External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

[KKlare]

I've not detected any optimization or other disk clean-up on the EHD. You should note that if you have a program open on the internal--playing or paused--when you go to the external that program will not be listed for archiving.

I wish there were some thing to go through and gather up the holes. It seems that if you delete and only partially fill with a new program there will be gaps and, at least, on the external the files must be one contiguous space, i.e., it does not use linked lists.

So with time the sum of all files gets to be a smaller fraction of the total. The only cure for that architecture and our tools is to copy it all out and then back--very time and disk consuming. If the files were all 1 block long and separated by 9 blocks from previous deletions, the disk would appear to be 90% free but you could not write one file 10 blocks long no matter the disk size.
-Ken

 

[long_time_DNC]

I wish they'd add a defrag option on the EHD menu...

 

[KKlare]

The problem with "Defrag" is that it uses the disk a lot and may not be possible if the disk is nearly full, especially with a file system that (I believe) requires contiguous files, used to make a very simple file system.

Aside--(I did a defragger in about 1973, when we had a fast 256kB or so drive and 32kB memory. Debugging made the problem worse before I got it better. So been then, done that.)

Although usually with a defragger you are trying to bring together (make contiguous) the separate parts of a file, which is not applicable here. Here you would be trying to consolidate the holes in one lump, which usually requires a lot of rewriting. It is an art.
-Ken

 

[harshness]

I wish they'd add a defrag option on the EHD menu...

It isn't as if there are thousands of tiny files getting shuffled around on a constant basis. My EHD rarely sees anything deleted.

Most filesystems don't seem to be nearly as upset by (or prone to) fragmentation as those employed in various releases of Micro$oft Windows.

 

[gadgtfreek]

It is my understanding (comments by both TiVo and DBS insiders) that the WD DVR Expanders have some time of management software that find and block bad sectors, but I dunno if they do any defragging.

 

[Smith P.]

That's a feature of all modern SATA drives - after hitting certain number of bad read/write commands on the particular sector it will be remapped to reserved region.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Ah, ok.

 

[long_time_DNC]

I have one drive in my EHD stack that sees a lot of deletes/adds. The others see adds but very few deletes. The volitile drive seems to perform just fine though, so hopefully it's not seeing much fragmentation.

 

[gjh3260]

Have a VIP 211 with a WD 500 gig hard drive. Tonight when I turned the TV tried to got to the My DVR menu and noticed it was not there. Then noticed the blue light on the WD was not lit...i did not disconnect the 211 or unplug the hard drive....any suggestions before I call Dish ?

 

[harshness]

Then noticed the blue light on the WD was not lit...i did not disconnect the 211 or unplug the hard drive....any suggestions before I call Dish ?

Don't call DISH if the power is out on your hard drive.

 

[gjh3260]

Don't call DISH if the power is out on your hard drive.

Not sure what happened but I turned off the surge protector shutting down all the components (TV, EHD, sat box, receiver) waited about 5 minutes and powered back up. Blue light on EHD came back on sat went thru its acquiring signals, etc etc. my DVR menu showed up with my recordings and all is good again. That was strange.

 

[TV Junkie 12]

Maxtor One Touch 4 750gb Drive problem

Anyone else ever have this happen? The other night we were watching an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati from this drive and all was fine. Episode ended and we went to watch another one. Wife is out of the room on the phone for a moment so I locate an ep., cue it up and pause it to wait for her. She comes back, I hit play and the video doesn't start-there is a delay then the video starts to run for a second or two then stops. It causes the 722 to get erratic before I finally exit out of the menu and I disconnect the drive, planning to check it out the next day. Next day I plug it in and all seems fine-I actually moved a show onto the drive and that happens normally. Afterwards we attempt to watch another show from EHD and the video problem from the previous evening shows up again and the video won't move except for a couple of seconds at a time. I tried to move somehting back to the DVR and it just sat with the hard drive light flashing. Now it won't even respond. I have software version L618.

Anyone else ever see this? The drive has been fine for nearly a year and it's not plugged in except when in use. My Seagate Free Agent seems fine-although yesterday when I was having troubles with the Maxtor the 722 wouldn't recognize it either (the popup on the screen said that I had connected an unsupported device to the USB port) but today it was OK.

I just thought I'd try the board here before I beat my head against a wall and call tech support.

 

[thewayofwright]

Issue with Archiving that I can find on this site

I’ve been looking for a while and can’t find the answer to the following Archive Glitch...

BACKGROUND: My VIP722 has recently been upgraded to allow my external 400GB drive. Cool thing is that I go dish to immediately give me a $39.95 credit, but back to the main point.

ISSUE: When I transferred everything to my drive (320GB or so) the main DVR list under “My Recordings” still showed all my transferred programs, but instead of a regular line item, each even was depicted with an outline of a video camera (meaning that it was hosting on the USB HD). Now a few days later, the only way to access my content is to go through the 'My Media" folder and the list in my “My Recordings” is basically empty. My concern is that my DVR will start to record duplicate events since the tech support agent stated, "the VIP 722 will not look towards to external hard drive for reference with duplicate events", and that, within my theory, the initial depiction of all events with the video camera outline that was located in the “My Recordings” folder would at a minimum, aid in the system in detecting duplicate events.

I of course asked the rep how I can revert my DVR listing of every archived event back into main “My Recordings” menu, and not via "My Media" folder. She stated that she wasn’t even aware that events could be seen in the main "My Recordings" in the first place, and that my initial ability to see them there was the true glitch.

Any ideas and help is appreciated. Oh, and please don’t just tell me to restore all my events, format the drive, and then start all over again.

 

[120inna55]

If I understand your question correctly...

The "outline of a video camera" was in fact indicating that the programs were being written to your USB EHD.

The "My Media" folder represents content on your USB EHD. (you cannot modify this)

The "My Recordings" folder represents content on your INTERNAL HD. (you cannot modify this)

It is true that the DVR will continue to record events directly to your INTERNAL drive, despite what's on the EHD. So, yes, you can record duplicates. This is, again, not something you can change.

Long story short: Your receiver and EHD appear to be performing as designed.

 

[thewayofwright]

NO... It would list everything in the My Recordings folder even if they were only on the external hard drive... The best way to describe was to use the term "Soft LInks"

The My Recordings folder used to have Soft Links to all the events in the My Media folder. The My media folder certainly has everyting displayed, but the principal My recordings folder is now blank...

Doesnt matter... I am transfering everything back to the internal recording and will format the external drive and start all over again.

I would just like to know how this happened so I can avoid it in the future.

Thank you.

 

[jayteixeira]

I have a WD WDElements 750 GB ehd. It has been working fine since I bought it last November. My 622's got updated to L621 on 6/16/09. Now when I try to look at the contents of my WD drive it says "This feature is currently not supported".

The 622 recognizes when I connect and disconnect the drive, but the "My Media" folder does not show up under "My Recordings" anymore.

I have another drive, a Maxtor, that is still working fine.

Any ideas?

 

[Jim5506]

Call Dish tech support and have them send a re-authorization hit to your receiver.

Was the WD 750 connected to the device when the update was taken?

 

[jayteixeira]

I've already called dish once and they didn't have an idea and at that time I hadn't tried the WD 750 on my other 622.

The WD 750 was connected when the update was taken.

 

[120inna55]

Call Dish tech support and have them send a re-authorization hit to your receiver.

Was the WD 750 connected to the device when the update was taken?

While I agree a re-authorization is certainly worth a shot, he did say:

...it says "This feature is currently not supported...

Otherwise, if I recall correctly, you'll get a message saying something like "...you have connected a USB external drive. Do you wish to format..."

The message he received doesn't sound like a re-authorization would help. I may be wrong, though.

 

[Jim5506]

The message sounds like the EHD and the receiver have lost connection with each other.

A re-authorization hit might reconnect them.