HDD Slow listing of movies

[Pearce]

I was confused but unsure what type the HD is and no idea whay I have that as i would never have brought Toshiba maybe i brought it with the V2 Unsure

It is a Toshiba DTB 440 4TB which appears to be a "traditional 2.5 inch external hard drive" So should I defrag it and if so how is recommended please.

I would have gambled my life on it being a Samsung SSD HD!!!

Michael

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I have not attempted to try and put files into folders to see if I can isolate a problem movie but i am going to cull some movies that i can do without.

Before you do that, following on the DLNA thought from peteru, here's a test to perform that will stop and disable the DLNA server (for the time being) -
MENU>>Setup>>Network>>DLNA server.
Then press GREEN/Stop.
Then press YELLOW/Autostart.
Both "Autostart" and "Current Status" indicators should then show "Disabled" and "Stopped".
It's not permanent though, as it can autostart after an online update, and it will autostart after a USB firmware flash.
We can work around that later, by changing the miniDLNA server config so that it has nothing to index/serve.
Now, reboot the V2. Then try the MEDIA listing. Any faster now?

[adoxa]

Unfortunately, disabling DLNA doesn't have an effect.

[prl]

The Toshiba 4TB Canvio Basics 2.5-Inch USB 3.0 (HDTB440EK3CA), if that's what you have, is definitely a conventional HDD, not SSD.

I still very much doubt that the problem is due to disk fragmentation, with the HDD only about half full.

If it is, I've already suggested how to defragment it: copy all the files off the drive, reformat it, and then copy them back. It will take some time, with about 2TB total of files there, and I doubt very much that it would help.

[Pearce]

Hi Geoff
I have done that and NO not any quicker
Came up after MEDIA showing directory quickly and then I need to OK directory to get the listing which was just as slow as previously

Do I need to reset those miniDLNA settings please?

[Pearce]

Peter Your suggestion just recently about defrag (I did not find any earlier post by you) suggests copying all files to say my PC and coping them back

Do I have to take any special precautions when I plug the HDD into my PC
Should it be reformatted on the V@

Is there not a defrag program that can be used

However I it looks from your comments that might be of no help
Michael

[peteru]

The ext4 filesystem is not like Windows filesystems and fragmentation is very unlikely to be an issue here. It's more likely that there's something else at play.

One thing you could do is run fsck with the flag to optimise and re-index the directories. It's effectively a directory defrag that does not require moving your files elsewhere.

[Pearce]

Hi Peter
"One thing you could do is run fsck with the flag to optimise and re-index the directories. It's effectively a directory defrag that does not require moving your files elsewhere."

Could you tell me how do I do that with the V2 please/
Michael

[MrQuade]

Peter Your suggestion just recently about defrag (I did not find any earlier post by you) suggests copying all files to say my PC and coping them back

I mentioned that though. prl might have mentioned it in one of the linked posts.

Do I have to take any special precautions when I plug the HDD into my PC
Should it be reformatted on the V@

Precautions no. But it is unlikely to be readable on your PC.
If the harddisk was formatted by the V2, then it will be in ext4 format, which the PC can't read.

Is there not a defrag program that can be used

There are no ext4 defragmentation tools such as the ones you'd be familiar with.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

The Toshiba 4TB Canvio Basics 2.5-Inch USB 3.0 (HDTB440EK3CA), if that's what you have, is definitely a conventional HDD, not SSD.

I still very much doubt that the problem is due to disk fragmentation, with the HDD only about half full.

If it is, I've already suggested how to defragment it: copy all the files off the drive, reformat it, and then copy them back. It will take some time, with about 2TB total of files there, and I doubt very much that it would help.

The review I read of that drive didn't paint it in a good light.

Further, it uses SMR. Not that I imagine shingle-pox would be affecting read speeds.

I do imagine the "copy back" stage of the above "potential fix" will take a long time though. It took a long time when this drive was connected to the T4 to copy over all of the T4's recordings.

[Pearce]

Hi
I think that 4tb drive must have been supplied by Beyonwiz when I purchased the V2. Should I consider replacing it.

Also those changes I made to mini DNLA do I need to change those back

I have not tried putting files in a group of folders apart from having to find out how, when I scrolled down the list of movies there was no hang up.

Perhaps I should just get used to a 10 second delay but causes me a problem sometimes such as when I close a movie and want to see the sub titles on live TV

What I really want to do is to access BBC on line using my TV but there seems to be an issue moving a VPN (I don;t have one at the moment) in to the modem that was supplied by iprimus. Its a Huawei HG659. My question is can I record using the V2 anything I access though a VPN PLEASE?

[prl]

What I really want to do is to access BBC on line using my TV but there seems to be an issue moving a VPN (I don;t have one at the moment) in to the modem that was supplied by iprimus. Its a Huawei HG659. My question is can I record using the V2 anything I access though a VPN PLEASE?

Please start a separate topic about this. It has nothing to do with this topic.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I think that 4tb drive must have been supplied by Beyonwiz when I purchased the V2. Should I consider replacing it.

There's no evidence it needs to be replaced.

Also those changes I made to mini DNLA do I need to change those back

No, as I don't believe you use DLNA.

I have not tried putting files in a group of folders apart from having to find out how, when I scrolled down the list of movies there was no hang up.

I think you should do as MrQuade suggested - "move to a sub-folder on the same drive". The moves themselves will be very quick (unlike a copy operation) -

What next does anyone suggest PLEASE?

If it is indeed some broken metafiles, the the trick is to isolate which files are the problem.

I would start by making a sub-folder and then move the first 50 recordings into that sub folder.
You can then exit and go back into the media player and see if the speed is much better.
Move the next 50 files and repeat.

If you suddenly see the list populate faster, then you know one or more of the files that was moved in the last batch was the problem.

If you want to move multiple files at once, remember that you can use the NEXT, PREV, and 0 buttons to mark the files prior to moving them.

What I really want to do is to access BBC on line using my TV but there seems to be an issue moving a VPN (I don;t have one at the moment) in to the modem that was supplied by iprimus. Its a Huawei HG659. My question is can I record using the V2 anything I access though a VPN PLEASE?

No.
However, it may be possible to run VPN client software on your computer, then access BBC Online via a browser on your computer, and then cast that browser tab to a Chromecast device which is attached to your TV.