How long should it take for my hard drive to format on a new setup?
How big a hard drive?
Lite reading:
Mine is an 8TB WD Elements. I just switched out the old 2TB MyBook a half hour ago. The Tablo App isnāt telling me anything about formatting the new drive. The lights are on & blinking, both the Tablo & HDD, but thereās no indication other than an orange dot indicator and āStorage Temporarily Unavailableā showing in the SETTINGS page. It does identify the new drive properly.
I put the 2TB back on my Channel Master, and it only took about 3 minutes to format the drive again. The WD Elements has been formatting(?) 40 minutes now at the Tablo, and itās not finished yet. Iāll watch, and let you know when itās done.
(Hours:Minutes)
1:45 - not yetā¦
2:10 - not yetā¦
5:00 - Time to try something else.
I took the drive to my Windows PC. It was formatted as NTFS. I had Windows format the drive as āextā.
That didnāt work - I still get the āStorage Temporarily Unavailableā
I hit the reset button on the tablo - didnāt help.
I uninstalled Tablo, and again hit the reset on the Tablo. Then I downloaded the Tablo program again (using the Chrome browser on the PC). It came back up exactly like it was before I uninstalled it. It instantly recognized the name I had given it originally (Tablo Lite 1), and had the list of shows I had recorded.
I also tried my Android phone, Amazon Fire tablet, and a windows laptop (all wireless) Apps, but no help there. The Tablo is hard wired.
Bed time - Iāll try again tomorrow, but at the moment, canāt think of what else to try. At least the Channel Master is working again, so Iām not missing out recording the PBS Country Music history by Ken Burns. Awesome!
Which device/app are you using to connect to your tablo? Itās been suggested to use the web app my.tablotv.com or maybe android, for best results.
Have you followed the directions for adding a new hard drive?
As @djk44883 stated, not all playback devices can handle formatting the hard drive. If you have an android phone or tablet I would suggest using it to format your new hard drive. The last time I formatted a 5TB drive, I think it took less than 5 minutes to complete. The important part is that you must type in the word FORMAT exactly as directed when you receive the prompt.
This is where I have trouble finding a definitive answer. Roku, for example canāt be used for initial setup, ie) format drive. I understand it can perform a channel scanā¦ where can I reference - donāt use Roku [other device] to format new drive. (if that is the case)
Users with a vast range of understanding may think they need to do a āfirst time setupā all over again - seriously.
Youāve seen some questions from some struggling users here, Iāve read some elsewhere suggesting they may be in over their head.
[Itās been suggested to use the web app my.tablotv.com]
āA connection to your Tablo could not be established. Please check your internet connection.ā
I bit the bullet this morning. I decided to just factory reset my stubborn Tablo. I had saved all my recorded shows on my PC (using Tablo Ripper), and there were only 4 or 5 days worth that wouldnāt be on the reformatted drive.
I pushed the blue and held the button in on the Tablo for about five seconds. The indicator light flashed slow for a few seconds, then fast for a few seconds, then back to slow. Thatās when I released the button.
Back at the Tablo app on my PC, after seeing and answering the āFORMATā request, I got the spinning blue arrows telling me my new drive was actually formatting. I went and looked at the drive after a half hour, and yes, that white indicator was flashing semi-fast. I was wondering, because the formatting had been going for about a half hour.
Back at the PC, it was 45 minutes before the formatting was finished. Ta-dah!!!
None of the Tablo screens had changed. It still had my assigned name, the channel list, my recording schedule, and even the ārecorded listā. Thatās a bit of a problem, since none of those files are on the new hard drive - and I donāt know how to clear that list. When I clicked on one of those ārecordedā shows - tablo told me there was a problem, check my network.
I thought that the 5-second āfactory resetā would reset everything, but apparently what I did was just allowed the Tablo software to allow me to format the hard drive. Maybe a full factory reset requires a longer blue button or some other tricky sequence.
Thanks to all of you for the helpful hints - I learned a lot from them. If I knew how to do a happy face imoji here, or a thumbs up, I would.
For search purposes: Format changed hard drive. Upsizing Hard Drive. Changing Hard Drives.
Your Tablo should do maintenance on the database overnight. Hopefully that will remove all of those missing recordings. If not, contact Tablo Support and they should be able to help you get everything cleared up.
Thatās somewhat where this startedā¦
Just the beginning will tell about how to get/find forum tutorialā¦ then we just kind went off in all directions, and then some.
Just the first day or so - get licensed.
I have read that this may or may not actually be a thing. Any idea if thereās any documentation or @TabloTV posting about it for confirmation?
The one kind of sad thing was that during the āTroublesā, my Tablo wasnāt able to record the first episode of the new Ken Burns series COUNTRY MUSIC on PBS in HD. The good aspect to that scramble was that my old Channel Master DVR was back on line. Iāve watched the 1st episode twice already, once with beer, and once without. It was great either wayā¦ it is definitely āa keeperā.
Since nightly maintenance has been happening on your tablo since itās been setup, why is documentation on the āthingā important?
All I know is it updates guide data - does it really do anything more?
Itās unclear weather it uses a ācheck-inā NTP server, and how often it updates its clock, or what it may be doing. :scared:
I know itās hard but if you search you can find some of the answers.
Other then that adjust your meds.
1 Like
searching isnāt hard or difficult, do it quite often. Finding specific answersā¦ now thatās a struggling challenge at times.
As for my meds, Iām not going to arbitrarily adjust them myself, self medicating can be fun - but it can be fatal if done improperly.