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Apologies if the answer is somewhere but I can’t find it.
The HDD on my Foxsat HDR finally gave in and Recording is now not available in the menu.
Having seen a few topics I have replaced the Seagate Pipeline HD 2 320GB with a a secondhand Seagate Pipeline ST1000VM002 Pipeline HD 1TB, which is allegedly suitable and the machine will format.
Basically nothing has changed and I am not computer savvy.
The software is HPRSFC1 1.00.21 which I understand was the last officially provided.
Not withstanding that the drive is bad, what else can or should I do.
When you say that “nothing has changed”, do you mean that you’ve swapped the drives. The new drive has formatted but Recording is still not available in the menu.
The drive hasn’t formatted. The Recording and HDD diagnostic menu’s are not available, so still where I was.
Quote:I am not computer savvyYou may need to seek help from someone local.
From your description so far, the inference is that the Foxsat is the problem – it can’t read two different disks. However, disks are mechanical devices and all of them will fail sooner or later.
How confident are you that the second hand disk is ok ?
Quote:what else can or should I doFirst step for me would be to try to work out where the problem is.
You can try connecting the two drives that don’t work in the Foxsat to a known working system. It is possible to get an externally powered USB SATA disk caddy. A suitable caddy accepts and powers a SATA disk and connects it to a computer via the computer USB port. The computer can be a normal computer or the Foxsat. Using a caddy in this way may help prove if the disks are viable.
The Foxsat is Linux based, so a Windows machine may not understand the filesystem of the 320GB disk which may confuse matters, but you’d expect the 1TB disk to show properly.
If the disks are proved working, it is possible the Foxsat has a failed internal disk interface. This is not a widely reported problem with the Foxsat.
Probably not repairable unless it is a simple problem with the power feed to the disk. An alternative may be to use disks in the caddy attached to the foxsat.
Thanks.
I can’t confirm that the second drive is good, only that CEX stated it had been checked and was.
The orginal drive seemingly failing was preceeded by intermittent screen warnings that the HDD wasn’t available.
I shall buy a caddy/lead and try that route.The more I look into things the more I’m learning … possibly!
What is your replacement drives format? From memory a drive which has been used needs to be either FAT32 or Ext2 before the Humax will offer to re format it.
I don’t have a clue.I bought it on the basis that I’d read it was suitable and the machine formatted it.
Being secondhand I don’t know what is on it or even if it works. I’m getting a SATA to USB cable so should have an idea then.
fedman1
Quote:a drive which has been used needs to be either FAT32 or Ext2 before the Humax will offer to re format itDon’t recall ever reading about that, can you find a link ?
NikRavo
There is a potential SATA compatibilty problem between the Foxsat and the new disk which may explain why the newer Seagate isn’t appearing. SATA is the connection between a drive and the computer and there have been several versions.
Years ago when upgrading a Foxsat was more common, there were seemingly credible reports that replacement disks needed to be locked to SATA1 operation in order to work in a Foxsat. Disks often had the option of jumper setting. A jumper is a connecting link encased in a plastic block about 8mm x 5mm x 2mm and is placed so that it shorts out two pins. The presence or absence of a jumper can tell the drive how to operate.
Fitting a jumper across two pins on the new drive to enforce SATA1 used to be the general advice. That said, there are also seemingly credible reports of disks working at 3Gb/s which implies SATA2 operation.
The position became more confusing with the advent of SATA3 disks which were less likely to have the pins for jumpers.
Maybe you can check the original 320GB from the Foxsat and tell us the model number.
Check near the SATA connectors and look for a row (or two rows) of 4 pins near the SATA data/power connectors. Is there a jumper placed across a pair of pins ?
Similarly, take a look on the back of the ST1000VM002 and report if there is a set of pins on that device.
The drive I took out is a Seagate Pipeline HD 2 320GB ST3320311CS. It has 4 pins without jumpers.
The Seagate I have put in and now can’t get to right now also had 4 pins and no jumpers.
I read somewhere that it doesn’t need jumpers but what do I know … I believed the original (second hand box) was 100GB too!
The reason I mention the possible failure to format a used drive in a Humax is because of NikRavo’s comment in post #3 i.e. “The drive has not formated”.
Unfortunately I can’t find the reference which would have been many years ago, and possibly in “another” forum. Also as you mentioned faster drives need a jumper to slow operation.
At that time I wanted to upgrade my drive from 320meg to a second hand 1 TB. After fitting the 1 TB in my HDR Foxsat it refused to format and partition the drive. Once I formated it to FAT32 in my windows pc, the PVR was happy and ran the format and setup process without problems.
It difficult to be sure about the SATA issue – many facts posted in forums are actually anecdotal. The drive in my Foxsat is a WDC WD20EURX-64HYZY0 which has been in there for 10 years. Back in 2015, I followed conventional wisdom and used a jumper. This drive was pre-formatted on a Linux machine due to the documented 1TB max limitation for formating by Foxsat.
The report below is from running smartmontools utility on my Foxsat looking at the 2TB drive.
Quote:smartctl 6.4 2015-06-04 r4109 [7403a0-linux-2.6.12-4.2-brcmstb] (local build)Copyright (C) 2002-15, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, http://www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital AV-GP (AF)
Device Model: WDC WD20EURX-64HYZY0
Firmware Version: 80.00A80
User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ACS-2 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is: SATA 3.0, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Thu Jul 24 20:38:15 2025 BST
SMART support is: Available – device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
Which confirms the drive is running at 1.5Gb/s – presumably due to the jumper fitted 10 years ago. All being well, I’ll try to find time to remove the jumper and see what happens. I think I still have the 320GB OEM drive somewhere, so I might have a play with that.
Disks I’ve had from CEX had a FAT32 file system when I first powered them up. This makes sense as it is more or less ubiquitious. CEX may have changed what they do or just forgotten to format the Seagate that they sold to NikRavo but my guess would be that it is FAT32.
Removing the jumper from the WD20EURX caused the Foxsat to report.
Quote:Internal HDD not available.Please check your HDD
With the jumper restored the unit operated as expected. This tends to support the advice about restricting a newer drive so that the Foxsat will work with it.
I’m guessing ‘Internal HDD not available’ is the message NikRavo refers to in post 5 for the original drive. It could be the message seen when the ST1000VM002 is connected.
A USB/SATA caddy can be used to check if the two drives work.
If both appear good via USB, it points to a problem with the Foxsat SATA interface.
If the ST1000VM002 does not work via USB, it needs to go back to the vendor.
If the ST1000VM002 is ok via USB, it suggests a way needs to be found to restrict the ST1000VM002 so it will work with the limited Foxsat.
I am awaiting SATA to USB to check both drives.
The HDD not available relates to the original drive at this time,I’m getting nothing with the (allegedly checked) CEX replacement which was all of £10.
Interesting dino that your WD drive needed the link to reduce transfer speed to 1.5Gbit/s. I’m now thinking that since the Seagate pipeline drive is SATA-2 and has a T.Speed of 3Gbit/s it might be NikRavo’s problem.
Seems the poor old Foxsat does need the slower data rate, maybe that drive would work in a later Humax box?
NikRavo, CEX have a good customer care reputation. Did you specify the drive was for a Foxsat HDR?
Quote:Interesting dino that your WD drive needed the link to reduce transfer speed to 1.5Gbit/s. I’m now thinking that since the Seagate pipeline drive is SATA-2 and has a T.Speed of 3Gbit/s it might be NikRavo’s problem.Seems the poor old Foxsat does need the slower data rate, maybe that drive would work in a later Humax box?
Which Seagate do you mean here ?
The OEM 320GB Seagate ST3320311CS is 3.0 and 1.5 Gb/s capable (SATA II) and works.
The replacement ST1000VM002 is 6.0, 3.0 and 1.5Gb/s capable (SATA III).
I haven’t (yet) found any documents on the Foxsat interface capability. Given the age of the unit it could well be that is is original SATA spec. Regardless, SATA II (3.0 and 1.5 Gb/s) and III (6.0, 3.0 and 1.5 Gb/s) disks should be backwards compatible with a 1.5 Gb/s interface. It is plausible that the three products we are looking at (Seagate, WD and Foxsat) aren’t all 100% compliant with the SATA standards. The existence of jumpers on some hardware is a tacit admission that there are problems.
The Foxsat recognises an OEM ST3320311CS (SATA II) without any jumper.
It could be the OEM ST3320311CS (SATA II) were preset in the factory to force 1.5 Gb/s only using SMART commands which would be the equivalent of me fitting a jumper to my WD. But it could also be that the Seagate interface just works better in combination with the Foxsat – negating the need to preset speeds.
We don’t know whether the OEM Seagate/Foxsat interface operates at 1.5 or 3.0 Gb/s.
If I get time, I’ll refit my OEM ST3320311CS and experiment to see what smartctl says about it.
Given the OEM 320GB Pipeline works fine, I hope there is decent chance the ST1000VM002 will as well because they are the same family.
In addition to just hope, there are posts from a credible user on hummy who reports using a ST2000VM003 in a Foxsat without any special measures (other than the formatting required for 2TB).
But it is all only speculation until we know whether or not NikRavo’s disk(s) is(are) good.
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