V2 suddenly not booting up

[Barista181]

V2 has been working very well since new (May 20), then now suddenly gets hung on bootup. I don't believe I've done anything to cause this. Flashes up the same error message every 20 secs or so (see attached).

Disconnecting the original supplied Toshiba 1TB portable USB drive allows the V2 to boot up normally and then all the channels work live as normal (but then unable to record programs of course).

I can watch my previously recorded programs on this drive when attached to my Mac (using VLC Player), so suggesting that the drive itself seems to still be functional.

Any advice on what to try next?

[prl]

How was the HDD formatted? Do you know what filesystem format it has?

[Paul_oz53]

As prl has asked, what format is the HDD?

The error message indicates the system can't access the storage to record the timeshift files, etc. How to fix it depends on whether it was formatted ext4 on the Wiz or if it is some other format. This step will hopefully restore lost recordings. Let prl know so he can guide you on the steps to take.

If there are no precious recordings you can format it on a PC, preferably ext4 but this is not an option on a Windows PC as NTFS or exfat are the supported formats. However, if formatted on Windows PC you should then be able to connect it and reformat it on the V2.

[peteru]

If the Mac can read the disk, it's almost certain that the HDD has not been formatted using the Beyonwiz and a Windows filesystem (as shipped from the HDD manufacturer) is in use. That's not a good place to be.

The most likely scenario that lead to this situation is that the Beyonwiz was not powered down in an orderly fashion, thus resulting in a corrupted / unclean filesystem on the HDD. The Beyonwiz firmware does not have the tools to fix dirty Windows filesystems. I suspect that the Mac also does not have the means to run a proper filesystem repair on the HDD.

There are at least two alternatives available:

1. Quick fix (but there is a high risk of the problem recurring). Not recommended, but it may get you out of a tight spot.
Connect the HDD to a Windows computer and repair the filesystem, then reconnect the HDD back to the Beyonwiz.

2. Permanent fix (will lose all data on the HDD, but the problem will not come back). Highly recommended.
Format the HDD using the Beyonwiz. This will set up a proper GPT partition table and use the ext4 filesystem, which is fairly immune to corruption due to unexpected power loss. Additionally, the Beyonwiz firmware has tools that can repair potential filesystem corruption and these are automatically invoked when issue are detected.

[IanL-S]

Definitely looks like a file system error. I agree that it would be best to format the HDD using ext4.

Idealy, you would copy the foles of the USB HDD, then format it "correctly". You can then copy the recordings back to the V2 by ftp. If I recall correctly there are utilities that allow the mounting of ext4 partitions on WIndows PC - but it is many years since I have investigated that possibility. Or you could use a LiveDVD Linux dvd to move the files and repartition the USB HDD.

[prl]

If I recall correctly there are utilities that allow the mounting of ext4 partitions on WIndows PC - but it is many years since I have investigated that possibility.

I Googled that a a few weeks ago ("ext4 windows"), and just re-did it. The results weren't encouraging.

[Barista181]

I've carried out the recommended "permanent fix" and it seems to be working again. Here's what I did:

1. Checked the HDD format using the Mac (don't have a Windows computer). It said 'NTFS', so I guess that's the smoking gun that proves I mustn't have originally formatted the HDD using the v2 despite the clear Beyonwiz documentation in the box recommending that I do so. Not like me to ignore the instructions, but the fact that it worked ok from the start must have lulled me into a false sense of security these last 9 months.

2. Copied off the 'movie' files to a backup drive. When I get time I'll try getting them back on to the v2 by ftp or other means. No big deal if lost, and I can watch on the Mac if need be.

3. As the v2 would not boot up with the HDD attached I decided to try re-formatting the HDD with the Mac to see if that would get the v2 through bootup. The Mac's only Windows friendly format choices were MS-DOS (FAT 32) or exfat, so I chose FAT 32.

4. Reconnected the re-formatted HDD to the v2 and it would then boot up ok.

5. Then used the v2's format function and rebooted.

Test recordings and other features (ICE TV etc) are working so far. Will test thoroughly over next few days and then look at getting the old files back on.

Thank you so much contributors for your sage advice. I will try harder to not only read but actually follow the Beyonwiz instructions in the future.
Regards
Stephen

[IanL-S]

If I recall correctly there are utilities that allow the mounting of ext4 partitions on WIndows PC - but it is many years since I have investigated that possibility.

I Googled that a a few weeks ago ("ext4 windows"), and just re-did it. The results weren't encouraging.

I use UFS Explorer Standard Recovery which can mount disks with a variety of file systems and recover partitions/files that have been deleted (useful with Toppys which are prone to files system corruption); it can also copy files to Windows computer.
Data access and advanced recovery:
Windows: NTFS, FAT, FAT32, exFAT;
macOS: HFS+, APFS;
Linux: Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, XFS, Extended format XFS, JFS, ReiserFS, UFS, UFS2, Adaptec UFS, big-endian UFS, Sun ZFS, Btrfs;
BSD/Solaris: simple/stripe ZFS volumes.
Ian