Mede8er 400 mini Problem

[rockdg]

Hi
I have a MED500X  MODEL and decided to purchase a Buffalo 1tb external hard drive for using through the USB port. When i plugged the Buffalo into the Mede8er and switched it on it seems to freeze and nothing comes to life. When i remove the external hard drive it automatically operates and allows me back into my file manager and video wall. This happend time and time again then suddenly the USB port read my external hard drive. This intermittent fault is very fustrating. Any advise and help appreciated. The reason i am worried is because i purchaed x2 Mede8er 400mini models for the kids christmas and also bought them a Buffalo 1tb external hard drive each. If these external drives are not compatible then I'm @***@@** 


I have Software V4 , BOOTLOADER 0000.0202.1026L , HWaddr(etho) 00CE.39.70.26.38 , Board 1073DDC+

Thanks

[jer1956]

Is it usb powered? If it is...you need an external powered USB hub.   What model of drive is it? Some laptop USB powered drives come with a Y USB cable...so you connect to two USB sockets for power...even though only one is used for data.

If there is too big a power load on boot...the med will not boot. Better that...then burn out something!

[rockdg]

Thanks jer1956

I am not loading the Mede8er using a PC. i am connecting a portable 1Tb external hard drive straight into the Mede8er USB port. What is confusing me is that it worked once and read the external memory but on other occasions it just seems to freeze the Mede8er. Can it be that 1Tb is to big??

[jer1956]

No it's the power load..sounds borderline..so it works,, and then it dosn't. Most people use the bigger mains powered external drives. Maasbommel has a laptop  drive...and it came with a Y cable.  

So your drive has nothing like this:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nexons-USB-2-0-Cable-Mini-B/dp/B003N8HVQC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323779580&sr=8-1

A Y cable dosn't connect to two devices at once. It connects to two sockets on the one device you want to connect too..but gets power from two sockets..not one.

[rockdg]

Hi jer1956
Thanks again for helping me out here. My extrenal drive is only one USB connector. The device on Amazon is cheap enough to buy without worrying so i'll go with your thoughts that make sense.

One last question.

Are you saying that the Mede8er supplies the power through the USB to the external portable hard drive? I thought it was the other way round, but i'm no expert. Thanks again for helping

Cheers

[jer1956]

Does the external drive have it's own mains plug/adapter? That's how you know if it's taking power off the host device or not.

If you posted what the model number is we can check if it's a big 3.5 inch unit that is self powered...or a smaller 2.5 inch unit designed for portability...and to save weight and cables..it takes power off the USB.

[rockdg]

Hi Again

The external hard drive can only be powered from the USB, it does not have a mains adaptor supply.

The information i can find for the external hard drive is as follows

Buffalo Ministation Portable USB2.0 Hard Drive  HD-PC1TU2/BB-EU. It's file system is FAT32

I hope this information helps if not i will try and find out some more

Thanks

[jer1956]

Ok...then buy and try one of the dual usb power cables.


You should also reformat the external drive using a pc if you intend to host big files over 4 gb, to NTFS.

[Maasbommel]

Just another route on this one:
- did you gave the drive a name, a label name?
- did you check if the drive only has one partition and not some hidden one?
- did you try to format the disk full, it might be just a bad factory format. (have seen that before).

[rockdg]

Hi
I managed to borrow a dual USB and have just tried it and sadly it still fails to read the external drive. Does anyone know how much power is available from the Mede8er USB PORT??. Maybe i can contact Buffalo and ask them how much their device needs. I am trying this external hard drive on my 500x model as the 400 mini's have been put away for Christmas presents. Do  you think i will have the same problem with the 400 mini reading the external hard drive. Beginning to panic now 

My 500x has an internal hard disk installed. Would this cause a problem ?? Any advice please

[Maasbommel]

Look at my advises as posted above and try that.

[jer1956]

You have proven the drive works connected to a pc? You need to connect it to a pc to reformat it..and give it a name, as sugessted by Maasbommel. We recommend the hp formatter normally recommened fot sticks. It can remove some forms of security partition that create priblems.

[rockdg]

Thanks guys

Its getting a bit out of my league now   , so tomorrow I'll ask my friend in the IT department to try some of the other fixes and will keep you posted later tomorrow night. Hopefully it will all come good

Thanks

[rockdg]

Hi Again

Just in case i cannot get my Buffalo 1Tb external hard drive to work through the USB port i need to quickly purchase two new external hard drives that are USB driven so that the kids can get the use out of the 400 mini models on Christmas day. Can you advise which external hard drive's have been proven and tested and will work with a 400 mini. 

Thanks

[Eibbon]

My last external drive is a Seagate Expansion ST910004EXD101-RK (2,5", 1TB), which runs perfectly with a 400 mini.

I also own a couple of Western Digital Disks, one Western Digital WDBACY5000ABK and one Western Digital Elements SE Portable 500GB, both of them running without any hassle.

All drives are formatted with NTFS Filesystem and on Med8er Mini 400X I did not upgrade to firmware 4.x due to the 24fps bug in AVCHD structures, I still use firmware 3.x (dont know exactly, the last release of version 3).