For some reason 1 recording (all the others are fine) does not play, even though I’ve already partially played it. Something has happened to the file system, so I’d like to check it.
I’ve hooked it up to my Win10 laptop, but none of the tools I’ve used are able to tell me anything about the file system. It does confirm, however, that the SMART features report good health.
Tablo formats the hard drive to an EXT4 partition. These are Linux based objects. There are a variety of tools that can allow a Windows 10 system to access these devices. Use your favorite search and privacy destruction tool to find some.
A media file not playing does not conclude a filesystem error. Disk reads aren’t comparable to “tape” playing. It’s possible there’s some issue with the encoding or “the recording”. It’s stored as-is and read back how ever it’s written, errors included.
Although there’s a possibility there’s an issue. You’d likely have more than just this single issue if there’s an issue with an ext4 system.
If anyone’s interested, I don’t think the problem was w/the HDD, although, this begs the question: where was it?
- I turned off the Tablo for the better part of an hour; the problem persisted. This lead me to the conclusion that the problem was on the drive (while crossing my fingers and presuming it wasn’t damage to the Tablo hardware)
- I turned off the Tablo, disconnected the drive, connected it to my laptop and tried looking around the drive w/what Windows tools I could use. These all should have been read-only operations.
- Several hours later I reconnected the drive to the Tablo and the problem went away.
My best guess is that turning off the Tablo for <1 hour wasn’t enough and it needed several hours of rest to get back into the groove. I considered that it might be a flakey connection to the drive, but both ends of the cable were pretty solid.
There are many post from users about heat causing issues. If you have an external drive, a rare bad cable can happen.
Then there’s the various power supply problems, either dying or just “who-know”. Changing them out resolves the unexplained.
Ok, so is there any indication that these heat problems are temporary or permanent? If they are permanent, I could hook the Tablo up to a smart switch and turn it off until I need it. But the last time I tried that, the audio tended to get wonky. That may have been a couple of updates ago.
I have a muffin fan that moves the air next to my Tablo and router just to reduce the device heat. There is a small bit of sound from it but not enough to be bothersome.
I have the OTA 1TB DVR and is was warm so I bought these:
Fan
Speed Control
You can plug it into a USB port on the Tablo, or a USB Charger.
NOTE - additional power will be consumed, so if you have a marginal power supply, the external charger would be a better choice.
Speed is adjustable from Can’t Hear It, to Too Loud.
Do a quick search. Officially tablo’s testing show no issue from heat. Many disagree, even more never have any problesm while others have cooling fans for virtually every electronic device …even if just because they feel better about things.
A fan to cool and forget is far better option.
I have never had any heat problems and I been using Tablos off and on many years. I even put a 4Tb Firecuda inside the one Quad and it did get a little warm, but you just don’t touch it same as my air fryer, the side can warm up some in use, normal. I have a 5Tb external now on my one Tablo with no problems just don’t put it in a cabinet and things like that and it will be fine with no need to worry about adding fans and things.