[AirlineMuseum.c]

Thanks to Mikeyboy and eveyone else who helped me find what I needed, I purchased a Maxtor 120 gig 7200 RPM drive (the version with 2MB cache, not 8MB) to repair my failing replay 3030 (you can read the history of the problem here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=194502 )


I attempted to clone my existing Fireball drive, but my computer and the RTVPatch linux program were unable to read the drive - I think perhaps it really did die. Instead, I downloaded the replay 30xx image, followed the instructions exactly and imaged my drive. There were no problems during the process. I made sure the Master option was still set on the new HD, and installed it in the replay. It booted up fine! I restored factory defaults to remove any customizations left behind on the image, and set myself up with my local info. It connected and got the channel info without problems. The only problem I do have is that as often as every 5 minutes and usually at least once every 20 minutes during live playback, the HD makes a clicking noise - usually a series of hard drive noises lasting about a second. Most of the time when this happens, the picure either freezes, the signal goes out (I get the blue no signal screen), or both. It is restored very quickly, but as you can imagine, it is very frusterating for this to happen every five minutes.


I have some thoughts as to why this might be happening, but I was hoping someone with a little more experience could help.


1. I noticed there are warnings about EZ-BIOS for large hard drive support in older computers. I have EZ-BIOS on the windows drive I used as the source for the image. I did not explicitly put EZ-BIOS on the new HD. It says that it will likely fail with EZ-BIOS installed on any drive, but I'm not sure if it failed or if it just has other problems? Does this behavior sound like an EZ-BIOS induced failure, or should it have not worked at all?


2. I also noticed in the FAQ of the RTVHack page, a mention of Large Cluster Support. The instructions for copying an image to the replay drive said to answer yes to all reset partition questions. I can't remember specifically if it asked me whether I wanted to reformat using a larger cluster size, but I definitely used version 2.2.4. I'm not getting any out of memory errors, but the FAQ does recommend using the large cluster option for 30xx replays and drives over 80gig. Could this be my problem? Is there any way of knowing whether I did large cluster or not?


Any other thoughts as to why I might be having this problem? I was so happy with my 42 hours of storage at high quality, but its useless if it's going to keep doing this...


Thanks

 

[heathriel]

Clicking means bad drive. Even though its new, it could still be bad. And bad drives can cause the freezes you describe.


So, I'd do a disk check with like maxblast or whatever and see if the drive comes out ok, or if it finds a problem, and if it does, RMA it. Maxtor takes like 2 weeks turnaround so you'd be without your replay for 2 weeks.

 

[karog]

Get powermax from the maxtor site and run the tests. Try the recertification option and if it offers to fix anything, let it. Then run the quick test again.


If no problem after the recert, do a low level format and then install the replay software again.


If powermax can't fix it, then RMA it.

 

[AirlineMuseum.c]

Thanks for the advice.. I was kinda hoping it was something wrong with the drive so that I could just return it and try again with a new one. Just to clarify though, it's not actually a clicking sound - it sounds just like 'regular hard drive noises'. When I did this whole thing, I was curious so I went to www.howstuffworks.com and read about how hard drives work. It explained that the regular noises made by HDDs are from the arm moving back and forth at a high rate of speed - the vibrations create sound, etc. Just like when a drive is fragmented and it has to fly all over the place to read data, it seems like every 5 or so minutes, it has to look at a different part of the drive and read or write something. Maybe that still means bad drive, I don't know.


Also, one thing I forgot - there have been discussions about turning off the write verify feature, and other discussions about how that feature doesn't affect anything. Is it possible that it's just that feature being on?


Finally, when I got the drive I read in the instructions that it was already low level formatted, so I didn't have to do it the first go around. How do I actually perform a low level format? will it be on the disk that came with the drive?


thanks!

 

[Mikeyboy]

You did the hack correctly. Nothing you did or didn't do should cause this. EZBIOS will only cause a problem if installed onto the 120 gig. Write verification on does not cause a problem either. I hope the drive is defective as it is the only serviceable part. Go to
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...91#post1456691

and download Powermax.exe Powermax must be started from a dos boot disk. Run the quick test, factory recert and then low level format the drive. Hopefully Powermax will find a defect in the drive and explain why the unit is acting up.


EDIT - I'd try one other drive in the replay before determining the motherboard is defective.

 

[Jazzsax]

Last time I RMA'd a hard disk from Maxtor, they will overnight you one if you provide a credit card info in case you don't send yours back, and then send the drive back within a certain time period. A safe way of getting a replacement very fast.