What exactly is my ViP622 doing?

[Shimyr]

I've had my ViP622 for around 5 years now and have been using the EHD feature pretty much since it became available. My system update time is set for 6:45am and I'm sometimes up early/late enough to notice something odd that happens only when I leave an EHD plugged in during the update process. Since it just happened now I thought to finally uncover what this mystery is.

Not every time, not even close to every time, but once in a while when the receiver turns itself off to reboot and receive the update the EHD will "think" constantly for up to nearly an hour. The screen displays the normal screensaver/messages that one sees when the receiver is turned off, but the receiver is completely unresponsive to any input from the remote. Once it finishes whatever it was doing, it reboots and grabs the updates as it normally would and I can watch TV again. What is going on during this period?

My own theory is that maybe it's defraging the drive, because I see no other reason why an EHD would need to "think" for so long without being interrupted. And be sure I definitely leave it alone during this process just in case I'm right. But it is somewhat annoying for this to happen almost randomly and without warning, removing my ability to watch anything for approximately 45-50 mins (it restarted at 7:37 this time so it took 52 mins in this case).

If this isn't the case then I'm REALLY curious as to what is going on during that period. And furthermore, why hasn't a manual defrag function been programmed into the UI? My internal HD is definitely showing some age and something like that could really help.

Well, here's to hoping someone can solve this longstanding curiosity of mine. Thanks.

 

[ZachS@DISH]

Our receivers don't defrag the hard drives. To me this sounds like it may be a failing 622. Does this happen every morning? Also what happens if you try pressing the select button on the front of the receiver when the remote is not responding?

 

[harshness]

I agree that it is probably running an filesystem check because it is detecting bad blocks. Whether the blocks are physically bad or there is another reason for data errors is difficult to say..

 

[Shimyr]

No it doesn't happen every morning, only once in a while, and no I haven't tried pressing the select button on the front. I'll have to try that next time.

I'm actually on my 2nd 622 and I can recall it happening on the previous one as well. I used to use enclosures for my EHDs and when this would happen I'd worry about it overheating, but now I just use the "toaster-style" Thermaltake docking station and while it still happens I'm not as worried about the heat, just annoyed at how long it takes. I remember it sometimes taking less time and had correlated that difference to the process happening on smaller hard drives, as I've got 500GBs, 640GBs, and 1TBs and I've experienced this phenomenon with all of them.

Because of the persistence of the infrequent issue over all of the various hardware changes over the years I have never considered that the receiver might be failing, especially because only the EHD seems to be doing anything during the delay.

 

[3HaloODST]

It's just the receiver running fsck on the EHD. Happens to me on every EHD on 2 different VIP722Ks if the EHD is plugged in during the nightly reboot. The solution is to unplug the EHD before the receiver starts its nightly update, or skip the update. I like to leave my EHDs plugged in when I'm not watching so it can run the fsck (file system check) just to make sure the EHD is in good health.

 

[TheKrell]

Having done fsck on several large volumes, I can tell you it isn't fast. Try a new EHD with few or zero files on it. I'll bet the nightly reboot completes quickly.

 

[Tampa8]

Are you using an EHD that does not go to sleep? I am extremely doubtful a Dish receiver does anything to an EHD except read it.

 

[TheKrell]

I am extremely doubtful a Dish receiver does anything to an EHD except read it.

Huh? How does the receiver store programs on it without writing?

 

[3HaloODST]

Running fsck would be reading the EHD... Not to mention, what TheKrell said.

 

[Shimyr]

I don't use an EHD that goes to sleep as that's mostly a feature of factory-enclosed HDs that usually have tiny warranties and bad cooling designs, hence low life spans. I'm using this Thermaltake docking station with a WD10EACS drive which will park the head after a while, but it never sleeps.

If running fsck is all that's happening I'll stop worrying. The drive I had today was 1TB with only about 20GBs free, consisting of around 220 movies, so I'm not surprised a low-level program like that would take so long. I guess I still don't know why it only runs fsck every once in a while despite the fact that one of my EHDs will be on for nearly all the system updates, but it's not that big a deal.

 

[KKlare]

Time taken is small until you get to EHDs above 1TB or .5TB in use. The good thing about the file system used is you can just pull the USB or power while it is running the fsck and not have it say a thing. (fsck is the Unix/Linux name for a file system check.)

If you do a disconnect while recording/restoring, it may need a power off of the drive to get it working again. Worst case will also require rebooting the receiver. But generally the FS seems pretty bullet proof. I do not recommend this removal for Dish or computer drives, especially the latter. It is best to be quiescent before unplugging. I suspect they chose this FS for just this reason--there are not a lot of directory and bitmaps to write thus a very short vulnerability, if any.

-Ken