Backing up programmes & reformatting HDD: newbie

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Backing up programmes & reformatting HDD: newbie

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Kitty72

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Hi!

Our foxsat HDR 1tb is now just over 2 years old. It worked beautifully til last month. To summarise: it now locks up: the channel will keep going but it cannot be changed, and the only way to get the box working again is switch it on & off again at the mains switch on the back (neither remote, standby button work).

I emailed Humax & was very helpfully told to reformat the hard drive & lose all my recordings. That was it.

I asked if I could back up the programmes & was told yes, that would be possible.

.... Helpful eh?!

Now: I've never connected it to a PC or laptop. I am of limited technical knowledge but have ordered a Kingston 64gb flashdrive to store them. (I have a 30% disk full, so am hoping that will be enough). If its not, what sort of size as I'm looking for? 500gb? Would that be better as an external drive rather than a flash drive?

Once I get the drive, what next?

I'm sorry I'm so vague but have no idea how to go about this. I'd gladly lose all the recordings but my daughter would be seriously unhappy to lose all her Charlie & Lola's!

(Or, alternatively, if anyone offers this as a service - backing up & then sorting out the disk) do let me know!

| Fri 15 Mar 2013 0:22:18 #1 |
zeke

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30% full is going to work out as roughly 320GB I believe, so a 64GB flash drive isn't going to be enough.

After installing Raydon's media file server software the Foxsat HDR has an FTP server running so you could back up that way, but across the network with 320GB would be very slow. Backing up to a USB drive connected directly to a USB port on the Foxsat HDR would be even slower than that. Better to open the box, remove the hard drive, put it in a PC or similar and pull the recordings off that way, much faster. That's how I'd do it.

There is a disk checker included with Raydon's modification but as you say you're not technically minded installing the package and running the checks would probably be a massive headache, and even then it's not necessarily going to fix the fault. There might be another fault causing the lock ups. Without the box in front of me to test these are just guesses though.

| Fri 15 Mar 2013 1:45:29 #2 |
grahamlthompson

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You can eliminate the hard drive by simply disconnecting the drive data cable. The box should boot up, warn you it can't find the HDD. Other than that it should work as a normal set top box.

To back up the recordings without installing the CF, you need a real hard drive formatted EXT3. You will then be able to all recordings to this (it will take a while). The only other file system the Foxsat understands is FAT32 which limits file sizes to 4GB.

If you install a new hard drive (1TB AV type is best) then copying recordings back is much easier. Get a usb drive cradle for the old disc, connect it to one of the usb ports. You will find the recordings in the 3rd partition video folder (SDA3). You can play them directly from here or copy them to the new HDD.

| Fri 15 Mar 2013 10:05:14 #3 |
zeke

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Good advice as ever Graham, but bear in mind the original poster said they weren't technically minded. I think opening the box to tinker around might be a step too far. Something quite easy for me and you, such as cracking open the Foxsat, removing the hard drive and dropping it into a PC with a Linux LiveCD to do some disk checks/repairs would probably be a nightmare for someone who doesn't do IT support type stuff all the time like me and you!

| Fri 15 Mar 2013 11:36:27 #4 |
grahamlthompson

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zeke - 1 hour ago »
Good advice as ever Graham, but bear in mind the original poster said they weren't technically minded. I think opening the box to tinker around might be a step too far. Something quite easy for me and you, such as cracking open the Foxsat, removing the hard drive and dropping it into a PC with a Linux LiveCD to do some disk checks/repairs would probably be a nightmare for someone who doesn't do IT support type stuff all the time like me and you!

If you can use a screwdriver you can change a HDD in a Foxsat-hdr. I'm no PC expert

Series of videos here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STBZ3iR9jQQ

| Fri 15 Mar 2013 13:00:13 #5 |
Kitty72

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You're right, that sounds terrifying however, I do know a couple of guys who I can persuade to help, I hope. (One fixed a laptop for me that a shop had advised me to just dump after it overheated - new fan & good as new).
So I am really grateful to the link for the videos & advice - I will watch them later & see what he thinks. Is it worth putting in a new disk, or should I wait to see if this one still works?

| Fri 15 Mar 2013 16:36:51 #6 |
grahamlthompson

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Kitty72 - 1 hour ago »
You're right, that sounds terrifying however, I do know a couple of guys who I can persuade to help, I hope. (One fixed a laptop for me that a shop had advised me to just dump after it overheated - new fan & good as new).
So I am really grateful to the link for the videos & advice - I will watch them later & see what he thinks. Is it worth putting in a new disk, or should I wait to see if this one still works?

Get them to first unplug the existing hard drive re-connect the box and see if it works as a non recording Freesat box. If it does then a very good chance it's a hard disk issue. Anyone that has ever slotted in a hard disk into a computer will find it very simple to change the drive. Stick to 1TB or less as the box will only auto setup drives up to 1TB.

If your friend knows how to create a EXT3 volume on a usb drive then it's worth seeing if you can copy the existing recordings to a usb drive so you can format the internal drive. Bear in mind the disc may have similar problems in future so if the box works diskless a new drive may be a good investment.

See the faq here

http://myhumax.org/forum/topic/how-to-format-a-usb-device-to-ext3-noddys-guide

Any questions you know where to ask

| Fri 15 Mar 2013 17:58:45 #7 |
zeke

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grahamlthompson - 20 hours ago »
Stick to 1TB or less as the box will only auto setup drives up to 1TB.

Hey Graham, do you know of anyone who dropped a 1.5TB or 2TB drive into their Foxsat HDR? I ask because I'm going to be getting a 4TB Hitachi drive for my HTPC soon to replace the 1.5TB and 2TB drives already hooked up to it, and I thought I might drop the 2TB drive into the Foxsat HDR. My plan would be clone the original 320GB to the newer 2TB, then use a Gparted Live CD to move the tiny Music partition to the end of the drive, then expand the Video partition to fill the remaining space. It should be possible but I figured if there's anyone who did a drive swap like that already I could read up on it first.

| Sat 16 Mar 2013 14:34:25 #8 |
REPASSAC

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zeke,
I would check out the power comsumption of the drives as the Foxsat does not have much capacity to spare, I presume that the drives are a AV type?

| Sat 16 Mar 2013 15:06:42 #9 |
grahamlthompson

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zeke - 27 minutes ago »

grahamlthompson - 20 hours ago »
Stick to 1TB or less as the box will only auto setup drives up to 1TB.

Hey Graham, do you know of anyone who dropped a 1.5TB or 2TB drive into their Foxsat HDR? I ask because I'm going to be getting a 4TB Hitachi drive for my HTPC soon to replace the 1.5TB and 2TB drives already hooked up to it, and I thought I might drop the 2TB drive into the Foxsat HDR. My plan would be clone the original 320GB to the newer 2TB, then use a Gparted Live CD to move the tiny Music partition to the end of the drive, then expand the Video partition to fill the remaining space. It should be possible but I figured if there's anyone who did a drive swap like that already I could read up on it first.

Yes 2TB drives have been used. You have to set up the partitions yourself. Be aware that if you have a large number of files then the media list will be sluggish to populate.

One example

http://www.avforums.com/forums/pvrs-vcrs/1335706-full-instructions-upgrading-humax-hdr-fox-t2-2tb-hard-drive-2.html

Also note low power AV specced drives are the best and most reliable long term. The error checking on PC drives causes problems after a period of use.

| Sat 16 Mar 2013 15:13:43 #10 |