Edision Mio+ Can't Access HD

cyberham

cyberham

This morning I heard my external 1TB USB hard drive making a whirring sound. When I tried to access it from the Mio+ using the PVR button, I couldn't see anything. My short list of recordings seem to be gone. Otherwise, the Mio+ is working normally in every way on TNAP6.

I recently did a complete backup and noticed this backup took over an hour to complete. Usually it takes only 10 or 15 minutes. Not sure if this is related.

I would like to avoid formatting the drive but I will if that is necessary. Anyway, I'm not familiar with how to do that with the Mio+.

Below are some screen captures taken using Mount Manager. I notice one says "The backup GPT table is corrupt". That doesn't sound good. But it adds "...but the primary seems OK so that will be used".

How can I proceed?

Mio+ HD issue_1.webp
Mio+ HD issue_2.webp
Mio+ HD issue_3.webp
Mio+ HD issue_4.webp
 
The unusual sound of the drive is worrisome. Post the output of these simple tests.
# Check if drive is detected by kernel
dmesg | tail -20
dmesg | grep -i usb
dmesg | grep -i error

# See all block devices
cat /proc/partitions

# Check what's currently mounted
mount | grep sda
cat /proc/mounts | grep sda

# Basic drive info
ls -la /dev/sd*

# Check free space (if mounted)
df -h

Test Drive Health:


# Look for drive errors in system log
dmesg | grep -i "i/o error"
dmesg | grep -i "reset"
dmesg | grep -i "abort"

# Check USB connection status
cat /sys/block/sda/removable # Should show 1 for USB drives
cat /sys/block/sda/size # Shows size in 512-byte sectors
 
Attached is result after plugging the USB cable back into the Mio+. I notice when I power up the hard drive that I can hear what sounds like it attempting to do something repeatedly maybe 6 or 7 times then the sound stops.
 

Attachments

Try powering the receiver off and swapping usb ports for the hard drive. A debug file of 702 MB's probably related to the logging of USB drive failure. Is the drive recognized on another device such as Windows or Ubuntu computer?
 
Powering the receiver ON/OFF and changing ports had no effect. A PC running Windows 10 cannot detect the hard disk at all. I downloaded some disk recovery software and it also cannot detect the disk. At this point, I think the disk is either physically damaged (the disk head can't move properly over the disk?) or something important like both the primary and backup GPT tables are corrupted as the error message mentioned. I read about fixing the GPT table last night using Linux but my head was swimming after all the tech babble.

At this point, I don't care about the disk content. Is there any "rough" way to do a complete re-format of the disk so it could be used? If not, my next step is going to be to physically open the disk and see what there is to see.
 
It always fun taking things apart. With hindsight, I know I shouldn't have unpowered the disk in the past as I occasionally did. Also we have power outages during wind storms occasionally which is the same thing. Doing that probably crashed the disk and I got away with it for a while but it caught up with me. I see on TNAP6 there is an unmount command (spin down the disk?) which I will use in future.
 
With the drive open, I see what appears to be evidence that maybe the drive head has rubbed on the disk. If so, I'm sure that could corrupt data. The head was hard against the centre of the disk. I moved it back and forth a few times to be sure it was loose. Just for fun, I may put it back together just to see if there are any different symptoms when I plug it into the USB port. I know that simply opening the drive like this could damage it with dust, etc.

Seagate 1TB drive.webp
Seagate 1TB drive_reverse.webp
Opened drive_crop.webp
Opened drive_zoom.webp
 
I would say correct on the dust, but How are you gonna damage something that is already broken? I mean unless you were gonna spend thousands to have the data recovered, then it would be a bad idea to open it. The unusual noise along with the large debug file sort of sealed the deal on the drive being bad.
 
I got it all back together and even had a couple of extra screws left over. Sounds like a win-win. It has the same characteristics now as before I disassembled with its whirring spin up and then click-click for 5 or 6 times. Another win. It's no worse and I learned something about the inside of a drive. My records show I paid $100 for it 16 years ago. Not a bad life.

I may get another external USB drive (SSD?) or now you can even get a large USB memory stick to serve the same purpose. I only use it for time shifting programs as a PVR. The programs I delete after watching. But what capacity does one need to support the Edision's files, backups, etc.?
 
A new 1TB external USB drive arrives Tuesday then I'm back in business. Not having a way to back up my system makes me nervous since you never know when you may need it. I may just do a backup to a USB stick in the meantime.
 
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