Won't Read Hard Drives and the Network Shares Stop after a Minute

Just got a new WDTV live, and I love the look of the thing. However, it doesn’t seem to recognize any of my external hard drives (different sizes and models; the 1tb wd My Book certainly seems as though it ought to work). I’ve tried reformatting in different formats, checked for errors, etc.  It’ll say “connecting to usb drive” for a second, but then nothing comes up under either “files” or “disk management.” The drives work fine on computers.

The only thing that’s worked at all is plugging a drive into the router and setting it up as a network share, but then it only works sporadically. It’ll see the drive, but may or may not play anything. Half the time it says there’s no media available on the share.  I’d try finding an earlier firmware, but how could I upload it to the device if the USB inputs aren’t working right?

I’ve tried factory restarts, plugging and uplugging, checking the firmware, scanning drives for errors, switching out cables… everything short of hitting the thing with a wrench. I’ve read through all the forums and mostly found vague advice and enough mean-spirited sneering that I’m hesitant even to post here. Is there some solution I’m missing to set the thing up to read hard drives, or should I just return the thing now and save myself the headache of working with a company that’s giving me such a terrible first impression?

By way of update, I  found an old seagate drive that works with it, at least sporadically, so at least I know the usb ports work.

Just got two new WD TV Live boxes and I’m having the same issue.  It won’t read from some WD Passport or Seagate Backup Plus drives but will read others.  For the ones that don’t work it goes to connect (less than a second) then says no drive found.  Have been using WD TV for a long time and have never had this issue.

Have you guys used the WD Discovery tool?  Go to WD Support for your product and find what you need there.  Locate the complete user manual and spend some time with it!

And, BTW, to the guy who said:  “should I just return the thing now and save myself the headache of working with a company that’s giving me such a terrible first impression?”

Comments like this invite “mean-sneering comments”  you said you want to avoid.  Maybe you just don’t know what you are doing with this product, so you make it easy on yourself and blame the product instead of the installer.  Not being mean-sneering, but rather being brutally honest with you.  Too many people pop into these forums and in their first post or two, slam the product because THEY can’t get it to work right away.  It’s not a toaster, you know.  If you really want help, give enough pertinent info so others can help.

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WD Discovery won’t help in this situation.  When I plug in the drive to the WD TV Live HUB it flashes the “Connecting to USB storage” note then tells me that no drive is connected.  The weird thing is I have 2 WD Passport Ultra 2TB drives, it reads one and not the other.  Same model for both, same firmware level for both.  I have the same issue with 2 Seagate Backup Plus 2TB slim drives, it works for one but not for other.  Anyone have any suggestions?

Eject the drives from the WD.

Plug them into a Windows PC.

Run a disc cleanup.

Eject the drive safely from windows - don’t just unplug it as this will set the dirty flay again.

Plug it back in to your WD.

Hope this helps

slip

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A kudo for good suggestions.  I would also add, turn off and reboot the WDTV before plugging drive back in and turn theWD back on with all drives attached.

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Thanks for the suggestions.  I tried both, still no luck with either drive.  I could understand if I bought a model hard drive that wasn’t compatible but to have multiples of the same model drive and have one work and one not work is frustrating.

onorton wrote:

WD Discovery won’t help in this situation.  When I plug in the drive to the WD TV Live HUB it flashes the “Connecting to USB storage” note then tells me that no drive is connected.

Ok, so you have a WDTV Live Hub (This is a WDTV Live Streaming Forum) but anyways…

Not saying this is a fix … but i Always disable “Sync” in the WDTV Live Hub settings.  (don’t need it)

Setup > Operation > Sync From USB Storage > Off

 

Maybe also try a Factory Reset on the WDTV Live Hub(s) ?

(afterwards disable the Sync again)

 

Or Worst case … Reformat the External USB HDD ?

 

Just floating ideas  :neutral_face:

 

 

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I have a WDTV Live Hub and 2 WDTV Live boxes. Synch from USB is disabled. And I have already tried factory reset and reformatting the drive. No luck with any of the suggestions so far. I do appreciate all of them though. I have also switched out the USB cables on the drives it doesn’t recognize. I even cloned one of the drives that worked to one of the ones that didn’t. Please keep the suggestions coming, someone will figure this out.

What about a chkdsk run from command line ?  (i know slip.cougan suggested a “disk cleanup” but chkdsk is different)

Here’s a Windows 7 Guide (Google if you have a different OS … highly recommend using “command line” )

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee872425.aspx

command line chkdsk got me out of trouble a few times (fixed corrupt MBR Master Boot Record and MFT Master Fat Table)

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Joey>>>   (i know slip.cougan suggested a “disk cleanup” but chkdsk is different

Good that you clarified, because when I read “cleanup” my brain thought “chkdsk” (or scan disk for errors) because I know that cleanup would do nothing, and did not give it a second thought. It seems anytime I have a disk I connect to Win 7 PC with a suspected error, Windows pops in with a comment that the disk has errors and asks if I want to scan it.  Answer yes, and Windows opens the chkdsk scanner and finds any errors and fixes them.  No need to do it by command line.  It happens automagically.

mike27oct wrote:No need to do it by command line.  It happens automagically.

each to his own … i prefer command line 

(which at leasts displays a verbose output of what it’s doing / errors found and fixing)

So does automatic, Joey.  At the end, click See Details and you see the chkdsk report.

ok you’re right, it does in Win7 but not in WinXp (which i still use on one of my pc’s)

Win XP, I have one, too, mostly for ripping DVDs anymore… They will self-destruct next Tuesday.  Thanks, MSFT. 

I’m afraid it seems the WD firmware is more than a touch flakey. So many people are reporting problems just playing back files. My WD TV Live worked for years without a hitch and then suddenly it starts playing up. Exit out of a movie and the audio keeps playing. Try playing a new file and get the spinning cursor of doom. I’ve tried different switches, NAS, USB, different files that used to behave, even a brand new device and sure enough after 15-20 minutes of watching it starts the issues again. Just watch movie and it’s fine, try pausing etc and it breaks. Unplug, restart etc etc. Total pain in the arse. WD need to sort this out as it is clearly an issue with the devices - you only have to read all the complaints to know it. Too widespread and too frequent to blame on a particular user’s kit or files.

mark2014 wrote:

. Unplug, restart etc etc. Total pain in the arse. WD need to sort this out as it is clearly an issue with the devices - you only have to read all the complaints to know it. Too widespread and too frequent to blame on a particular user’s kit or files.

Some of the WD White Knights jump on posts like this and imply end user is stupid,  totally agree with “Too widespread and too frequent to blame on a particular user’”.

dcb917 wrote:


mark2014 wrote:

. Unplug, restart etc etc. Total pain in the arse. WD need to sort this out as it is clearly an issue with the devices - you only have to read all the complaints to know it. Too widespread and too frequent to blame on a particular user’s kit or files.


Some of the WD White Knights jump on posts like this and imply end user is stupid,  totally agree with “Too widespread and too frequent to blame on a particular user’”.

 

 

so far so good for me but I get where you are coming from. I started with an HTPC - mediaportal on XP then 7. Too many blue screens. Then I went to a TVIX dual tuner box- worked great except it turned itself off all the time… Then to a Humax PVR which I still use - but its streaming capabilities **bleep** and its codec support is woeful. So now I have the wd TV sme to handle that part. 

After all these devices I guess my expectations are lower. I’ve never found one device that can do it all. The TVIX came closest- but overheated and shutdown all the time. The WD does what I need it to do- but I’m feeding it through DLNA so its bare bones.

When that  near perfect device comes out I want one. I don’t think one exists now?

dcb917 wrote:

Some of the WD White Knights jump on posts like this and imply end user is stupid,  totally agree with “Too widespread and too frequent to blame on a particular user’”.

Are you implying that frustrated users like you are any better when they jump on postings like this only to agree but still keep hanging on despite their WD being oh so crappy?