WD Hard drive format fail

[metallurgix]

Hello

I received my Iobox 100HD a couple of days ago. I bought a new Western Digital WD Caviar Green WD10EADS - hard drive - 1 TB SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache, which seems to be a common option. I fitted the drive then turned on the Iobox and upgraded the Iobox firmware to the latest version on the Dragontech site, i.e., version 090125 which went fine. So far so good.

However, when I tried to install the NMT apps, it fails on the hard drive format saying the hard drive could be bad. Its a brand new drive so I hope this is not the real reason. I have read on forums that there can be problems with large drives being formatted but they only seem to apply to drives over 1TB. However, I decided to try a fix suggested for larger drives anyway, i.e., format to ext2 and then format to ext3. I therefore had to go back a firmware version (the latest version doesn't allow you to format in ext2). However, when trying to install NMT Apps again, selecting ext2 this time, I get the same error of "Format Fail. May cause by bad hard drive." [sic]

Note: The hard drive appears in my available media list and the red light flashes so something must be working. I am also able to copy files to the hard drive from a USB device and open the files so the hard drive seems to be working as far as I can tell.

Has anyone had this formatting problem or does anyone know about this or could it just be a bad hard drive? Or, as a newbie, have I missed something obvious I was supposed to do. :?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[GizmoDaddy]

I've ran into this same problem quite often. The first time I try to format the drive, I will get the "Format Fail" error and have to reboot the player. However, when I immediately try to format the drive again, the formatting process works.

[metallurgix]

I have tried to format again after the reboot but it still fails for the same reason :(

[GizmoDaddy]

Sorry to hear about you troubles. I believe the problem is in getting the drive initialized. You might connect your ioBox to a PC and format it first as NTFS. Then run the NMT Wizard, and let your player reformat the drive as EXT3. It is a long process, but maybe it will work.

[metallurgix]

Well after trying about 5 more times it still didn't work so I turned the box off and went to bed. I tried again first thing in the morning and lo and behold, it decided to work!

I wonder if the people from Dragontech know why this happens?

Thanks for your help GizmoDaddy (aka Tim)

Ian

[GizmoDaddy]

No problem at all. Glad to help.

If you run into any other issues, post it here and I'll try my best to help.

[Graffiti]

I can install WD 1TB HDD to IOBOX, just select Ext2 when install NMT. no problem at all.

But Seagate 1.5TB got problem even select Ext2 :(

[6p14pev]

Hi everyone,

I had exactly the same problem as metallurgix. Firmware 091025 simply would not format my WD10EADS. I even formatted the drive in windows XP as NTFS first - took about 4 hours, but that did not help any.

So, I went back to the 081023 firmware, picked ext2 as the file system. The first time I tried to format after the firmware change, it still failed. But one reboot later (as per Tim's suggestion), the drive is formatting now. It is at about 9% now.

After upgrading to the 091025 firmware, do I have to re-format the drive to the ext3 filesystem? I would imagine that installing newer versions of the NMT applications on the ext2 fs should work.

Thanks,

Ashok

[cmulder]

Hi everyone,

I had exactly the same problem as metallurgix. Firmware 091025 simply would not format my WD10EADS. I even formatted the drive in windows XP as NTFS first - took about 4 hours, but that did not help any.

So, I went back to the 081023 firmware, picked ext2 as the file system. The first time I tried to format after the firmware change, it still failed. But one reboot later (as per Tim's suggestion), the drive is formatting now. It is at about 9% now.

After upgrading to the 091025 firmware, do I have to re-format the drive to the ext3 filesystem? I would imagine that installing newer versions of the NMT applications on the ext2 fs should work.

Thanks,

Ashok

Exact same issue here--after the second reboot and attempting on ext2 the drive is now formatting. So do we then upgrade the firmware and then reformat to ext3? Although as per my other thread, I have not been able to upgrade the firmware over the Internet--going to get a flash drive and see if I have better luck doing it that way.

[DTC_staff]

Dear All,

Firmware 090201 fixed 1/1.5 TB hard disk formatting problem, please download and upgrade to 090201.

New firmware come with following new features

- Autoplay when power on
- Internet radio in Web service
- Thai subtitle support


Dragontech Team

[Keith Dinh]

Hi,
I am new here. I had a WD hard drive (formatted as NTFS) with movies in it already. I installed the hard drive inside the IoBox and still be able to watch movies. However, when I connect the IoBox to my PC using the provided USB cable to add more movies to the hard drive, my PC doesn’t detect new hardware being added. Do I have to reformat the hard drive as EXT3 for my PC to read it? Is there a way around this?
Thanks