Errors when transferring recordings - Time to reformat ext HDs?

[nwflyboy]

I'm now getting regular errors when transferring recorded programs, and I'm wondering if it's time to reformat the drives. Is that likely to help?

Here's the details: I have...
1) Hopper with Sling (which has, I believe, a 1.5 TB internal HD - the "total size" is listed as 1231GB, which I'm assuming has a partition that's dedicated for system stuff).
I have two external HDs connected via USB:
2) Ext HD #1 is a 2 GB drive ("total size" listed as 1882 GB)
3) Ext HD #2 is a 1.5 GB drive ("total size" listed as 1397 GB).
All of this setup is about 16 months old (ext HD #2 is older, re-used from previous Dish setup).

A couple weeks ago, I decided to re-organize the programs I have accumulated on my external HDs. After transferring a bunch of recordings back and forth, I've started to get errors ("an error occurred while transferring your files"), which causes the transfer to fail.
I can always delete recordings without errors.
I can always transfer recordings from either external HD to the internal HD.
When attempting to transfer recordings from the internal HD to either external HD, I can sometimes transfer a recording or two, but if I try and transfer more than a couple, I get errors pretty consistently. Sometimes I get an error even if trying to transfer a single recording.

All 3 drives are roughly 50% to 60% full, so I assume there's plenty of available free space for temp files or whatever else it needs during the actual transfer.

I'm wondering if one or both of the external HDs have bad sectors - it seems that read operations from the Ext HDs work reliably, but write operations to them result in regular failures.

I assume there's no way to "defrag" or map out bad sectors on external HDs directly from the Dish gear (please correct me if that's not the case).

I was thinking of doing the following - any thoughts?

1. Go out and get a (new) 2 TB external HD. I would use this to (eventually) replace my existing external EHD #2 (which is older and only 1.5 TB capacity), after shuffling things around. This would expand my storage capacity and give me new "fresh" space to move things to.
2. Disconnect EHD#1 temporarily (leaving Ext HD #1 out of the mix for the time being)
3. Connect the New EHD#2. At this point I'd have both New EHD#2 and Old EHD#2 connected
4. Transfer everything from the Hopper's internal HD to New EHD#2. This would free up all the space on the internal HD needed for transfers between external drives (the system doesn't allow copying directly between 2 external HDs, so to go from EHD1 to EHD2, it needs to go EHD1 > IntHD > EHD2). A bit of a pain, but just a bit time consuming.
5. Transfer all content currently on Old EHD#2 to the internal HD.
6. Once all the content from Old EHD#2 was removed, disconnect it and set it aside (to be reformatted and reused elsewhere).
7. Reconnect EHD#1. Now I have EHD#1 and New EHD#2 connected, each 2 TB.
8. Transfer all content from EHD#1 to the internal HD.
9. Disconnect EHD#1 and reformat it (via computer). Re-connect EHD#1.

At this point I'd hope that with 2 freshly formatted 2 TB external HDs, I should have no more errors when transferring, and I'd be free to move stuff around and reorganize as I like. That assumes...
A. The internal HD is OK (is there a way to map out bad sectors?)
B. The source of the errors was related to bad sectors or other issues that would be "fixed" by freshly formatting (in the case of the two external drives) or emptying and then filling (in the case of the internal drive).

Admittedly, this is a lot of hoop-jumping to do, but I'm concerned that (what I assume are) the write errors I've started seeing when transferring might be a sign of more intrusive errors to come. Hard drives are not perfect and they don't last forever, I figure doing the above would improve my chances of having trouble-free operations for a while and would preserve my recordings. Hard drives are not expensive, either (2 TB drives for under a hundred bucks are widely available, I can swing by Costco and grab one any day).

Does my plan above sound reasonable?
Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your insights.

 

[RobMeyer1]

What you are proposing to do is time consuming and probably not necessary. Were you having frequent problems with your EHD's prior to 2 weeks ago?

My experience with my HWS is that it is better to avoid doing a lot of shuffling of programs back to the Hopper. On my Hopper there is a program bug that frequently occurs after doing a transfer from an EHD to the Hopper--an error message occurs on the next transfer attempt from the Hopper to an EHD. Doing a red button reboot resolves that software problem. So if you are getting your transfer error messages after doing a transfer from an EHD to the Hopper, it is likely due to faulty software on the HWS and not a problem with the EHD.

If you occasionally get a transfer error message from the Hopper to an EHD, this happens occasionally to me also. Just try again and it will usually work. If it doesn't work the 2nd time, do a reboot and try again. If it still doesn't transfer, then play the recording to see if it is defective. I do have a couple of recordings on my Hopper that play fine, but are not transferable--that rarely happens.

If you are having frequent problems only with a particular EHD, then that is when I would take action to transfer all contents off of it, and not use it again.

 

[nwflyboy]

Were you having frequent problems with your EHD's prior to 2 weeks ago?

No, but I hadn't previously moved a large volume of recordings routinely - more typically just a couple recorded movies from the Hopper to one or the other external HDs - so it may not be a valid comparison.

My experience with my HWS is that it is better to avoid doing a lot of shuffling of programs back to the Hopper. On my Hopper there is a program bug that frequently occurs after doing a transfer from an EHD to the Hopper--an error message occurs on the next transfer attempt from the Hopper to an EHD. Doing a red button reboot resolves that software problem. So if you are getting your transfer error messages after doing a transfer from an EHD to the Hopper, it is likely due to faulty software on the HWS and not a problem with the EHD.

Interesting.

I'm not familiar with the "red button reboot." I assume that's just pressing the red "Reset" button on the front of the Hopper (behind the flip-down door). Any consequences to doing that? (That is, are any items lost - existing recordings, timers, etc.?)

Thanks for your help.

 

[RobMeyer1]

No, but I hadn't previously moved a large volume of recordings routinely - more typically just a couple recorded movies from the Hopper to one or the other external HDs - so it may not be a valid comparison.

Interesting.

I'm not familiar with the "red button reboot." I assume that's just pressing the red "Reset" button on the front of the Hopper (behind the flip-down door). Any consequences to doing that? (That is, are any items lost - existing recordings, timers, etc.?)

Thanks for your help.

The fact you didn't have errors until you started moving a large volume of recordings indicates to me that increased EHD activity exposed you to the software flaws that exist in the HWS. It is best to think of an EHD as an archive. Don't do a lot of shuffling and if you want to watch something on an EHD, watching it directly from the EHD is the easiest way to do that.

The red "Reset" button reboots the receiver. Any activities occurring at that time are terminated, so avoid doing it while someone is watching or recording programming that can't easily be replaced or while doing EHD transfers. You will not lose existing recordings, timers, or anything else except for the activities occurring at the time you reboot are terminated. It usually takes about 5 to 10 minutes to reboot. When your Hopper stops working properly, rebooting is usually the solution. Your HWS reboots every morning, usually around 1:30 AM.

When I do the kind of shuffling that you are doing, I try to do it at a time of day when no timers are active so that I can easily reboot if I need to. One thing I do like about the HWS is that interrupted transfers or transfers that end with an error message haven't lost me recordings. Transfers of multiple recordings are actually done one at a time and if a recording doesn't get fully transferred, it doesn't get deleted from the source drive.

 

[nwflyboy]

Makes sense. I will give the red button a try and see how it goes. Many thanks.

 

[Tony S]

In the past, others have reported problems transferring files from the EHD back to the receiver. A lot of us just watch the recording directly from the EHD. There is no need to transfer it back to the receiver.

 

[Bobby]

In the past, others have reported problems transferring files from the EHD back to the receiver. A lot of us just watch the recording directly from the EHD. There is no need to transfer it back to the receiver.

Unless you'd like to watch one of them via Dish Anywhere...

 

[Tony S]

Unless you'd like to watch one of them via Dish Anywhere...

You are right about that if you have a Hopper. When I had a 722 and a 722K I was able to watch shows that I had on my EHD. They showed up in the list of DVR recordings, and I was able to watch them with no problems. Supposedly, Dish said that it was a software 'bug' that allowed that to happen. (There is one bug that I liked).

Now, my HWS does not even show all the DVR recordings that I have on my internal hard drive. A lot of the shows are missing from the list, and a lot of shows with multiple recordings only show a couple of the recordings. This really limits Dish Anywhere's functionality a lot. It is useless for shows that have to be watched in chronological order because a lot of episodes with multiple recordings are missing in the DVR list.