Well - had the box since October, and have just had my first instance of all recordings lost.

No idea of the circumstances - except that I have been in Germany for a couple of days - got back, and found the family complaining of missing recordings.

Disk still 60% full.

Suppose I will have to reformat to get the space back?

If you phone Humax, they will probably suggest you first try resetting to factory defaults (whilst standing on one leg and praying to your favourite deity). But, I've not heard of anyone managing to get their recordings back that way.

Some people have reported retrieving a few bits and pieces using eLinker to deliberately corrupt the file system by writing a video file to the 9200. But for most of us, a reformat is the only real option.

Had 9200t less than a week when I lost all my recording, luckily only a few hours worth.

Had been using the fast forward through a comercial break on a recorded item "Desperate housewifes".

Machine locked up & would not respond to remote control or front panel switches.

Power cycled & lost all recordings.

I shall wait for the alledged software update & will use the RS232.

Reformated the HD just for good measure.
Has 1.00.01 firmware.

Just got a reply from Humax. Nothing new regarding instructions (reset defaults, E-linker) but they did ask for details of exact circumstances surrounding the lost recordings (see below) so I guess it can't hurt, assuming you can remember(!), to include this in your initial e-mail to them.

"........Please be aware that a small number of users have not been able to regain the recordings following the above instructions. Our Software developers are currently investigating this to find out why. We have had a number of customers who have sent their Hard Drives back to us so we can evaluate them and carry out tests as to why this happened. We realise that this is a critical issue and are working as quickly as possible to get the matter resolved. Please provide us with all details as to what you were exactly doing when this happened incase it is a software bug triggered somehow. As soon as we get to the bottom of this we will release a software update Over the Air. Apologies for any inconvenience".

I lost all my recordings over the weekend; there was only about 3GB of free space, so that’s a lot of stuff. I tried rebooting and also resetting to defaults but with no success, so I’ve formatted the drive to regain the space. The channel that was selected when I noticed the loss was Teletext (CH 100). Although, I can’t determine precisely whether this was the active channel when the loss occurred, I think it was.

Due to this and the file transfer errors over USB, I’m seriously considering returning this for a refund. I’ll replace it with a Topfield, unless something better has been released in the last 3 months?

crow really sorry to read this and to everyone else in this thread for that matter. You, like I am, were probably reading these sorts of posts in the past thinking 'I hope it doesnt happen to me' thinking that it probably wont.

I was just thinking about whether there is any commonality, however less obvious they may be, that we are not capturing, or are but just havent put it all together yet. I guess it will take reading this thread through an making notes!

one thing I was thinking about is the fact that all the recordings are still on the hard disk. Its just that the file that holds the table of all recordings (file table of sorts) is corrupt or deleted and a new one is generated by the OS or the blanked file is written to again from scratch. Potentially the new file or the details contained in the blanked file is overwritten by the OS, which may explain why Humax can not recover things in a straight forward back to base sort out.

1) if we can understands what can trigger it, we can potentially avoid it until its fixed.
2) if the trigger is known humax can hopefully fix it.
3) if nobody is near getting to the above 2, then can a workaround be put in? Perhaps along the lines of saving the file so that it can be restored, as a dirty plan b.

Its funny because you read about this often on the fusion threads but at least there is a pattern that people think they have established now. Fusions are still being sold without a fix, however, I think there is a workaround about restoring the file table.
Last edited by marcdavis : 20-02-2006 at 17:37

Its interesting to read this as it implies that following the procedure has at least in some cases resolved the problem with some of their users?

I don't believe anyone has managed to get their recordings back by following Humax's instructions (reset to defaults / try using E-Linker).

Thanks Marc, the funny thing is I felt kinda relieved, not having to make the choice on what to watch from all those recordings. I probably would have only watched 10 to 20% of it anyway.
I still thing that I’ll send the Humax back if both issues that I mentioned aren’t resolved in a couple of months, oh yeah, and the lack of EPG caching is still a bit of drag to

As I for one haven't posted a reason yet, this is what I sent to Humax - not definitive but I didn't check the recordings list everyday (I do now!):

"......In answer to your question as to exactly what I was doing, I can’t be 100% certain as I don’t know precisely when they were lost.

What I can remember is that on the Monday night I stopped a scheduled weekly recording (life on mars) as soon as it started as I decided to watch it live instead. I don’t know if the other recordings were still present at that time.

The box was set to turn off at approx 1am and on again in the morning at approx 6am (I can’t remember the exact times as I have since reverted to the ‘Default Setting’). I don’t think there was anything programmed on the timer during these periods.

The following day was the first time I noticed that all recordings were missing".

There's a very strange situation with the Fusions at the moment. Back in October last year they released new software (version 1.7.5) for their FVRT1xx range of boxes, which contained a fix for the library loss problem, and some other issues such as a widescreen bug. As you say, the fix involves a backup table being created and maintained by the software, which can be restored in the background if any corruption occurs.

The FVRT200, which has some extra functionality and runs a different branch of the software with the same bugs, never received a matching update however - and in fact, since that one update went out, Fusion have gone back to broadcasting only the previous, unfixed version - 1.7.4. They have even brought out a new model in the 1xx line - the FVRT145 - loaded with 1.7.4 at the factory.

The assumption is that 1.7.5 contains some well-hidden bug of its own that Fusion have since discovered, leading them to withdraw it - but none of the many people using it (myself included) have any idea what this might be. It's hard to imagine how much worse it can really be than a version which can lose all your recordings, and can't even display some of the channels correctly on a widescreen set.

I do not have a Fusion so have not had the prob,,,LG RH7500....However....
I do know of at least 2 owners of LG hd/dvd recorders that have had a complete loss of recordings from the HD , in one case also losings the timer settings for upcoming recordings....
Could it be something other than software.......Just a thought.....

Boinng, I was kinda hoping that you or CJL would pop in and post some more on the Fusion that I brought up as its similar. Thanks.

I feel it is worth moving on with the other thing that was in my head yesturday but didnt note down here. Basically it goes something like this:

There have been reports of the unit detecting and reporting a 'hard disk error' message that come up on screen. So far there have been no links to this hard disk error message that a small number of people have had, and any major problems. However, what if there was something like a hard disk error, say a currupt or bad sector develop on the spot where the file table happens to be at that time. Its a long shot but to be honest the lost recordings/file table issue is as random and rare as having a hard disk error message.

Interestingly the Fusion loss of recordings (i.e. file table) seems to be linked only to curruption on the hard dirve also. Mainly as a result of a problem with compressing recordings on the disk. It is thought that even if you have stopped compressing recordings on the Fusion disk, your required to reformat the hard drive, as the compression was already done in the past and that part of the disk with the potential problem is still there even though it may not get written to for some time yet.

I guess the link I am making is corruption or disk problem on the hard drive messing up the fusion file table and therefore leading to loss of recordings from the recordings list. Could the same or similar lines be happening with the Humax, seeing as all the recordings are also taking space up on the disk, but the file containing its details has got damaged.

Boinng, I was kinda hoping that you or CJL would pop in and post some more on the Fusion that I brought up as its similar. Thanks.

I feel it is worth moving on with the other thing that was in my head yesturday but didnt note down here. Basically it goes something like this:

There have been reports of the unit detecting and reporting a 'hard disk error' message that come up on screen. So far there have been no links to this hard disk error message that a small number of people have had, and any major problems. However, what if there was something like a hard disk error, say a currupt or bad sector develop on the spot where the file table happens to be at that time. Its a long shot but to be honest the lost recordings/file table issue is as random and rare as having a hard disk error message. Even if its not directly related to that message directly, it shows that the unit can develop issues with the disk in certain places, as the 'hard disk error' message only suggests. Confused? sorry.

Interestingly the Fusion loss of recordings (i.e. file table) seems to be linked only to curruption on the hard dirve also. Mainly as a result of a problem with compressing recordings on the disk. It is thought that even if you have stopped compressing recordings on the Fusion disk, your required to reformat the hard drive, as the compression was already done in the past and that part of the disk with the potential problem is still there even though it may not get written to for some time yet.

I guess the link I am making is corruption or disk problem on the hard drive messing up the fusion file table and therefore leading to loss of recordings from the recordings list. Could the same or similar lines be happening with the Humax, seeing as all the recordings are also taking space up on the disk, but the file containing its details has got damaged.

Here is the reply I got from fusion when asking about this problem:

**************
Hi Tony,



The problem has been reported to us, but unfortunately we have not yet been able to recreate the problem. We have some samples of HDDs that have had this problem that have been sent to our engineers for investigation.



We will be checking to see why this problem has happened on the HDDs, and including a fix so that it does not happen again. We will also be trying to get a recovery tool if possible so if this problem has happened on existing units they can get the information back again. I am awaiting confirmation on this.



The issue is not hardware related but software so we are hoping to get this software release ASAP.
*************

Sorry - post above - the reply was from Humax, not Fusion. (Can't we edit posts here?)

Bizarre - can edit this one, but not the one above.

I think we only get a limited amount of time to edit posts before they are fixed.

It will be good news about the prevention of lost recordings and a tool to recover them if Humax's "ASAP" means soon.

AJP

For the record, my 9200T lost all its recordings last night; the only recording on the drive is one new one that recorded overnight, around 60 recordings lost (c140gb.)

The hard disc space is still taken up. Could it be like the limited programme schedule, it can only hold a certain number of recorded programmes?

I cannot se any sense in retaining this white elephant now; can anyone persuade me otherwise?

Sorry to hear about your recordings. Give Humax a ring and see if this tool to recover lost recordings actually exists or is just wishful thinking at the moment. I doubt if any reboots or factory resets will help.

Must say, I'm not impressed by Humax's response on this one. This has to be the worst possible fault you can imagine on a PVR and is one reason why 95% of my recordings still go to my Tivo (I won't labour the point on all the other reasons ).
As a person with extensive software engineering background myself, it doesn't seem like rocket science to come up with a utility to recover the lost recordings, they are almost certainly still there. If I was in charge at Humax I would give the software engineers a free 9200 to take home, but make sure they got models that were exhibiting this fault - they'd soon come up with a recovery tool.

I have now phoned Humaxwho said there wasn't anything that could get the recordings back other than perhaps the new software release. There was no promise of a date for it, and obviously, if I continue to use it I'll have a 15 gb PVR to use in the meantime unless I reformat it, after which I'd loose the recordings anyhow.

So no tool to recover lost recordings.

Given that there was not even a promise of a date for new software, I just would not trust it any more. Shame because it looked to be the best around and could have lived with it if it did all it said on the box. Loosing recordings wasn't a required feature though.

To anyone who has a 9200 with a fairly full hard disk, do not rely on those programmes still being there next time you turn it on.

I think I may try a Topfield but unforunately do not have a local supplier. Maybe I'll manage without for now as I still have the 8000 and a Pioneer HDD/DVD recorder so I expect I'll get by.

Strange how it forced me to keep to my word on the very same day I threatened to return it. Spooky.

As tdenson says, Humax could focus the minds of their software developers. Some years ago when a well known software firm was having dreadful stability problems with its OS, the developers were made to use that same OS for their day to day work instead of an earlier more reliable version, and it was astonishing how much stability improved in a short time.

My box is now 'boxed' ready to return.

Thought I'd post my fault report notes that will accompany it to help anyone else who needs to return theirs; please feel free to copy, paste and adapt as necessary!



I've made no mention of desired extras like chase play as they are not faults as such. Can anyone think of any other issues I may have overlooked?

I just lost all my recordings this morning. First there was a freeze - it was probably while set to ITV1. The machine was turned on and off by the power switch at the back as per usual. All seemed fine but I later discovered that the index was gone although the disk content was still showing as 80 per cent full. It's a pity to think I'll now have to format the hard drive because of a corrupted file table...

. . . unfortunately the reply is pretty useless!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Jon;



Thank you for your email; my apologies for the delay in replying your
query; we have been inundated with queries on new and existing products
and regrettably this has affected our response time to emails
significantly. Humax is aware of the issue with lost recordings and we
are urging our customers to bear with us while we formulate a software
fix for this. You can check for availability of new software updates on
our support website www.humaxdigital.com/hcsa/
from time to time. It is not
uncommon for technology based appliances like this to suffer from
initial software problems in the first few months of release however I
am confident we will soon have this issue resolved.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.

Best regards,



Donald Makoni (donald@humax-digital.co.uk)