My Hummy has been on the blink for several months. Initially it had a tendency of thinking the hard drive was full up and would refuse to record unless some video recordings were deleted, or alternatively if some were edited, split and then deleted. (The latter trick would fool the beast into into thinking it had some extra recording 'credit notes').

Recently the PVR has been overwriting existing recorded programs when least expected and re-labeling titles. This morning the final insult was delivered when the machine announced that my remaining stock of several dozen recorded programs just didn't exist anymore! Despite this the Hummy menu (and Andy Chappell's USB interface software) shows that there is 85.1 Gb Free, 61.1 Gb used, 8.0 Gb reserved, adding up to a Total of 154.3Gb, so the video files must still be invisibly sitting on the hard drive somewhere

The machine is about a year and a half old and I have have tried the Default Reset and mains rebooting procedure without any improvements. One option is to now Reformat, but I am reluctant to do this if the same faults then re-occur at a later date. My son reckons he could possibly get a replacement unit under some extended warranty scheme he took out for this equipment.

Any advice welcome.

Richard

Reformatting will fix the problem. The probability of it recurring will be the same on your current box or on a replacement. Your choice.

All Hummys are destined to corrupt video files? That doesn't make sense from the point of view that 'goods should be fit for the purpose for which they are sold'.

I am at loss for a technical explanation on why files get corrupted. Is it that the hard drive needs defragmenting after a while in the same manner as a PC? If so, surely it should be possible to add such a facility for consumers.

No ... something very very rarely causes a file system corruption which is the situation you are in.

Reformat will fix the issue... but it is an issue that may or may not occur again.

Best contact Humax you've got a 2 year guarantee and they may replace your current unit.

Clearly they are not designed to corrupt the file system but then I don't think they are designed for long term program storage. My guess at the root of the problem is that there is no file system integrity check and hence if anything unexpected happens (lock up, running out of disk space, power cut) then the file system can be left in an inconsistent state and corruption develops.

I had a similar problem a couple of weeks ago. The hdd was chock a block with recordings and if it had been in a computer in the old days I would probably have said what it needed was defraging.
Only programs that were showing were the ones that had been recorded on that day but i knew the others were there and the amount of used hdd agreed. Couldn't get access to it though so had no option that to reformat.

No problem with recordings now. The problem is likely to recur not just on a hummie but on any pvr after all it's only a hdd just like the ones inside any pc and those get corrupted with excessive use sometimes as well. Its nothing to do with the make of the machine.

My only problem since reformating though is that half the series link functions dont work any more. It selects all the programs but isn't picking up when they're reruns, that could though just be coincidence and it's just something thats not being transmitted at the epg end currently. Its on ITV4 that it's not picking up duplicate episodes of professionals but on the BBC it's only recording once so I think we'll just blame ITV for that. Also virgin seem to have completely removed their series link, none exist any more for the Unit or for Chuck.

I don't thing defragging the hard drive will help at all. Defragging simply moves the file sectors so they are together on the disc is does not check the file structure in any way. In my opinion what is needed is software similar to the PC checkdsk utiity when used with it's /F switch

this sounds similar to my lost all recordings bug thread that is still on page 1 - i emailed humax, they collected my box and gave me a new one - even though it was over 2 years old!!!

I haven't heard from them - 3 or even 4 weeks now - too scared to email them as i want to keep the new box - but worth you getting in touch with them. They seemed to want to investigate WHY the software was causing these bugs...

good luck