very strange PVR function problem with 9000HD

[Wossname]

sorry in advance for this one mates.

I've had my Spiderbox 9000HD about 8 months. After I got used to it I attached an elderly mains powered drive (western digital) to usb port and used PVR function.


The drive recorded ok but it kept going to sleep if not in use for 10 mins and I never worked out how to avoid that. I am certain that I reformatted it in the spider before use.


Anyway, after it got to about 30 gigs of its 250 capacity, it stopped recording properly. It would record but was wiping an older recording at the same time so it never went past 30 gigs and even odder it would take the name of the first recording from the list as if it was making duplicates.


Eventually it wouldn't record at all, just make duplicates from the existing list.


So, I got a USB powered 500GB drive (Samsung S2) and tried that. Before I did anything I took the software off the drive onto my pc then copied some of my recordings from the Western Digital onto the Samsung (onto pc then onto Samsung) of about 10 GB.


Everything now was working happily in the PVR function. But I can't believe it exactly the same thing happens with the Samsung when it got to around the 30GB mark.


I don't know whether this is just a software bug but I can't record anything else onto the drive which says it has 465GB free.

I guess my questions would be :


has anyone successfully gone way over the 30GB mark on their USB drive and

WTF can it be.



Sorry for marathon post its most unlike me.

[echelon]

sorry in advance for this one mates.

I've had my Spiderbox 9000HD about 8 months. After I got used to it I attached an elderly mains powered drive (western digital) to usb port and used PVR function.


The drive recorded ok but it kept going to sleep if not in use for 10 mins and I never worked out how to avoid that. I am certain that I reformatted it in the spider before use.


Anyway, after it got to about 30 gigs of its 250 capacity, it stopped recording properly. It would record but was wiping an older recording at the same time so it never went past 30 gigs and even odder it would take the name of the first recording from the list as if it was making duplicates.


Eventually it wouldn't record at all, just make duplicates from the existing list.


So, I got a USB powered 500GB drive (Samsung S2) and tried that. Before I did anything I took the software off the drive onto my pc then copied some of my recordings from the Western Digital onto the Samsung (onto pc then onto Samsung) of about 10 GB.


Everything now was working happily in the PVR function. But I can't believe it exactly the same thing happens with the Samsung when it got to around the 30GB mark.


I don't know whether this is just a software bug but I can't record anything else onto the drive which says it has 465GB free.

I guess my questions would be :


has anyone successfully gone way over the 30GB mark on their USB drive and

WTF can it be.



Sorry for marathon post its most unlike me.

the answer is very , very simple , 32 gig is the maximum allowed under fat32 , so if you used a pc to partition and format it , thats all it will allow

I think there are instructions on formatting drives larger than 32 gig , using either the spiderbox itself , or a pc tool maybe ?

cant remember offhand , but the 32 gig limit for pc use is definitely the problem you have , and my assumption is that you didnt reformat the hdd on the spiderbox before using it , so its in pc fat32 by default

some details are in the manual on pages 22 and 25

[echelon]

found this procedure for a blade , must be similar for the spiderbox or any other box that uses fat32 I would have thought
but you may need some other tool to do the procedure



For all USB HDD’s more than 30GB:

DO NOT FORMAT THE HDD IN THE BOX

1.
Connect the hard disc via USB to your PC
2.
Right click (with the mouse) on My Computer (found on the Desktop)
3.
Go to Manage
4.
Go to Disk Management
5.
Right click on the USB drive
6.
Click on Delete Partition and follow the procedures
7.
When this has finished, a new drive will appear. Select the drive with the largest file size and Right click on it.
8.
Go to Make a New Partition (it has to be Primary). Assign a drive letter, for example, f:
9.
Select: Do not Format this Partition and follow the procedures
10.
Right click on the USB drive and set the partition as Active
11.
Copy the attached fat32format.exe file to your C: Drive, found in: My Computer > C:
12.
Go to Start > Run > enter CMD > OK
13.
Enter: cd c:\
14.
Enter: fat32format f: (if you used f: in step 8, if not, enter the drive letter you used)
15.
The following message will appear: Warning ALL data on drive 'f' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure (y/n)
16.
Enter: y
17.
Wait until it says Done
18. When this has finished, connect your USB drive to the Blade HD Receiver,
and go to Menu > USB > Management >
Format Disk and press OK
19. Do not use the Management menu found in the USB Menu of the receiver

[Wossname]

Thanks very much Echelon.
I will give it all a try on Tuesday and report back on the situation.

[Wossname]

Well I followed echelon's guide (for Blade) down to step 10 and then went off to find a fat32format.exe.

With help I found a GUI version of fast32format which for dunces like me does the job perfectly in seconds without having to do the command part.

I suppose I won't know for sure until I get to 32GB stored and see what happens.

If I had formatted my Samsung in the spiderbox to begin with instead of pc (as echelon suspects) I would never had this problem at 32GB so having done all the above, should I have just done usb>format (yellow button) in the spider after taking my 32GB off to the pc since there's no other way to reformat without destroying all existing data. Unless I'm wrong about that too.

Thanks for the help.

[echelon]

Well I followed echelon's guide (for Blade) down to step 10 and then went off to find a fat32format.exe.

With help I found a GUI version of fast32format which for dunces like me does the job perfectly in seconds without having to do the command part.

I suppose I won't know for sure until I get to 32GB stored and see what happens.

If I had formatted my Samsung in the spiderbox to begin with instead of pc (as echelon suspects) I would never had this problem at 32GB so having done all the above, should I have just done usb>format (yellow button) in the spider after taking my 32GB off to the pc since there's no other way to reformat without destroying all existing data. Unless I'm wrong about that too.

Thanks for the help.

those details are what YOU will need to tell US , seeing as I could not find the definitive guide on this over 32 gig lark for a spiderbox , only a blade ;)

[paulus]

You may find this link useful

_http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32

paulus

[Wossname]

yep. i've got a feeling there's more to come on this . . .

[keith mawer]

when i got MY western hdd 4 weeks back
.. i connected the usb lead from the HDD to the spider and formatted fat 32 to it DIRECTLY then,,
never had a problem ,,,,

[Wossname]

thanks paulus. i've read a lot of stuff today about formatting drives over 32GB to fat32. I have learned a lot but my head hurts now.

[Wossname]

how many GB you recorded though Keith. Have you gone beyond 32 and can confirm there's no problem ?

[johnhenry]

wossname you could re-formatte your drive on Spider so long as you are happy loosing what your drive is holding at present. Just start again.

[Wossname]

thanks johnhenry but I wasn't happy about losing what the drive was holding, not counting the stuff that I thought I had recorded (beyond 32GB). I took the stuff off the drive (onto pc) and reformatted it using the fat32format tool mentioned above. Nobody has actually confirmed that they have recorded beyond 32GB with a drive formatted to fat32 in the spiderbox.
I'm hoping to get a couple more of those little drives for back-up devices for old mac computers with tiny hard drives and I'll do some experiments with PVR on the spider when I get them. Just record any old thing to get to 32GB. Then will report back on the topic.

[keith mawer]

when i got my 32gb hdd im sure there was a largr gb one!!!!52gb may be

[echelon]

when i got my 32gb hdd im sure there was a largr gb one!!!!52gb may be

most usb external hard disk drives would be between say 250 gig and 1000 gig ( 1 terabyte ) , and typically around 500 gig

anyone with a 32 gig hdd ( or lower ) isnt going to have this problem , obviously ! ;)

the problem only becomes relevant on any hdd LARGER than 32 gig

ps:- the fat32format.exe file and pdf can be found on the bl*demedia tv site as a zip download , if needed

[Wossname]

Keith i'm fairly sure you have posted before that your western digital is 320 GB - ten times the 32GB threshold i'm talking about. Yes you did also say that there was a 500 GB available because it was your post that started me on the road to USB powered external drive. And I should say thank you for that :)

[echelon]

Keith i'm fairly sure you have posted before that your western digital is 320 GB - ten times the 32GB threshold i'm talking about. Yes you did also say that there was a 500 GB available because it was your post that started me on the road to USB powered external drive. And I should say thank you for that :)

so are we saying he has missed a zero from the 2 sizes he quoted ? ;)

[Wossname]

It depends. I think Keith has about 280 spare Gigs he'll never use if he believes his drive is 32GB ;)

[Marco]

i have got 750 External drive, using 400 gig fat32 format
you might have problems with this one, with xp 32 gig or over.
will format upto 2TB in size


http://www.pendriveapps.com/format-fat32-larger-than-32gb/

[echelon]

It depends. I think Keith has about 280 spare Gigs he'll never use if he believes his drive is 32GB ;)

that may be true , he may in fact have used 32 gig , hit the buffers , and not be using the other 280 gig , in which case he needs to sort his the same way as you do ;)