I'm getting used to my drive now... and it is rapidly filling up 
no problems other than noted...
no problems other than noted...
External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread
- Thread starter dfergie
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The power plug/unplug works fine on my Freeagent. I am having some playback issues when playing from the EXTHDD. If I stop watching a show in the middle and exit from the HDD, when I return later to finish it the keys show up that say Resume, and the display shows time remaining but when I hit resume, the show starts from the beginning. Kind of a pain to have to FF to
find the spot I was watching at.
find the spot I was watching at.
Seagate FreeAgent 500
Once it's gone to sleep, it will "wake up" and allow me to view programs, but it will not allow me to move more into archive.
To "wake" it, I go to "Manage Device", and nothing is there. I then exit back to the TV, go to Manage Devive again, then the archived programs are available for playback.
The playback will start successfully, but then when hitting STOP, nothing happens, and I have to power off the 622 (don't have to reboot, simply hit the power button on the remote).
Even after doing all this, if I go to "Send to device", it looks like it's starting to transfer, then goes to the screen saying it can't be done (typiing from work so can't remember the exact wording).
Anyone else experiencing similar problems? It all works perfectly by unplugging the HDD and then plugging back in. Not ready to change the power setting to "always on" yet, as I really don't use it that much and it's more of an annoyance than anything right now (and hopeful that Dish will figure out how to wake it up!)
Once it's gone to sleep, it will "wake up" and allow me to view programs, but it will not allow me to move more into archive.
To "wake" it, I go to "Manage Device", and nothing is there. I then exit back to the TV, go to Manage Devive again, then the archived programs are available for playback.
The playback will start successfully, but then when hitting STOP, nothing happens, and I have to power off the 622 (don't have to reboot, simply hit the power button on the remote).
Even after doing all this, if I go to "Send to device", it looks like it's starting to transfer, then goes to the screen saying it can't be done (typiing from work so can't remember the exact wording).
Anyone else experiencing similar problems? It all works perfectly by unplugging the HDD and then plugging back in. Not ready to change the power setting to "always on" yet, as I really don't use it that much and it's more of an annoyance than anything right now (and hopeful that Dish will figure out how to wake it up!)
I've updated my spindown to "Never" and the drive is always "available" now. Wasn't aware of the number of moves restriction.... I must have missed where this was posted.
Doesn't matter to me - my programs are still in BOTH places.....
Can only delete from PVR. Now I've got some crappy stuff for the wife on the FreeAgent that I can't get rid of.....Don't want to sound like I'm arguing, just want to point out that the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop drives have a 5 year warranty and use Seagate SATA drives (ST3500641AS 500GB in my case) which has a MTBF of 300k hours (a little over 34 years). Going the conservative route, if I still have this drive and a ViP622 in 5 years, I'm not nearly the videophile I thought I was!
I think at this point it might be fair to say the FreeAgent problem is a compatibility issue. As such, it is really up to DN to fix it. (whether they consult Seagate or not..).
Some of you might be under constraint because you only have so long to return or exchange a drive you just purchased.
I picked up a FA at Newegg that has a 30 day return policy. But if Dish does not respond to the issue soon, I may resort to doing the same along with an email to E* expressing my displeasure.
while my only issue has been the inability to delete events on the Seagate, and the occasional 'warning about formatting my drive' I don't plan to manipulate sleep times on a brand new drive, when I paid an additional $40 to have Dish hook me up and make it work as promised.
Some of you might be under constraint because you only have so long to return or exchange a drive you just purchased.
I picked up a FA at Newegg that has a 30 day return policy. But if Dish does not respond to the issue soon, I may resort to doing the same along with an email to E* expressing my displeasure.
while my only issue has been the inability to delete events on the Seagate, and the occasional 'warning about formatting my drive' I don't plan to manipulate sleep times on a brand new drive, when I paid an additional $40 to have Dish hook me up and make it work as promised.
Premature "feature" -- fee refunds?
Using Seagate Freeagent 500GB desktop HDD with 622:
Initial formatting and operations OK, "archived" two long programs (3+ hours each operas). When tried to search and play one of them, at first OK, then froze, then would no longer recognize the HDD. Called support, left info about problem, told was software problem maybe especially with 500GB drives (?) and to check back weekly.
On my own, decided to reformat ext HDD using computer, then reconnected, formatted it again for 622 (accepting that "archived" programs were no more). The format went OK, "archived" a few shorter programs, transferred OK, tried playing. At this point, controls are erratic, whenever I hit "stop" while playing a program on the ext HDD it freezes, regular operations can be accessed by turning 622 off and then back on to get back to live viewing. So far ext HDD hasn't gone to not being recognized, but suspect that's only a matter of time.
Agree with those saying this feature wasn't ready for release. Also feel the term "archive" implies a level of safety beyond "transfer" that clearly isn't warranted. The fact that D* from the gitgo did not permit you to have copies of a program on both the receiver's drive and the external and that one naturally would move programs you most wanted to SAVE makes this more bitter than it had to be.
Has anyone asked to have charge for the "feature" refunded? Has anyone got it?
Using Seagate Freeagent 500GB desktop HDD with 622:
Initial formatting and operations OK, "archived" two long programs (3+ hours each operas). When tried to search and play one of them, at first OK, then froze, then would no longer recognize the HDD. Called support, left info about problem, told was software problem maybe especially with 500GB drives (?) and to check back weekly.
On my own, decided to reformat ext HDD using computer, then reconnected, formatted it again for 622 (accepting that "archived" programs were no more). The format went OK, "archived" a few shorter programs, transferred OK, tried playing. At this point, controls are erratic, whenever I hit "stop" while playing a program on the ext HDD it freezes, regular operations can be accessed by turning 622 off and then back on to get back to live viewing. So far ext HDD hasn't gone to not being recognized, but suspect that's only a matter of time.
Agree with those saying this feature wasn't ready for release. Also feel the term "archive" implies a level of safety beyond "transfer" that clearly isn't warranted. The fact that D* from the gitgo did not permit you to have copies of a program on both the receiver's drive and the external and that one naturally would move programs you most wanted to SAVE makes this more bitter than it had to be.
Has anyone asked to have charge for the "feature" refunded? Has anyone got it?
When the external drive threads really got going early this year, I kept talking about how folks would need to find high quality enterprise class hard drives because the cheap stuff sold to consumers would not be very tolerant to 24/7 operation. I was told over and over that NOBODY was going to do that and that most folks would be turning them off MOST of the time.
Well, here we are and I see that what I said would happen has happened. i guess 25 years in computing seems to have given me a little bit of clue as to how most people actually operate!
Most of the problems I hear are from people leaving their drives plugged in and hooked up 24/7.
Hey folks! Desktop drives are not designed to last long that way. These cheapo desktop backup units spindown to save the life of the drive. If you moved your files and turned off the drive, most of these problems would go away. The powersave programming on the FreeAgent drives, at least the non-Pro models, seems to turn the USB connection off as well as the drive.
I would be willing to bet DiSH made compatibility claims based on one of two things:
1) Their tests were made with bare OEM drives
2) The user would turn on the drive, plug in the drive, make programming moves, and then shutdown and disconnect the drive.
The only bug I have read that is most likely a real bug is the one person who says he cannot delete programs from his external drive.
Well, here we are and I see that what I said would happen has happened. i guess 25 years in computing seems to have given me a little bit of clue as to how most people actually operate!
Most of the problems I hear are from people leaving their drives plugged in and hooked up 24/7.
Hey folks! Desktop drives are not designed to last long that way. These cheapo desktop backup units spindown to save the life of the drive. If you moved your files and turned off the drive, most of these problems would go away. The powersave programming on the FreeAgent drives, at least the non-Pro models, seems to turn the USB connection off as well as the drive.
I would be willing to bet DiSH made compatibility claims based on one of two things:
1) Their tests were made with bare OEM drives
2) The user would turn on the drive, plug in the drive, make programming moves, and then shutdown and disconnect the drive.
The only bug I have read that is most likely a real bug is the one person who says he cannot delete programs from his external drive.
The only bugs I have experienced so far:
- occasional "this feature must be activated" popup
- on playback from external device, sometimes fast-forward and rewind are very erratic, like the drive can't keep up
this is using a LaCie 250GB "Porsche" and only transferring stuff I don't care if gets lost (haven't lost anything yet). I don't trust it yet for true "archival."
- occasional "this feature must be activated" popup
- on playback from external device, sometimes fast-forward and rewind are very erratic, like the drive can't keep up
this is using a LaCie 250GB "Porsche" and only transferring stuff I don't care if gets lost (haven't lost anything yet). I don't trust it yet for true "archival."
I've read that same thing. By my interpretation what is happening is:
- user starts transfer to external drive
- the transfer is "almost" finished, the drive goes to sleep or otherwise disconnects unclean
Because of this, the copy on the DVR is still there (don't delete until successful copy is confirmed) and the archive copy can't be deleted (don't delete something it thinks is still in progress).
I haven't encountered this "bug" but would love to, for the stuff I "really" want to keep.
FYI - After having turned off the spin down on the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500 I have, My issues have all but disappeared.
- Issue with the initial access to the drive saying it needs activation - GONE.
- Issue with the drive being detected but no programs listed - GONE.
- Issue with the drive not being able to delete programs - GONE.
- Issue with the programs being moved from archive to the PVR staying on the drive - GONE.
I am still on L441, but the only change I made was the drive spindown. I am a happy camper now! (Especially since my wife's crappy episode of BB8 is gone from the drive!
)
- Issue with the initial access to the drive saying it needs activation - GONE.
- Issue with the drive being detected but no programs listed - GONE.
- Issue with the drive not being able to delete programs - GONE.
- Issue with the programs being moved from archive to the PVR staying on the drive - GONE.
I am still on L441, but the only change I made was the drive spindown. I am a happy camper now! (Especially since my wife's crappy episode of BB8 is gone from the drive!
)
FYI - After having turned off the spin down on the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500 I have, My issues have all but disappeared.
- Issue with the initial access to the drive saying it needs activation - GONE.
- Issue with the drive being detected but no programs listed - GONE.
- Issue with the drive not being able to delete programs - GONE.
- Issue with the programs being moved from archive to the PVR staying on the drive - GONE.
I am still on L441, but the only change I made was the drive spindown. I am a happy camper now! (Especially since my wife's crappy episode of BB8 is gone from the drive!
It is my understanding you did this by implementing the Free Agent Desktop Recovery Utility on your PC? And you did not have to format the Seagate drive when you connected it to change the sleep setting?
I take it your PC has Windows and would not normally be able to read that drive.
If this is true, there are other settings for spin down beside ON (15 sec) and Never.... you can also set it to not spin down for a set number of hours after it is first spun up each time?
Another Seagate FreeAgent Happy Camper
+++++++++++++++++++++
I've had EXACTLY the same experience with my FreeAgent Desktop 500. I've also noticed that all play functions from the ext HDD work more smoothly than they EVER did before the sleep function was disabled, even before more flagrant troubles surfaced. It seems the sleep function on this drive, when not disabled, mucks up functioning in more ways that just going to sleep -- almost as if it is sleepwalking the rest of the time. Though others have described in earlier posts how to disable the sleep function, some confusion seems to still exist. Apologies if it's redundant, but for anyone interested, here's an overview of what I did:
(1) Moved the external drive to my (Windows XP) computer; using disk management function, deleted partitions from the PVR formatting, then installed one NTFS partition with quick format from windows, gave the drive a temporary letter (I, J, whatever)
(2) Found Freeagent tools at
http://www.seagate.com/support/freeagent/desktop-recovery-efigs.zip
downloaded, unzipped and installed them -- didn't install the backup function (latter part of installation), as it isn't needed. Then installed the tools on the local (C) drive of my computer (it probably makes no difference what drive the progam's installed on).
(3) Ran the FreeAgent Tools which identified the attached external FreeAgent drive; used the Utilities to change the sleep function to "Never." Changes to the sleep function no doubt are made to the drive's nonvolatile firmware, and don't seem dependent on retaining any files on the disk itself.
(4) Then plugged the drive back into my 622, let it identify the drive, ask for OK to format it to work with the receiver. (As noted above, changes to firmware aren't affected by the formatting deleting drive data.) After the formatting, as usual the receiver went through its mandatory s-l-o-o-o-w reboot (for some reason, seems to take even longer than a normal forced reboot). And then, everything just worked!
Comments
Really no big deal; this is harder to describe than to do.
Once done, the drive should retain the change in sleep function, and the reformatting by the PVR has no effect.
For those who worry that running all the time will overheat or cause short life for the drive, I tend to doubt it. After many hours of steady spinning, the drive's barely warm to the touch, and nowhere is it stated that the Seagate warranty -- FIVE years -- is shortened by changing the sleep function. (I believe the default sleep function to be more a matter of saving energy as well as sparing Seagate the expense of an on/off switch).
Before five years are up, if we're still using hard drives at all instead of mammoth banks of flash memory, I'd expect drives of five terabytes (ten times the size) to cost half the money. In the meantime, when I'm not using the drive at all and don't want it to run needlessly, I'll simply unplug the power cord from the back of the drive (easily accessible in my installation).
FYI - After having turned off the spin down on the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500 I have, My issues have all but disappeared.
- Issue with the initial access to the drive saying it needs activation - GONE.
- Issue with the drive being detected but no programs listed - GONE.
- Issue with the drive not being able to delete programs - GONE.
- Issue with the programs being moved from archive to the PVR staying on the drive - GONE.
I am still on L441, but the only change I made was the drive spindown. I am a happy camper now! (Especially since my wife's crappy episode of BB8 is gone from the drive!
+++++++++++++++++++++
I've had EXACTLY the same experience with my FreeAgent Desktop 500. I've also noticed that all play functions from the ext HDD work more smoothly than they EVER did before the sleep function was disabled, even before more flagrant troubles surfaced. It seems the sleep function on this drive, when not disabled, mucks up functioning in more ways that just going to sleep -- almost as if it is sleepwalking the rest of the time. Though others have described in earlier posts how to disable the sleep function, some confusion seems to still exist. Apologies if it's redundant, but for anyone interested, here's an overview of what I did:
(1) Moved the external drive to my (Windows XP) computer; using disk management function, deleted partitions from the PVR formatting, then installed one NTFS partition with quick format from windows, gave the drive a temporary letter (I, J, whatever)
(2) Found Freeagent tools at
http://www.seagate.com/support/freeagent/desktop-recovery-efigs.zip
downloaded, unzipped and installed them -- didn't install the backup function (latter part of installation), as it isn't needed. Then installed the tools on the local (C) drive of my computer (it probably makes no difference what drive the progam's installed on).
(3) Ran the FreeAgent Tools which identified the attached external FreeAgent drive; used the Utilities to change the sleep function to "Never." Changes to the sleep function no doubt are made to the drive's nonvolatile firmware, and don't seem dependent on retaining any files on the disk itself.
(4) Then plugged the drive back into my 622, let it identify the drive, ask for OK to format it to work with the receiver. (As noted above, changes to firmware aren't affected by the formatting deleting drive data.) After the formatting, as usual the receiver went through its mandatory s-l-o-o-o-w reboot (for some reason, seems to take even longer than a normal forced reboot). And then, everything just worked!
Comments
Really no big deal; this is harder to describe than to do.
Once done, the drive should retain the change in sleep function, and the reformatting by the PVR has no effect.
For those who worry that running all the time will overheat or cause short life for the drive, I tend to doubt it. After many hours of steady spinning, the drive's barely warm to the touch, and nowhere is it stated that the Seagate warranty -- FIVE years -- is shortened by changing the sleep function. (I believe the default sleep function to be more a matter of saving energy as well as sparing Seagate the expense of an on/off switch).
Before five years are up, if we're still using hard drives at all instead of mammoth banks of flash memory, I'd expect drives of five terabytes (ten times the size) to cost half the money. In the meantime, when I'm not using the drive at all and don't want it to run needlessly, I'll simply unplug the power cord from the back of the drive (easily accessible in my installation).
Don't know if this bug has been reported, but last night I recorded my local news on ABC, one from the OTA feed and one from the Dish feed. I wanted to see the size of the file. Tried sending them both to external. The one transferred but the other did not. However if I tried to play it from the main drive it said it was transferring, this went on for an hour. So finally I deleted the one that was on the external and then it allowed me to transfer the second. However I could't put them both on the external. Even though different channels I assume it has something to do with the same program guide information.
By the way, the OTA 35 minute file is 4800 and the Dish feed of the same channel same time was 2395. 50% Smaller then the OTA.
Brian
By the way, the OTA 35 minute file is 4800 and the Dish feed of the same channel same time was 2395. 50% Smaller then the OTA.
Brian
Yep, that's the difference between MPEG2 and MPEG4. It's annoying that OTA ended up being MPEG2, I wish it could have been MPEG4!
You did not need to reformat the drive from the 622 format to PC format just to turn off the Sleep Interval.
I do agree that the power save function on the Seagate FreeAgent drive does more than spindown the platters. FreeAgents are not going to work completely right until that function is disabled, as many are discovering.
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