Please HELP! Resetting my TABLO blanked out the recorded program library guide, but the files are still on the HDD

Support & Troubleshooting
1

Background:

I started using TABLO a little over a year ago. I initially connected it to a 1TB HDD to save my recordings. About a month ago, I finally filled that HDD up, so I deleted a few old shows to make some space, and I ordered a new 4TB HDD. I ordered the new HDD specifically because I didn’t want to delete all of my old shows. When the new HDD arrived, I learned that despite having two USB ports, TABLO only supports one connected HDD at a time. That is when I began researching the forum to see how I might migrate my data from the old HDD to the new one. As explained in another thread located here, I downloaded the Paragon drivers and installed them on my PC which gave me access to the data. I started out by copying a few recent programs from the old HDD to the new one. I then tested to see if the files would still be playable. They were. At that point, I attempted to copy the rest of the shows from one HDD to the other. This didn’t work so well because there was too much data, and the transfer timed out. So I deleted all of the data from the new HDD and started over. This time, I copied the data from the old HDD to the PC, then from the PC to the new HDD. Once this was finished, I attempted to installed the new HDD on the TABLO, but the TABLO wouldn’t read the HDD anymore. So in order to reformat the HDD, I did a hard reset on the TABLO. It fixed the new HDD, but now the recorded show library program guide is blank. Even though the data is still on the original HDD, I can no longer access it because it doesn’t show up in the library’s program guide.

My Question:

Is there a way to re-sync an HDD that has shows already recorded on it, such that it will repopulate my recorded library program guide with the show data from that HDD?

A Point of Friction:

I contacted TABLO support and explained to them what I had done and why. Here is their response -

"May 26, 1:33 PM

Hi David,

I’m very sorry to hear that you’ve had some issues migrating the data to your new drive. Unfortunately, we don’t currently support this use case.

We don’t recommend using the work-around mentioned in the forums for reasons like this. Primarily, your mileage may vary when using third-party solutions. The issue we’ve often seen is that (even with app support) when a Windows machine touches the Ext4 filing system, it can damage the files on the drive and cause corruption in the blocks.

This is primarily why we do not recommend doing this - the risk involved is too high. At this time, we don’t have a way of migrating the data for you. I sincerely apologize, David.

Thanks,

Tablo Support"

I was quite annoyed with this answer, as TABLO has endorsed the use of some third party apps as a work around in their online Knowledge Base. Look here. The whole reason I tried using the Paragon drivers to access the data is because 1.) TABLO hasn’t activated the support of dual hard drives yet, despite being on the “road map” for at least a year, and 2.) because TABLO suggests using third party work-arounds until support for dual HDDs is supported.

Now I’m stuck with a bunch of shows that I can no longer view using my TABLO. I don’t want to have to use PLEX (or any of the other methods listed on this forum) to watch my shows. Besides being a lot of work to set it up for every show, it’s apparently not supported should anything else go wrong.

Please HELP!

2

I don’t think Tablo ever “endorsed” using a “wonky” ext4 reader under Windows. With Linux of course, not much of an issue. Unplug Tablo, unplug USB, mount read only USB on Linux, pull data, umount, unplug, replug, power Tablo on… that’s not supported either but infinitely safer (and should always work).

Programs to pull content off the Tablo, like SurLaTablo, are also good ways to get data off, but Tablo currently has no way to handle a disk migration or upgrade to larger size.

Plex is for people that want a media server for all their content. It’s easy to setup compared to other solutions, but obviously if streaming your media everywhere isn’t something you need, then Plex is overkill. Just because those programs like SurLaTablo are designed to be Plex friendly doesn’t mean they can’t be used for non-Plex environments.

For example, You could use the default Plex happy settings of SurLaTablo to pulll shows to a USB drive. The take that drive and plug it directly into (for example) a Roku, and use the Roku Media Player channel to access, navigate and play what’s there. SurLaTablo (which is pretty configurable), by default, makes relatively nice navigatable folder entries.

I will admit, it’s quite possible that Tablo will prevent programs like SurLaTablo from working in the future, but there are other chocies out there as well and some of those closed source offerings use the official Tablo API.

Sorry your experiment went wrong.

3

Cjcox, thanks for the feedback. You are right, TABLO hasn’t endorsed using Paragon. I didn’t mean to imply that they had. I guess my point was that they haven’t provided the built in abilities to manage multiple hard drives as they have suggested they will. Instead, however, they have suggested using a 3rd party ripper and extractor. That was the link I included and mentioned that they had endorsed. Unfortunately, I don’t have a system running Linux, or I would do exactly what you said. It is clearly the best choice. At this point though, I have the data on my PC. Extracting it really isn’t a need anymore. Just getting the program guide to recognize the files on the old HDD is my current dilemma. The files still exist on the old HDD, but after the DVR reset, my TABLO will no longer see the old content. The library appears blank, even though the files are there. Any additional thoughts about that?

David

4

After factory resetting your Tablo, your Tablo won’t see the recordings on your hard drive any longer, but I believe you should still be able to use Tablo Ripper to get the recordings off that hard drive, and onto your computer.
Connect your original hard drive to your Tablo, and see if Tablo Ripper can see your recordings.
Tablo Ripper is here:
https://github.com/cyclej/TabloRipper/wiki

5

I think it would be nice if one of those third party apps ( I use tablo2go, myself ) could download the shows via a usb cable instead of having to go over the network ? I just wish I was smart enough to dive into it.

6

As @cjcox stated, the disk transfer works well under Linux (I’ve done it successfully). If you absolutely need this done, I would suggest renting a Linux box for a day or running Linux in a virtual partition on your PC. Heck I had an ancient 15 year old Windows XP box that quit working functionally and converted it to a Linux box (Ubuntu) and now it flies. If you have an old box like that lying around…

Or there may be a data transfer shop (or even just a simple computer repair shop) in your town that you can bring both disks in and ask for a Linux transfer operation to be done. If so and they will do it, bring your Tablo along for verification before you pay them.

7

… and don’t forget, there’s a gazilliion Linux folks likely in your own vicinity just waiting to help you out.

I know that’s not the same feeling as DIY… but just thought I’d mention it.

Sincerely,
Darth Chris