There could be trouble ahead.............

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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby pcbbc » Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:28 am

walterwall wrote:I tried to fit the 1tb Hitachi drive that has all my recording on it tonight and unfortunately every time i try to access the planner it goes in to standby doh!!
What was your original box? An Amstrad DRX780?
This box is little endian whereas all the other HD boxes (including DRX890/5) are big and require a data conversion.
Usually this results in either failure to boot up at all, or the standby problem you describe.

So i thought as i still have the copy of the files on my PC i'll do a full system reset on the 1tb drive in the machine, which i did and it appeared to then function normally. I then tested it by doing a few test recordings and for some bizarre reason it wont record any of the hd channels??
This happens if the card is not correctly paired with the box.
You should be able to watch all channels apart from premium (movie and sports) with an unpaired card, but recordings all fail with "Recording Interrupted".
The only channels you CAN successfully record and playback with an unpaired card are Free To Air (ones you can watch without a card, e.g. BBC).

If this is not the case, then the problem is either an incompatible drive or the data on the drive. My guess would be the data, as it appears from your testing that the disk works correctly after a FSR.
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby heronme » Tue Jun 29, 2010 10:28 am

Sorry Stuart - Sending this by Private message
Last edited by heronme on Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby walterwall » Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:26 am

Hi Pcbbc,

Thanks for getting back to me i think the box that the 1tb drive was in was this one:

PVR4 Samsung HDSKY 9730nn 160GB / 40-80 hours Big Distinctive design / Samsung logo

I believe the card is paired with box as i am able to watch and record in HD when i put the Samsung 500gb drive that it came with back in it. However to be sure i will re check tonight with sky one HD as i know that is not a free to air channel.

The channels that i was trying to record after doing a full system re set on the 1tb hardrive was sky news HD and standard bbc1

When i copied the files on to the 1tb drive i did not do conversion as i checked your faq check list and the Samsung sky+hd and the DRX890-C appear to be "big endian"

Is it worth me trying to erase the partition on the 1tb drive and then copy just a couple of programs on to the Hitachi 1tb again this evening or do you think it's too late to save these recordings now?

What's puzzling me is why after the full system reset the 1tb drive was still not functioning "quite right" but not locking up either.

I'm wondering about taking a punt on another 1tb hardrive as regardless of whether i can save my recordings or not i'd still like more capacity in the new box but would really like to go for one that is proven to be completely compatible with this particular box.


Hi Heronme,

Many thanks for your kind offer.

You say you put this one in your Pace box, do you know if this is fully compatible with my Amstrad one or not?

And is there any benefit to having the 1.5tb as apposed to the 1tb?

If i'm reading Pcbbc's faqs correctly Copy+ only formats up to 1tb correct?

Or are you saying that if i buy a 1.5tb drive and do a full system reset in the Amstrad box it will give me the full 1.5tb capacity?

Thanks in advance.
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby heronme » Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:10 pm

According to the superb website experts an Amstrad DRX890 could go up as far as 2Tb - that being the limitations of the Copy Plus software format. However they dont really recommend anythign above 1Tb.
So the answer is firstly you only say you have an Amstrad - you would need to ask the forum what the model type is before they can answer your query.
I will send a private message for the other stuff.
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby pcbbc » Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:38 pm

heronme wrote:According to the superb website experts an Amstrad DRX890 could go up as far as 2Tb - that being the limitations of the Sky/NDS XTVFS FAT32 format. However they don't really recommend anything above 1Tb.
The DRX 890/5 should be fine with 1.5TB and possibly 2TB. After all the 895 is supplied with a 1.5TB and the 890 is just the same hardware, but with only a 500GB drive as supplied.
The DRX780 can also handle up to 2TB drives, but given the speed of the EPG software on the older box models I really wouldn't recommend anything over 1TB.
All other box models currently do not support drives over 1TB (to the best of my knowledge last time anyone checked).
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby walterwall » Tue Jun 29, 2010 2:56 pm

Ok Thank both you gents for the additional info.

"So the answer is firstly you only say you have an Amstrad - you would need to ask the forum what the model type is before they can answer your query."

The model number of my Amstrad box is DRX890-C is that not the model number or am i being thick again?

I'm very interested one way or the other to get the maximum capacity on the hard drive becuase as we all know you can never have to much storage space on a sky box.

So let me get this straight guys.

If i buy a 1.5tb hardrive it will go straight in the new sky box that i can then format in the box to get the full 1.5tb space for recording obviously minus the anytime cobblers?

Or do i have to put it in a caddy and use copy+ to format it to 1.5tb then put it in the sky box?

Pcbbc,

Do you know if there is a way of checking if the files on my pc are still usable or not?

There are a couple of series i'd still really like to watch.

Is it wise to try to copy a few things back from the pc to the 500gb drive from the new box to see if anything works or is this likely to permanently ruin the new drive as well?

Thanks
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby walterwall » Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:11 am

Hi Pcbbc,

Another update.

I've been playing around with the sky box again tonight and have realised that the 1tb Hitachi drive appears to be working perfectly. The issues i had last night with it not recording certain channels was due to the sky card not being paired. This was done by Sky tonight and it records and plays fine at the moment.

I had another go at copying one or two programs from the files on the pc back to the 1tb Hitachi drive and it all seemed to go perfectly however the drive would still cause the box to shut down and go into standby so i'm at a dead end with that at the moment.

What i have done for the moment (i hope it the is correct procedure) is full system reset then recorded a few minutes of 2-3 programs on to the 1tb Hitachi drive, removed it from the sky box and connected it to the pc. Created a new folder on the pc for these files. Copied the files on to the pc then deleted the partition off the 1tb Hitachi drive. I then copied the files back to the 1tb Hitachi drive (checked the spinner was on 1,000gb) and then put the 1tb Hitachi drive back in the sky box, did a planner rebuild and it's all working perfectly at the moment.

I don't know if i have now got the full 1tb (minus the anytime) as there doesn't appear to be any way of telling from the sky box it self.

Can i once again ask the experts if there is anyway of me saving these files that were copied on to my pc at all?

I don't know much about +Extract but is this something i could use to salvage the recordings from the hard drive and burn them on to DVD's?

Many thanks in advance for any help or info you guy's are able to give.
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby pcbbc » Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:08 am

walterwall wrote:I've been playing around with the sky box again tonight and have realised that the 1tb Hitachi drive appears to be working perfectly. The issues i had last night with it not recording certain channels was due to the sky card not being paired. This was done by Sky tonight and it records and plays fine at the moment.
See the second paragraph of my post at the top of the page.

What i have done for the moment (i hope it the is correct procedure) is full system reset then recorded a few minutes of 2-3 programs on to the 1tb Hitachi drive, removed it from the sky box and connected it to the pc. Created a new folder on the pc for these files. Copied the files on to the pc then deleted the partition off the 1tb Hitachi drive. I then copied the files back to the 1tb Hitachi drive (checked the spinner was on 1,000gb) and then put the 1tb Hitachi drive back in the sky box, did a planner rebuild and it's all working perfectly at the moment.

I don't know if i have now got the full 1tb (minus the anytime) as there doesn't appear to be any way of telling from the sky box it self.
Yes, this is the correct procedure for restoring full capacity to a disk.
Actually there is no need to record any programs, but it doesn't matter that you have.

Can i once again ask the experts if there is anyway of me saving these files that were copied on to my pc at all?
I don't know much about +Extract but is this something i could use to salvage the recordings from the hard drive and burn them on to DVD's?
For pay channels and free to view - NO. They are encrypted.
For FTA channels +Extract can help you.

Otherwise I will need to look at the disk image and try and work out why it is causing the box not to boot. Sorry I haven't done this yet. :oops:
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby walterwall » Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:44 am

Hi Pcbbc,

Thanks for the prompt reply.

"See the second paragraph of my post"

I box the drive came from was a PVR4 Samsung HDSKY 9730nn 160GB / 40-80 hours Big Distinctive design / Samsung logo

Which according to the list was a big endian and the new box is a DRX890-C which is also a big endian so i'm of the opinion it doesn't require a data conversion.

Having said all that with the one or two programs that i tried to transfer back to the 1tb Hitachi drive last light i did change the "Endian" to the different formats.

First time i left it at default "Disc will be used in same box"

Second time i selected Disc will be used in box with big endian"

Third time i tried the last option for converting to small endian but ended up with an error message which i think was failed to lock drive but i'm not 100% sure.

After this i gave up with it.

If you can look at the disc image for me that would be great i'll happily pay you for your time just let me know how i can send you the image or if it would be easier i'll copy the big file on to a new 1tb sata hard drive and post or drop the drive off to you as i believe you are in London?

Please let me know.

Cheers
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby pcbbc » Wed Jun 30, 2010 9:45 am

walterwall wrote:I box the drive came from was a PVR4 Samsung HDSKY 9730nn 160GB / 40-80 hours Big Distinctive design / Samsung logo
Sorry - hard to keep track.
So you are correct - no data conversion should be required.

First time i left it at default "Disc will be used in same box"
Second time i selected Disc will be used in box with big endian"
Third time i tried the last option for converting to small endian but ended up with an error message which i think was failed to lock drive but i'm not 100% sure.
The last two options here are exactly the same.
One just gives the list of known box types which require a conversion, the other option is there in case your box isn't listed but you know what endian type it is.

If you can look at the disc image for me that would be great i'll happily pay you for your time just let me know how i can send you the image or if it would be easier i'll copy the big file on to a new 1tb sata hard drive and post or drop the drive off to you as i believe you are in London?
I have a tool for making a small image file which is sufficient for debugging. This is small enough for e-mail of FTP.
Have I not sent it to you? Sorry - I will send it to your forum registration e-mail.
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Re: There could be trouble ahead.............

Postby walterwall » Wed Jun 30, 2010 10:16 am

Great thanks very much i'll let you know when i recieve the tool.

Cheers.
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