H1 - how best to transfer files for archiving?

[yvonnegee]

Hi all, Apologies if the answers are obvious. I have been going through the forum, but so many varying statements have made me confused....

I have been operating a networked Beyonwiz DP-Lite i and H1 via a wired network now for about 3 months, but am still on a slow learning trajectory. Both have been updated to 1.07.350 and 1.05.350 respectively.

So far I am pleased with the system, but it is not without its problem areas. The 500GB HDD of the DPlite-i fills too fast for our current useage. I have found that it is slightly faster to transfer the files to an external HDD than via the network either via the Wiz GUI or via WizFX. But I have not had the chance to test out the actual transfer speed. It apears to be averaging around 3-4 MBps, so still very slow.

At the same time I have been having repeated issues with the H1 which has a new Seagate 2TB Expansion drive formatted on the H1, attached. There have been intermittant freezes which I cannot necessarily replicate or identify consistency for. (Mostly lack of time for testing.) These inevitably require a HDD check after shutting down with a long press of the remote power button. So I wanted also to transfer the recordings from that HDD to another drive. Purchased a matching 2TB Seagate for that purpose. Neither the Lite i nor the H1 would accept moving/copying files to it unless it was appropriately registered and formatted. I allowed the Wiz to do that.

I can now copy/move recordings from the DPLite-i to the newer HDD. Attaching the second HDD to the H1, it is sometimes recognised and we can sometimes watch recordings from that, but it frequently is not recognised, or disappears, or else the original HDD is not recognised only the newer one.

As already noted as a bug, which I found after the purchase of the 2nd HDD, it is not possible to move/copy files from the first HDD to the 2nd HDD on the H1. Although streaming works perfectly, it is not possible to transfer files from the H1 to the DPLite-i, and barely enough room there.

So it seems that the only option to empty the first HDD prior to reformatting is to transfer to PC via GUI. Even WizFX cannot do that transfer. We can stream from the PC, but prefer to have the recordings on one of the 2 external HDDs.

Are there any other viable options for transferring files from the ext HDD attached to the H1? (I think I already unsuccessfully tried transferring fom the USB HDD to the internal HDD on the DPLite-i).

All advice gratefully accepted.

[prl]

WizFX should be able to transfer recordings off a DP-H1 with any reasonably recent firmware version. I can't recall which version added this ability, but certainly the most recent firmware, 01.05.350, allows it.

[IanB]

Yes 3-5 MBps is about the maximum transfer rate of the gutless Arm processor used in the BW's.

For the H1 have you enabled the Wizpnp server (it's off by default) in setup, you obviously have it enabled on the P2.

And yes USB to USB copy has always been broken on the BW's. (Kernel driver deadlock bug).

The register format for BW disk is FAT32 with special very huge clusters (512K). Windows refuses to acknowledge this extended uber-format but Linuxes just loves it (BW runs uClinux 2.4).

Boot one of the many Linux DVD standalone releases (ubuntu, etc) into any fast PC. Plug in your pair of 2TB Seagates and then you can copy between them at very much higher speed.

[prl]

Mac OS X can also read/write to Beyonwiz registered recording HDDs with 512kB clusters.

[yvonnegee]

[quote="IanB"]For the H1 have you enabled the Wizpnp server (it's off by default) in setup, you obviously have it enabled on the P2.
...
Boot one of the many Linux DVD standalone releases (ubuntu, etc) into any fast PC. Plug in your pair of 2TB Seagates and then you can copy between them at very much higher speed.[/quote]

Thanks everyone for the useful comments. Yes I have Wizpnp enabled as server for both machines. I will look again at the networking setup, as someone elsewhere mentioned that the H1 seemed to have more specific requirments than other machines.

I did try loading one version of linux (DSL) from an SD card onto my "low speed netbook" PC running XP in an effort to recover files lost on the HDD after one freeze. However, I am a bit lazy about learning new OS's these days, and could not get the USB drive mounted, so decided the value of the recording lost was not worth effort required to troubleshoot my mistake. But if that can successfully be used to solve the ease of transfer of files on a permanent basis at a much more rapid speed, then I will revise that decision.

Pity the USB to USB transfer doesn't work as I'd assumed when I did the setup!

Additional question...

When I remove the USB HDD from the machines, I do it while the Wiz's are in standby, not via the "unmount" command. Could that be causing an issue? The Seagates automatically power down when not is use.

[prl]

...
Additional question...

When I remove the USB HDD from the machines, I do it while the Wiz's are in standby, not via the "unmount" command. Could that be causing an issue? The Seagates automatically power down when not is use.

You should be able to disconnect the USB HDD either by using the Beyonwiz unmount command or by disconnection the HDD while the Beyonwiz is in standby. If you unmount it, you may need to re-register it as a recording drive when you connect it back up. If you disconnect and reconnect the USB HDD while the Beyonwiz remains in standby, then it won't even notice the HDD has gone for a bit of a walk

The Beyonwiz's "standby" is more like a PC's Shutdown mode than its Sleep or Hibernate modes.