Wife Erased 500Gb of saved recordings!

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Wife Erased 500Gb of saved recordings!

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voxmagna1

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Usually I'm the one that maintains my Hummy and regularly delete my Wifes bad practice of 'Series record' with hours of programmes never watched.

This week she decided to delete her unwanted recordings herself, entered a folder for a series, hit 'Select All', then Option 'delete'. The whole lot has gone, no photos, no recorded programs, no home videos. Had she have stepped up a folder level, she would have seen every recorded program marked for deletion. I'm sure only the file pointers have been deleted from the HDD, because it would have taken hours to 'wipe' the 500Gb of saved recordings.

What surprised me was how easy it was for her using the colour select buttons on the remote to wipe the lot with no popup warning to say 'You are about to erase many recordings, do you really want to do this?

I have an older version of custom firmware installed. I've already tried to restore EXT3(?) files using Sysinternals Windows EXT3 recovery App, but it finds nothing significant to recover and I don't want to spend more time trying to restore using Linux apps, so I have to accept it's all gone!

Now I've updated the custom firmware to v3.13 and will install the undelete package. I've found a huge list of custom packages references on the Wiki, but it's been a long time since I used custom features. How do I access or install these, I can't see any modifications offering options using the normal Humax remote control menus?

Many thanks.

| Sat 19 Jun 2021 12:51:07 #1 |
grahamlthompson

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The custom firmware does not change the look of the user interface when using the box in the normal way. You have to login to the CF Web interface using it's ip address on a computer using a web browser to see the options you want.

| Sat 19 Jun 2021 13:10:07 #2 |
Luke

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voxmagna1 - 1 hour ago »
Now I've updated the custom firmware to v3.13 and will install the undelete package. I've found a huge list of custom packages references on the Wiki, but it's been a long time since I used custom features. How do I access or install these, I can't see any modifications offering options using the normal Humax remote control menus?

The easiest method starts by having your HDR-FOX T2 connected to your home network. This will give you access via a web interface to control and setup the packages within a browser of your choice on any other browser capable device connected to your home network. It makes it very simple to install packages and update any settings the package may have.

This site isn't the one that you downloaded the custom firmware from. That should have been hummy.tv. Hummy.tv is not only the source for the initial custom firmware download but also has a sub-forum for discussing the custom firmware
https://hummy.tv/forum/forums/hd-hdr-fox-t2-customised-firmware.28/

Looking at the posts on hummy.tv there is someone with a very similar username to yours started a thread back in 2013. If that was you, it looks as though you were brushing up your technical skills by not using the web interface, but instead using more complex, and more technical, methods to install packages. For a more straightforward, and quicker method, just display the web interface via a browser (it will proboably take a few minutes to download the first time), and then click on the packages icon, and from the displayed list select your package of interest, and then just click on "Install".

For an overview/refresher of the custom firmware see, including an image of the home page of the web interface, see
https://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/Custom_Firmware_Overview

The sub-forum for the HDR-FOX T2's custom firmware is located at
https://hummy.tv/forum/forums/hd-hdr-fox-t2-customised-firmware.28/

| Sat 19 Jun 2021 15:25:48 #3 |
voxmagna1

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Thanks for your replies, you were so quick whilst I've been figuring it out and just come back.

Nothing is that easy for me. My home network asigns different subnets to my TV devices and local PC hosts. This allows me to allocate a block of IP addresses for T.V boxes which bypass my VPN and protect my network from intrusion. I thought that's what every smart person does, or do they just plug everything into an ISP supplied router or use wi-fi?

This is what I've learned, please correct me if I've got it wrong:
The Humax box has manufacturers firmware, the look and feel of it doesn't change with any 'customization' and nothing new is visible.

The Humax box doesn't have a fully functional web browser, which is a shame because it would allow it to work with web-if as a local host. Create a web link on the browser page then using the Humax remote, go straight into web-if to do everything and use the nice web EPG

The Humax Linux based operating system can use a custom patch to provide enhanced functionality, including HTTP connectivity via a remote web browser on the same sub net (in my case). Nothing about this is visible on screens normally accessed with a Humax remote control.

The web-interface and other helpful apps can be installed as packages after the custom firmware update and then accessed using the box IP address in the browser bar of any device on the same subnet which has a web browser.

I use an Intel NUK mini pc with Win10 on my TV subnet which allowed me to access the Humax web-if using Firefox. So far so good.

Then I could navigate to the package downloads and install them from the supporting repository.

Now I'm thinking this isn't so user friendly. If the Humax had a web browser then accessing the web-if could be done from the box. Unless it's changed with newer models, mine isn't a fully functional web browser?

Ok, so what about my LG OLED T.V? Well it wasn't functional because it is LGs proprietary WebOS and needed updating with their latest firmware. Now the T.V browser can access the Hummy web-if via its IP address.

I shall probably use my Win10 mini PC to access the new Humax web-if, because it's less dependent on manufacturer browser updates and I have more control over data privacy.

Reflecting on the loss of recording disaster, do all newer versions of Humax recorders have this 'mark all' and 'delete' (everything)? I've worked with CCTV disc recorders and the only option to delete everything is usually a hard disc re-format, even then on screen warnings are given before execution.

| Sat 19 Jun 2021 16:24:00 #4 |
voxmagna1

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O.K so I've reached the end of this unhappy saga unless somebody has some ideas. The dustbin copy and auto delete will work but like a time bomb. As the HDD fills up there will be less space to hold recordings transferred to the dustbin. At some point if Select All/Delete is selected it will refuse and the Humax function will still delete everything on the drive again.

I looked at reprogramming the green button. Unfortunately it's used as options on other screens. One option is to 'lock' as many files as possible. At least the password input screen could be the alert if wife doesn't know the access password. I wish Select All (green button)/Delete just wasn't an option. Humax could have put a global erase/wipe or format option in the settings menu and not via the non password protected user main screen Green button?

My box software version is 7.3. I've never updated it to risk losing the custom firmware. But are there later versions where Humax have done something about Select All(green button)/Delete? I can't believe I'm the only one that has wiped a disc with this. Anybody want to try it on their box!

Thanks

| Sat 19 Jun 2021 18:59:28 #5 |
Luke

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voxmagna1 - 17 hours ago »
Anybody want to try it on their box!

I already had yesterday before you posted your first post and no issues. I also tried again just now, and again no issues.

voxmagna1 - 23 hours ago »
This week she decided to delete her unwanted recordings herself, entered a folder for a series, hit 'Select All', then Option 'delete'. The whole lot has gone, no photos, no recorded programs, no home videos.

On my HDR-FOX T2 a sometimes use the green button to select all recordings in a folder. It only selects the recordings, and folders, contained in the folder that you have open on the screen.
I just tried it followed by a delete and it only deleted the items in the folder that I was in.

Did you see what your wife did?
Possibly instead of going into the folder she highlighted the folder and pressed the green button so that all the items were then selected. If she did that then other items being selected would have been visible selected on the TV screen.

Have you used the yellow button to switch to the non-video storage areas?

voxmagna1 - 23 hours ago »
Had she have stepped up a folder level, she would have seen every recorded program marked for deletion.

After using the green "Select All" button and navigate up then only the folder that you came from is selected, but not with a tick, it is just highlighted. Navigating between folders removes any ticks.

voxmagna1 - 23 hours ago »
I'm sure only the file pointers have been deleted from the HDD, because it would have taken hours to 'wipe' the 500Gb of saved recordings.

The most I've deleted in one go is probably about 100GB but although it takes its time it wouldn't be hours. If it was very quick then that sounds more like a HDD format which does only take a few seconds and would also remove all the files from the other two media directories.

voxmagna1 - 17 hours ago »
The dustbin copy and auto delete will work but like a time bomb. As the HDD fills up there will be less space to hold recordings transferred to the dustbin. At some point if Select All/Delete is selected it will refuse and the Humax function will still delete everything on the drive again.

So delete stuff from the deletion box occasionally!

voxmagna1 - 17 hours ago »
My box software version is 7.3.
To check on which software versions you really have its MENU > Settings > System > System Information then the second line down which begins "Software Version".
From your earlier posts it will be one of 1.03.12, 1.02,32 or 1.02.20.

voxmagna1 - 17 hours ago »
But are there later versions where Humax have done something about Select All(green button)/Delete?
Thanks

One of my HDR-FOX T2s is on the June 2011 software 1.02.20 and that has no issues, and behaves the same, as far as deletion is concerned, as my 1.03.12.

| Sun 20 Jun 2021 14:12:59 #6 |
voxmagna1

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Thanks Luke. No I wasn't there when she did it, but however she did it should be of concern whatever the reason? As I suggested, if it's possible using coloured buttons which inexperienced users can access to do the equivalent of a reformat, then something is wrong. Now the disk is wiped I can try and replicate what she did. She said she had selected a specific folder which would have been her series recordings and most others are in the root folder. I understand what you say that 'select All logically should only select files in that folder, she wouldn't have gone up a level to see all other folders and see if they were marked or not. I hope it isn't the case that you see a window on a particular folder but select All marks what you can't see.

I'll come back with the firmware version and results from further tests. As for speed of delete, if it's not filling the disc with zeros or FFs it will be fast like a quick format. Which makes me think the HDD may have been recoverable with Linux utilities.

There's one other possible explanation. She was using a One-For-All with a default Humax PVR programmed + some additional buttons. Are there any handset buttons that would do a reformat or delete All without asking for a system access password (which she doesn't know)?

Thanks again.

| Sun 20 Jun 2021 15:58:13 #7 |