD.
Unfortunately WD's aren't what they were like 5 years ago. I have come across personal and forum complaints of WD's just not living longer than a few (like 1 or 2) years for several years now. The WD's I have are all over 8 years now, including those I use for Hopper transfers, and they all work like the first day I got them. Sadly, I don't think ANYONE makes decent HDD's anymore, at least not like lasting over 5+ years. All HDD's today seem a great big crap shoot.
Hi, OP:
Defrags for DVR's are really not very helpful because so much of the data is already contiguous and uses much larger sectors than HDD's formatted for PC's that will hold data like documents, JPEGs, MP3's, etc.
Further, when you transfer your recordings to the external HDD, it is quite likely that the data is being laid down in sequential sectors--or "neatly" together, for the most part, and any attempt at defragging would not yield any benefits and just wear the actuators, create more damaging heat, and beat-up and shorten the life of the already lousy HDD.
Even if you factor the erasure of DVR recordings from the external, and then transfer some more DVR recordings to the external HDD, any attempted defrag isn't likely to last a few minutes or moments because the HDD is likely fragmented by less than 10% because of the large size of the sectors for HDD's formatted for DVR recording or archiving use. A huge percentage of the TV episode or movie will already be fairly contiguous, but even if the data is spread about the HDD, the the sectors are so large that there very few sectors that need to be accessed across the HDD and the access of a new sector is NOT frequent, as it is on HDD's formatted for PC that can have access of sectors occurring with great frequency and in a rush to do so--this is NOT the case with HDD's formatted for DVR's and ESPECIALLY not the case for an Archival HDD of DVR content.
Data being contingent on an HDD for PC's is not necessarily desired, as a file that requires multiple--smaller-- sectors can mean that the HDD can not read the next contiguous sector until it completes the full revelation, which, depending upon the size of the document, translates into more time for the file/document to load. That is just not a problem for HDD's formatted for DVR use, and OS's for PC's today take that into account when laying down the data for documents, etc.
Also, the OS's for PC's today do something of a Defrag on the fly or attempt to not contribute to fragmentation when possible to where initiating a FULL manual defrag is just not necessary and yields very little, if any benefit. I've been using my PC's for 7 years and I've yet to see the system report fragmentation even close to 10%, and the system most often recommends NO defrag. In the old days, yeah, fragmentation could become very significant, but not today, unless one is using their HDD in a manner that causes a great deal of fragmentation.
In other words, there really is no point in attempting to defrag an HDD that has DVR video transferred to it for archival purposes. I think the problem is that no one, sadly, makes a really good HDD today.
Defrags for DVR's are really not very helpful because so much of the data is already contiguous and uses much larger sectors than HDD's formatted for PC's that will hold data like documents, JPEGs, MP3's, etc.
Further, when you transfer your recordings to the external HDD, it is quite likely that the data is being laid down in sequential sectors--or "neatly" together, for the most part, and any attempt at defragging would not yield any benefits and just wear the actuators, create more damaging heat, and beat-up and shorten the life of the already lousy HDD.
Even if you factor the erasure of DVR recordings from the external, and then transfer some more DVR recordings to the external HDD, any attempted defrag isn't likely to last a few minutes or moments because the HDD is likely fragmented by less than 10% because of the large size of the sectors for HDD's formatted for DVR recording or archiving use. A huge percentage of the TV episode or movie will already be fairly contiguous, but even if the data is spread about the HDD, the the sectors are so large that there very few sectors that need to be accessed across the HDD and the access of a new sector is NOT frequent, as it is on HDD's formatted for PC that can have access of sectors occurring with great frequency and in a rush to do so--this is NOT the case with HDD's formatted for DVR's and ESPECIALLY not the case for an Archival HDD of DVR content.
Data being contingent on an HDD for PC's is not necessarily desired, as a file that requires multiple--smaller-- sectors can mean that the HDD can not read the next contiguous sector until it completes the full revelation, which, depending upon the size of the document, translates into more time for the file/document to load. That is just not a problem for HDD's formatted for DVR use, and OS's for PC's today take that into account when laying down the data for documents, etc.
Also, the OS's for PC's today do something of a Defrag on the fly or attempt to not contribute to fragmentation when possible to where initiating a FULL manual defrag is just not necessary and yields very little, if any benefit. I've been using my PC's for 7 years and I've yet to see the system report fragmentation even close to 10%, and the system most often recommends NO defrag. In the old days, yeah, fragmentation could become very significant, but not today, unless one is using their HDD in a manner that causes a great deal of fragmentation.
In other words, there really is no point in attempting to defrag an HDD that has DVR video transferred to it for archival purposes. I think the problem is that no one, sadly, makes a really good HDD today.
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