Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive. Reset files to "0" bytes. Unsupported file type

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

OK, I have been testing various portable devices with “WD TV LIVE” media player

Issue’s in regards to various file types on portable devices being reset to “0” bytes

This will occur under these conditions:

  • portable device must have “FIRST BEEN ATTACHED” to “WD TV LIVE” media player

  • You must then start to play at least one video file

  • When connected to PC, If you extract your video file onto corrupt drive, when attempting to play back file on “WD TV LIVE”, file may be reset to “0” bytes

  • When connected to PC, if you “SCAN AND REPAIR” portable device prior to extraction, problem files previously reset to “0” bytes will now play (re-extracted to repaired drive).

Conclusion: “WD TV LIVE” is writing to the drive and causing this problem. It occurs on portable devices with NTFS file system and WINXP SP3. You may get one or two different CHKDSK error messeges, “0” byte reset may occur under either condition.

Drives tested so far:

Iomega select 2T * (NTFS)

WD My Book 2T ** (NTFS)

WD500PREM *** (FAT32)

This does appear to be a “WD TV LIVE” media player issue Firmware Version 1.06.15_V

*Checking file system on E:

Volume label is Iomega HDD.

Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.

Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.

**Checking file system on E:

Volume label is My Book.

Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal…

Usn Journal verification completed.

Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.

***This was my first drive used for media files with PS3

File system is FAT32 and file sizes are under 4gb

I could not, so far, duplicate this problem with this drive using “WD TV LIVE” media player

Regards,

2

Let me make sure I follow your process:

Plug a drive into the WD.

Start a file, say it’s called File 1.

Stop it.

Safely Eject the drive.

Attach it to the computer and add another file, say it’s called File 2.

Safely Eject the drive from the PC.

Re-attach it to the WD.

Play back File 1. 

It will fail, and File 1 will now be 0 bytes.

Is that a correct summary?

3

Yes, for the most part. Unless, for some reason after playing file 1 and returning the drive to the PC, it has no errors. I suppose you could check for errors without repairing, then add file 2.

In my experiance with this and the drive connected to the media player, as long as you go into a folder with the video files, the media player will automatically scan the files and reset them (with a corrupt device).

Having said that, this may or may not be true for one or several files loaded to a corrupt device. It may depend on what sector the files are written to? I have had instances where I have loaded several files at once and possibly only one or two are being reset to “0” bytes while other files play normally.

***UPDATE***

I had just watched an MKV movie earlier. While typing this, I disconnected my portable drive and scanned it on the PC. Nothing shows up if you do not select “Automatically fix file system errors”. So I checked that and re-scanned the drive.

6:35:21 PM  Nov12/2011

Checking file system on E:

Volume label is Iomega HDD.

Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.

Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.

If I were to add more video files to this drive prior to repair, more than likely they would be reported by the media player as “Cannot play file, unsupported file type” then it would be reset to “0” bytes.

This is the proccess I must follow everytime in order to play files with my media player and portable device.

Hope this helps…

Regards,

4

Just to update this thread and keep it alive, I’m hoping to get some official feedback from WD-Tech in regards to this problem.

If I am not “Disconnecting” my portable device from “WDLIVE TV” , must I still “EJECT” it ?

After playing a file, I tried “EJECTING” my drive and the “WDLIVE TV” will show it’s working and then freeze. Must do a cold re-boot of device (un-plug all peripherals…).

Interestingly enough, however, scan portable on PC afterwards results in a “CLEAN” scan (no errors). So this is a good sign, I think…(see original posting).

Honestly, I just would always power off the device rather than use eject to avoid this “Freeze” issue. So it seems I am doomed to this failure or the former in either case.

Still a “WDLIVE TV” issue in one form or the other.

Regards,

5

Your issue is not unique to the WDTV Live.

WD did not write the NTFS drivers; they were written by Paragon and used by most Linux distros.

The Paragon NTFS driver used by WD and other Linux distros is a reverse engineered driver of the closed source Microsoft NTFS driver. According to a number of posts the Microsoft NTFS is patented, therefore; don’t expect any specifications from Microsoft.

To compound the issue, some portable USB to SATA drives contain buggy firmware. Under certain circumstances the Paragon NTFS driver will return null bytes if the drive is not ejected correctly.  

There is a discussion about NTFS drivers at :

http://forum.wdlxtv.com/

Type buggy ntfs drivers in the search box.

Farther Reading:

http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-download/

http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-manual/

http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-faq/

The following links are listed in the Tuxera FAQ outlining past issues with NTFS Linux Drivers.

http://raoulpop.com/2007/12/17/big-problems-with-the-wd-my-book-pro-edition-ii/

http://www.ransackery.com/western-digital-mybook-open-case-recover-data.htm

http://sadjadbp.wordpress.com/2007/09/07/western-digital-buggy-firmware/

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1039498/seagate-snubs-linux

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/FAQ/DealWithAutoSpinDownOnSeagateFreeAgent

http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net/msg52993.html

http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net/msg52952.html

http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-arm@lists.debian.org/msg06448.html

6

Ya, I was afraid of this. Finding alot on this on several forums under various topics, but seemingly related.

Seems to be a HUGE problem that is not or will not be addressed. Not intersted in WDLXTV, but they are reporting it there as well.

I would be interested in formatting a portable drive under “EXT3”, then transferring my MKV’s with my WinXP machine.

Anyone have success with this format and procedures ? Something to try while waiting for fixes anyways…

Regards,

7

Paragon will never resolve the issue because the NTFS driver cannot be completely reverse engineered.

The open source EXT3 driver for Windows is just as buggy; maybe as bad as the Paragon driver.

The only reliable way is using a network transfer; too slow.

Or build a dedicated media storage computer from a cheap secondhand computer.

Cheaper than a NAS and more flexible.

There are a few goodies in WDLXTV that correct the official WD deficiencies.

8

I have a WD MyBookLive NAS.

I’ve been thinking of getting a WD Live.

Do you guys think this same issue (resetting files to 0) will occur with a NAS, or is it just locally attached drives that are the problem?

9

The problem arises from constantly detaching your portable device. I don’t think the WD products are really meant to be used this way. Transfer’s over the network would be preferred I suppose.

Anyways, I seem to have a fix for my data corruption and “0” byte files on my portable.

If you are going to “DETACH” your media, always eject it first. No need to eject your portable if you are just powring down and staying attached for future use. I tested this scenario and had no errors.

If you cannot “EJECT” your media without “WDLive” freezing, Scan the portable on PC, fix errors then delete the “.wd_tv” folder located on the portable. After doing this, I am able to eject my media without freezing. Scanning drive successful and so far (fingers crossed) no “0” byte files.

Maybe a future update will allow the device to be ejected automatically when power down occurs. This could be a settings feature on the device itself.

ie: Do you wish to eject your media on PWR Down ? On / Off or Yes / No

Hope this helps

Regards,