External USB HDD has stopped working.

My Humax Forum » Freesat HD » HB 1000S, 1100S

External USB HDD has stopped working.

(6 posts)

Bordonbert

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Hi. First time here, couldn't find anything relevant with a search, (I have looked), so new post is needed.

I have a HB1000S Freesat box which has worked perfectly for some years now. It has always had no trouble with its external USB HDD and ran timeshift and recording perfectly until the last few days. It now refuses to run the HDD and, if "run backwards" is selected, it gives an error message concerning the timeshift buffer currently being filled. It does that no matter how long you wait. The HDD LED is now fixed solidly on, which shows there is no disc access happening. If I eject the disc, disconnect, and reconnect I get a few seconds of continuous LED, about 18 flashes, then it just locks on again as it was.

I have swapped the cable. I have swapped the drive for another known good one also originally formatted by this HB1000S. The problem remains the same.

I checked software updates in case one had not installed correctly or if it had just installed a new version with a USB bug built in but I'm on version UKSFAC 3.01.01 from May '22 and this is what shows up on the Humax support page for download. I have even tried to reinstall manually from that download on a memory stick. The instructions say to hold down the "Channel Down button on the box" when switching on and there are NO buttons on the box other than the Standby. The box does not recognise the USB drive at startup to install from it. I cannot get it to reinstall manually from the Settings section as the file is the same version as is installed.

Can anyone suggest what is wrong here? Is the box now toasted? Am I missing something stupid?

| Wed 23 Nov 2022 21:34:42 #1 |
Luke

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Bordonbert - 13 hours ago »
The instructions say to hold down the "Channel Down button on the box" when switching on and there are NO buttons on the box other than the Standby. The box does not recognise the USB drive at startup to install from it.

See these instructions instead:
https://myhumax.org/forum/topic/software-updates-1#post-50797

Bordonbert - 13 hours ago »
Is the box now toasted? Am I missing something ..?

How do you know it is the box which has an issue? It could be the external HDD has either become corrupted, or is end of life.

Can you get hold of another HDD that you could temporarily use to see if that works with your HD-1000S?

| Thu 24 Nov 2022 11:00:43 #2 |
Bordonbert

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As I said in that original post, "I have swapped the cable. I have swapped the drive for another known good one also originally formatted by this HB1000S. The problem remains the same."

I have ruled out both the cable and the HDD as the source of the trouble. In fact, I have actually used two other HDDs and the results are the same for both.

I have just recently found that if I record a programme manually it actually works! Pressing the red "R" button starts recording the programme and the time shift system then works as it should during that process. As soon as the programme finishes and the recording stops or if I stop it manually the drive resorts to its fixed blue LED and the timeshift system stops working again.

I am seriously wondering if it is now time to retire Freesat and move on to a Sky based system. I hate doing that but there seems little option with the way Freeesat seems to be going.

| Thu 24 Nov 2022 13:28:22 #3 |
Bordonbert

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Oh, should have said, thanks for the instruction link. I was following the HDR instructions. I found the "Standby" button activation by just guessing where I was going wrong. It is the only other real option isn't it?

That worked and the software reinstalled itself but made no difference. I can't see any other areas to explore except a hardware fault. We have ruled out all of the external parts and the software. What is left?

I would also say at this point, thanks for your interest and advice by the way. It is much appreciated.

| Thu 24 Nov 2022 13:33:19 #4 |
Bordonbert

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Well this is a good way to round this issue off. I fixed it very easily. I looked over what I had recorded which was still available to play and decided it was probably no good keeping it anyway as we thought we would junk the box so I tried reformatting the HDD via the HB1000S. It immediately started recording live and timeshift kicked back into life. It's now as it was when new.

Now, I cannot see how this could fix the problem. If it was a HDD problem then surely swapping for a different cable and drive, which I did twice, should have corrected it. It showed across three drive setups. The other drives also need reformatting as they seem to still have the issue when connected. A reformat has started them working too. It's an odd fix to a weird problem in my opinion but at least it is fixed.

For the benefit of anyone else finding this with a similar problem, there are a couple of bits of info which you might find useful. They are available elsewhere, I found them on this forum, but to save anyone having to trudge off and find them here they are again.

To reformat the drive navigate to "Settings/System Settings/Storage" and select your HDD. You will now need your box's pin number. Many people will not have a clue about that! The default is "0000", try that first as it may never have been reset from factory default. If you have genuinely set a different pin number and forgotten it don't panic. Just go to "Settings/System Information/General Information" and press the following colour buttons on your remote in this specific order:

Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Green, Yellow, Blue
A hidden menu will appear and the Pin Reset option should be in there.

Anyway, box fixed and working again, no hardware issue after all, just a perplexing communications one. Thanks for the advice Luke, it does help to just know you have someone there checking your own thinking.

| Sat 26 Nov 2022 1:36:08 #5 |
prking

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Thanks for the update, that’s really useful to know.

| Sat 26 Nov 2022 8:46:05 #6 |