Internal drive disappearing - help!

[Duppie]

Will try it out.

Maasbommel, thanks for the info. There might not have been changes in the firmware but all of a sudden, a lot of us is having this issue which is a bit strange.

Duppie

[jer1956]

Having the exact same problem, it started yesterday at once, i/o errors and the drive disappeared. The same drive on the sata connector of the pc works just fine. A week ago updated to fw 3.06, I skipped 3.05.
Could it be that the fw screwed up the sata controller?

EDIT
Flashed back to 3.0.4, HDD is working again

Which  firmware was installed when  you formatted the virgin drive for the first time?   Formatting does not erase partitions. If the older firmware used to  format  the virgin drive created partitions which  are slightly out, then they may not mount with later firmware,  and reformatting wont fix it.

[Maasbommel]

Will try it out.

Maasbommel, thanks for the info. There might not have been changes in the firmware but all of a sudden, a lot of us is having this issue which is a bit strange.

Duppie

I cannot say we have seen a lot - more a few at the moment.

[jammone]

Which  firmware was installed when  you formatted the virgin drive for the first time?   Formatting does not erase partitions. If the older firmware used to  format  the virgin drive created partitions which  are slightly out, then they may not mount with later firmware,  and reformatting wont fix it.

I don't remember, it was for sure in the 2.XX range. I'm aware of the differences between formatting and partitioning. What I can do is to mount the drive in the pc and check the alignment with Paragon Alignment Tool and report back. It could even be that I partitioned it first with Paragon and then formatted with the MED.
In any case a misaligned partition should just slow down read/write but still be accessible.

About the FW, I flashed the 3.0.4 when it was released, I skipped 3.0.5 and flashed 3.0.6 just a few days ago. When yesterday the drive disappeared I rebooted several times, every time I could hear the drive briefly spinning up and the spinning down again

EDIT
That was fast  .... Paragon reports the partition as aligned, no operation is required

[jer1956]

The SDK looks for partitions that have a particular alignment. If they are out it will refuse to mount them, and that error might create the error message.   By alignment, it also means the size of empty space before any partitions.

Once you do your own thing its purely down to tolerance, and that can vary between firmware.

Some people ask if they can pre load the drive before the player arrives. We always say no because of the above.

[jammone]

I have 1 partition, no free space. I understand what you say but then the question is why for a few days it was ok and then in the middle of a movie it starts doing crazy? The partition was mounted already as it was the day before without any problem.... at once I got an errore message saying about something in the feed not compatible, then alternating forward and stop simbles like crazy.... it was then I realized it lost the drive.

With all previous fw, I almost had them all, never a problem. Or could it be related to a specific type of drive? I have a WD Green 3TB.

[Duppie]

Just some feedback.

No issues as yet with release 3.0.4 since yesterday afternoon.

With release 3.0.5/6 I usually got the IO error within the first hour.

Disk used:
- Seagate 2TB with one full partition.
- Formatted it twice with release 3.0.5

Will continue to monitor and report back. Currently staying with 3.0.4 until issue has been identified.

Duppie

[Maasbommel]

Thanks Duppie for this feedback. Keep us posted.

[Duppie]

Just got my first IO error again since yesterday afternoon on 3.0.4 as well. 

My questions to the guru's:

- Is there a recommendation for partitioning a new HDD with full size allocated to the partition?
- I have replaced disks, format it twice, but still the same issue. Is this a Hardware related or Firmware related issue?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Duppie

[Mede8er1]

Duppie

We have run tests with Seagate 4TB with latest firmware V3.0.6 - 6May2014 - X3D Series on MED1000X3D and it runs perfectly and does not  give i/O error as you get. I would think the cause is the HDD itself and not the Mede8er Hardware.

Mede8er1

[Duppie]

Thanks for the info.

In my case I need to find the issue. So, I will repartition and reformat the HDD for starters. For this:

- Which version do I use to format the HDD (3.0.6)?
- Is there a recommendation for partitioning a new HDD before format?
- Is there a way to test the SATA controller on the Unit?

Thanks

Duppie.

[Mede8er1]

You can use v3.0.6 to format the drive but if the drive is faulty then it may well be  waste of time. You need to check the drive when it's connected to PC via SATA with test software like Hard Drive Sentinal or similar.

Mede8er1

[Duppie]

Ok, will do.

Any recommendation for partitioning a new HDD? Basically how / what is the best way.

Duppie

[Mede8er1]

Any recommendation for partitioning a new HDD? Basically how / what is the best way.

Best way is to format in the Mede8er and latest X3D firmware will make one NTFS partition. You can format it twice for safety sake.

Mede8er1

[jer1956]

Ok, will do.

Any recommendation for partitioning a new HDD? Basically how / what is the best way.

Duppie

A virgin drive should be unformatted, but with 3tb drives and above the manufacturer will supply them using 1 of 2 possible partition systems. That is either 4k sector MBR, or 512b sector gpt. So if making the drive vigin in a PC you must change it to gpt at the same time. The player can do this, but it takes 2 formats to do it.