The other reasonably high probability alternative that I see is that the OP attached the drive to the box, went through the menus to the storage manager section, selected JFS as the file system to use (unless the drive format was not FAT32 as stated, but "unrecognised"), and then selected "format" and "OK", with the box then using Gparted or similar to convert to JFS while retaining the files.
Now, nothing like that happened, did it?
There are a couple of things about Brendan's comments that I want to address:
The comment about a test using an unrecognised file system isn't really relevant, since as you pointed out, FAT32 is a recognised file system. Your idea of trying to replicate what the OP did is a good one - do you happen to have a spare drive that you could format to FAT32, add some files, and attach to the PVR for a test?
The only file systems mentioned in the manual (gasp - I used it without permission!) are FAT32 and JFS (suggesting that my guess based on my 980HD experience may be correct). There's nothing about NTFS. So, either the manual is wrong, obsolete, or incomplete (no surprise to me there), or perhaps, you have assumed that "Journalled" implied NTFS, when according to the documentation it is JFS. Can you clarify this at all?
My money (I'd go as high as $1) is still on the box replacing the FAT32 file system with JFS, while retaining the file contents. Whether that was done by mistake by the user, by the box automatically, with or without warning, I don't know.
xarqui is right about jfs being a valid file system option via the local menu driven interface. I'm not sure how I missed it but I did.
However gparted cannot be part of any story related to this box because it is not on the box. See output below;
~ # which gparted ~ # I have put a drive with jfs, ext2, ext3 and a usb stick with FAT32 into the system with entirely predictable results. The jfs and FAT32 file systems were recognized and worked fine. I even attempted to fill them up with time shifting and when the drives got 3MB free, the picture locked up and time shifting stopped working, but the file system was not corrupted. Both drives worked fine when unmounted and plugged back into my laptop. Moreover, a quick channel flick and live tv was working again so the box itself was not actually locked up, just the time shifted channel which was also reset by the channel flick. (I describe this occurrence because for a moment I thought that time shifting filling up twinchamber's drive and corrupting the file system might have been another explanation of twinchamber's problem, but these tests rule this out.)
The local menu interface didn't recognize the ext2 and ext3 file systems, but did not do anything to them. They were quite readable on my laptop afterwards.
So I think we can safely say that the 900hd does not reformat any drive without asking. Now if a user requests a file system format, the 900hd can hardly be blamed for that.
However, I don't think twinchamber asked the 900hd to format his drive. The symptoms he described seemed more consistent with file system corruption, including being able to recognize the file system on the 900hd but not another computer after the original event. (We have, I believe, ruled out any magical in situ file system conversion.)
I will test (2) tomorrow. I ran out of time today.
I'm no Linux expert; Gparted was just the first utility that I found on the net that could change FAT32 to JFS without losing files. Its absence doesn't mean that there is not some other way the box does the same thing.
Those tests that you did are interesting, but none of them is a replication of what the OP did: a FAT32 formatted external disc drive being attached. What is true for a FAT32 USB memory stick simply may not apply to a disc drive.
I don't think it is yet safe to say that the 900HD doesn't reformat drives without asking since the conditions under which it was reported have not been replicated. Nor can the 'magical' file system conversion be ruled out since there is at least one utility that can do exactly that, so it is entirely possible.
It's also possible that the brand or model of drive is important. After I struggled for weeks attempting to get networked storage working on the 980HD, a primary basis for my purchase decision, with no useful documentation and no help from the supplier, I gave up. As a Plan B, I tried what is probably the world's most popular external USB drive, a 1TB WD Elements. Nope - not fully compatible - the 980HD would often be dead in the water after an overnight recording. That of course set the scene for me to want to recover the files that were there once I'd returned the 980HD under the CGA. Nope - JFS I suspect - nothing I had could read it.
You can see why I'm not quick to assume that anything that has been stated to work, or that should by all the tenets of reason be expected to work sensibly on an Ultraplus unit actually will.
bjdacre: The symptoms he described seemed more consistent with file system corruption ...
Interestingly, I have a blu-ray player that seems to corrupt the FAT32 filesystem on my memory stick at times. I have been using it for BD Live. It becomes no longer supported by the player. Inserting it into a PC and it asks to format it. Annoying.
twinchamber: either way my harddrive is unusable lol.
it would just mean spend another 6 years collecting all this material i had on it. and im not exaggerating lol
If it were me, I'd be looking really hard for a friendly Linux person. Maybe someone here could help. I can't as I don't have a Linux system (except my Vu+ Duo PVR, which isn't suitable for general work and doesn't support JFS anyway).
Lol sorry for this but it failed. my drive is fully corrupted i think there is nothing i can do and if there is i dont have the faith to do it anymore. i am truly gutted about this
Well, don't do anything rash with the drive, like reformatting it. Get another one and move on. At some point, you may have access to a Linux system (and person) who can attempt to access the data on the drive for you.
when i got this harddrive what i done was move all my stuff off someone elses pc. if i go system restore back to a previous date. will my files be back too? its a valid question
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