My 4G/4 tuner Tablo just failed. Thankfully I am being sent a new one. I have a 2TB external Seagate HDD that’s about half full of recordings. I’ve reviewed all the help topics and have not seen a way to recover or transfer the recordings. I just wanted to see if there was anything new. I may buy a new HDD and just save the old one for now in case that capability is available in the future.
Also interested if there is a way to read and recover the files to my windows laptop.
Thanks…
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While you will be able to reuse the old drive on the new system, you will not be able to recover the recordings through the Tablo device. If you plug the original drive into the new Tablo device and set it up, it will erase the original drive and your recordings will be deleted.
Just about the only thing you can do is slave the drive on a Linux device and use some app like FFMPEG to stitch the videos back together. Then you’ll have the issue of the metadata and where to get it.
You might also try setting up the new HD on the new Tablo device, then copying the file structure over, but I think this fails too. Someone else in the community may have better info on or may have tried this process.
It just seems like a hassle to try, but you might end up having to face the fact that the recordings are gone.
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Thanks, I’ve read about using Ext2Fsd to access and copy over the files from the old to the new HDD after it is set up on the new Tablo. Unless someone here has a better suggestion. If that doesn’t work, oh well.
Please let us know if you try it and whether or not it works for you. Thanks.
I have yet to hear of anyone having success accessing the content of an old external drive when attached to a new Gen 4 Tablo. If you figure out a way to do it you would be a hero to many of us. Best of luck.
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I have a Gen4, 4 tuner Tablo that’s about a year old. It just died - no lights or connection. They are sending me a replacement. So it’s Gen4 to Gen4. I’m going to try to recover the recordings on my old HDD and I’ll update here once I’ve done it (or not).
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I just went through this and will be curious to see what you find once you get the new one. I have had two Tablo gen 4’s just die. Each one has lasted approximately 7 months. Since I had the older model before, it is even sitting on top of a cooling fan, so not heat related. On this last replacement, I plugged in the hard drive and was not prompted to format the drive. Called tech support, and they were of no help. So basically, my drive is 70% full, I can’t access the recordings, and I can’t format the drive for reuse. There is a support page that describes the option to go to storage and format the drive, but that ability seems to be deprecated. Neither windows or macos can recognize the linux based file system they use, so my only option is to jump through a bunch of hoops to reformat it, or buy a new hard drive. I’ve had a silicon dust on hand and I ended up plugging the HDD into that, and lo and behold, they have an option to format the drive. Starting to learn that interface now, and will probably leave the tablo platform for good. The hardware is clearly subpar, the support is abysmal, and the best thing about it, commercial skip and the lifetime subscription are gone. The Homerun HD has a far better picture, is a better tuner and renders live TV in a fraction of the time Tablo takes.
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I had the same issue when I replaced my Tablo. I expected it to prompt me to reformat, but it didn’t, so about 30% of my drive was inaccessible. I could find no way to force a re-format in the Tablo settings.
Fortunately, I use Ubuntu Linux on my laptop, so I just plugged it in there and reformatted it. No trouble.
I know that you can download utilities to Windows to read EXT4 drives. I haven’t done it, but it shouldn’t be that hard.
The following has always worked for me for Legacy Tablo devices but it should also work for the Gen 4. On Windows, after you plug in the drive you can go into Disk Management, find the right Disk, right-click on the Partition, then click Delete Volume. Tablo should now recognize that the disk needs to be formatted. *** Warning *** make sure you select the correct disk, if you select the wrong one you could delete a system or data drive.
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I have good news and bad news. I tried Ext2Mgr / Ext2Fsd but could never get it to work. I then downloaded DiskGenius and paid for a license. I was then able to copy the folders in the REC directory from the old to the new HDD. I did have to copy them to my laptop first, so I did them in batches.
Now the bad news - no matter what I did I couldn’t get the new Tablo to recognize the recordings on the HDD. The disk space was reduced but the recordings weren’t accessible. I finally just reformatted the new drive and am starting from scratch. I still have the old drive with the recordings if I decide to take another run at it.
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Thanks for trying, and for reporting back.
I do think that this is something that Tablo should support. I’m not sure why they don’t.
I agree. I suspect it may have worked if my old Gen4 Tablo hadn’t bricked. I’m guessing it corrupted the data when it went down.
It seems like replacing or upgrading a HDD is a pretty common thing. There should be a path.
To say I’m disappointed that I can’t use my external drive ,that was attached to my failed out of warranty 4th gen Tablo, to my new Tablo and recover the recordings is a gross understatement. This oversight is really beyond belief and leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Bottom line: If your Tablo fails your recordings are GONE! Unbelievable but true. If I had known this before buying my replacement I would have looked at other systems to see what they offer. BUYER BEWARE!!
It does stink but I’m an old fart and remember VCR days where the tape broke and whoops most of the time tape gone. So I’m just putting in perspective that all tech have issues.
Homerun by Silicondust have issues to.
I have a basic digital box and record my wife’s important shows as backup. Got it on sale. Funny thing is I have it set to do weekly recordings by time. Wish they made a dual tuner box as backup. We only had to use it once when Tablo guide last year was hosed.
I’m rambling here just to let you know the Tablo does have issues but the value is really hard to beat. Personally I don’t know what I will buy if my Tablo goes South.
I am old fart as well. I remember taking apart VCR cassette and rethreading the tape. Remember 8 Track and cassettes too you would see them on the side of the road all crinkled up with a mile of tape attached. Some times a pencil eraser would help rewind. Ah the good old analog days when things were less complicated.