DP-H1 hdd check fails

JohnC · Post by **JohnC** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 17:31

G'day guys, yeah I'm new here so this is assuredly a newby question, but it's got me stumped.

*New H1, hooked to my local network via ethernet. Can play files from my wireless vista laptop fine and all works as it should do with the hd tv etc. I'm impressed, actually.

*Have also a weeks old Seagate Freeagent 500G hdd and an 8G Toshiba flash drive. Both work well on my comp. ie format ok, recognised and work well.

*However, plug them either individually or together to the H1 and I can register and format them successfully, but the 'hdd check' just sits there like a stunned mullet. I've even left the Seagate on all night, but it just spun down sometime therein. Any attempt to record says "can't start recording: check hdd".Yeah, I accept that the usb stick probably isn't kosher, but it acts just the same as the hdd.

I smell a firmware rat (01.05.280) but I have a sensitive nose.

What am I doing wrong? Would really appreciate your help. Happy Easter anyway.

DaveR · Post by **DaveR** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 21:59

Welcome John.

JohnC wrote:*Have also a weeks old Seagate Freeagent 500G hdd and an 8G Toshiba flash drive. Both work well on my comp. ie format ok, recognised and work well.

I can't remember anyone ever having success with a Seagate Freeagent USB HDD on a 7000 topfield or a beyonwiz. Same for the 8 and 16 GB size USB sticks and especially Toshibas (amongst others).

Does the Seagate Freeagent have it's own power supply? Does it contain a 3.5 inch HDD or a small 2.5 inch laptop size HDD?

JohnC wrote:*However, plug them either individually or together to the H1 and I can register and format them successfully,

Are you sure? One way to tell is to create a folder on, or copy a file onto, the USB drive in Windows, format it in the beyonwiz, take it back to Windows (or view it via the H1's file player) and see if the folder or file is still there. If you register a drive with the H1 you should not be able to read it in a PC anymore (or it should appear empty in the H1's file player). If you format a drive with the H1 it should appear empty in a PC.

Or you could connect the drive to a PC and format it in NTFS, or delete all formatting, then format it in the H1 and take it back to the PC and check if it is still formatted in NTFS or is still unformatted.

JohnC · Post by **JohnC** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 00:13

Jeez, that;s a tough call if you have to pick gear that suits the wiz. Yeah, the Seagate is externally powered and AFIAK it's a 3.5".

Both units I can register & format . Am I sure? Well the wiz tells me so. I'm not real sure about anything with this gizmo. But it tells me it's registered and formatted correctly after it goes through it's procedure. When I take it back to the pc it tells me it's in fat32 format and that I should set it back to ntfs, as indeed it was before I handed it to the H1. That's a screen with a Seagate logo. Using vista (ntfs) btw.

On the wiz all it shows is 'Unit0_P1'. Don't know what that really means, but it doesn't respond.

Does that help? Thanks for your reply.too.

Paul55 · Post by **Paul55** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 08:15

JohnC wrote:Jeez, that;s a tough call if you have to pick gear that suits the wiz. Yeah, the Seagate is externally powered and AFIAK it's a 3.5".

I don't think the H1 is that picky, you just had the bad luck to already have one of the few HDDs that don't play well with BW. There is a thread somewhere that focuses on compatible drives. I have one USB thumb drive out of 6 that won't work.

JohnC · Post by **JohnC** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 18:22

Spent much of today researching and fiddling with this. Finally - success!

Had no luck with the thumb drive, but that's not important.

Totally reformatted the hdd on vista to NTFS (took hours), then back to the wiz. More fiddling and now works ok. One thing I noticed is you must register the drive AFTER the H1 formats it. Perhaps that's what I was doing wrong all along? Interestingly, if I hook it back up to windows the drive shows as a RAW volume rather than FAT32, which it was doing yesterday.

[EDIT: Before reformatting to NTFS I had a play partitioning it. Noticed that the Seagate software/firmware throws in two small files to each volume. These were to do with a Seagate icon, probably for windows. I deleted them on all volumes 'just in case'.]

I guess that's also good news for other Seagate Freeagent owners too. I'll certainly update this if I experience any other issues. For now at least, I'm a happy H1 user.

Thanks guys for your help and support with this. Much appreciated.

craigh · Post by **craigh** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 19:32

There are two options (Register and Format)

Register formats and then registers the drive as a recording drive. (if it is already formatted in BW Fat32 it may bypass that step but not 100%)

Format just formats the drive.

With my H1 I have found that my WD 2.5 drive works perfectly as long as I use the cable that takes power from 2 USB ports.

If I used 2 drives (one registered and one in NTFS or normal Fat32) it is not 100% reliable. I can cause the USB attached drives to get lost by the OS.

If I substitute a powered hub between the BW and drives it is better but not 100%.

Have not tried powered drives but they would probably not have the same issues.

JohnC · Post by **JohnC** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 19:55

"Format just formats the drive."

It also deregisters it. Trap for the unwary (me).

NPR · Post by **NPR** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 14:54

JohnC wrote:"Format just formats the drive."

It also deregisters it. Trap for the unwary (me).

Just wanted to reinforce this discovery of JohnC's as I too fell into this trap... So for new H1 owners;

Do not format the HDD after Registering, it will result in DEREGISTRATION and SUBSEQUENT HDD ERROR

A big thank you to JohnC for posting this information.

fRuItCaKe · Post by **fRuItCaKe** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:03

Interesting about the 8GB Toshiba sticks.

I've got one of these and it works well......except

....large files seem to stutter a lot.

Any suggestions on a better type of memory stick for this use (and big files)??

tonymy01 · Post by **tonymy01** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:10

I don't recommend any memory stick. When you can get small portable HDDs for under $80 (I got a 120G verbatim from OfficeWorks for $69, cheaper than a $100 8G Sony USB stick from Dickies for example, that is fore sure, and much more useful, faster, no limit to number of writes, etc!)

fRuItCaKe · Post by **fRuItCaKe** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 14:32

good call on that one.

But then once I/ve finishe the house networking all such devices become redundant

DaNgLz · Post by **DaNgLz** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:06

i had a similar issue with my WD elements 3.5" powered HDD it would recognise the drive format it and register it would get stuck on checking the drive and would have to power the unit off at the wall to overcome this. when trying to record it would say cannot record check HDD.

I rolled back my firmware from 01.05.334 to the previous release and now everything is fully functional so i suspect its a firmware issue.

Hope this helps the next person facing this problem

prl · Post by **prl** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:14

Hi, DaNgLz. Please don't post the same problem in multiple topics. It tends to split the discussion up and make it more difficult for everyone to follow. See my reply to your first, identical post.