Edit: Internal Storage non-existent

[Teoman]

Latest status is that the hard drive as stated in the updated Subject title is non-existent. I’ve tried all possible physical solutions including removing the hard drive. When removing the power-button-cable to eliminate the switchoff before menu issue I was very careful, using tweezers to remove the cable, so I doubt the error came through there. It all started after the device crashed while transferring media files from the PC to the Internal Storage. Something went wrong there and the Internal Storage just won’t appear.

Old: Hello, I have been fiddling with the WDTV Live Hub device for the past few hours as it has been giving me a problem with booting. It simply won’t boot. I can only use the remote or pulling out the AC plug then putting it back in to load it up, then it loads the WDTV logo, flashes the device’s front led logo then suddenly switches off without giving anything else, and it just won’t boot.

This issue started to occur after I was loading media files onto it through the ethernet port from the PC.

What should I do?

2nd Update / Edit: The device successfully loads to the menu now, however the hard drive is absent. It does not appear in any form, through setup and ethernet connection to the PC there is no hard drive. Was the cable connected to the motherboard on the front of the hard drive (infront of where the grey holding is) the power for the hard drive or was that the power button cable and the hard drive doesn’t appear for other reasons. I cannot see any other way for the power button to be connected to the motherboard, I assumed that small looking power cable was what was connected to the power button. Have I assumed wrong?

P.S. I just updated to the latest firmware.

Cheers

[Teoman]

I did some searching on these forums and came across that this could be a power button issue and the only solution is to open the device. I haven’t updated the firmware since purchasing. Is everyones issue related to the power button? I don’t want to void my warranty by opening it up only to find the power button is not the issue. To clarify I have been using the power button quite alot, especially while on the desktop before and after transfering files.

Cheers

[Teoman]

UPDATE: I went ahead and opened the device anyway, removed the power button cable connection to the motherboard, the switch off issue is gone, however NOW it is stuck at Loading mochi… and the led light logo keeps flashing… no changes

[RenMart]

Teoman wrote:

UPDATE: I went ahead and opened the device anyway, removed the power button cable connection to the motherboard, the switch off issue is gone, however NOW it is stuck at Loading mochi… and the led light logo keeps flashing… no changes

Just wait, it will eventually boot-up.  This usually happens since the problem of unexpected shutdown may require the system to recreate the database during start-up.

[Teoman]

No mean to be rude but

_"2nd Update / Edit: The device successfully loads to the menu now, however the hard drive is absent. It does not appear in any form, through setup and ethernet connection to the PC there is no hard drive. Was the cable connected to the motherboard on the front of the hard drive (infront of where the grey holding is) the power for the hard drive or was that the power button cable and the hard drive doesn’t appear for other reasons. I cannot see any other way for the power button to be connected to the motherboard, I assumed that small looking power cable was what was connected to the power button. Have I assumed wrong?

P.S. I just updated to the latest firmware.

Cheers"

was the latest update, in the first post… i just made a mistake with multiple posts. Thanks!!_

[Teoman]

Hello?

[b0y0ng99]

That cable you disconnected from the motherboard has nothing do with the hard drive. That cable only connects the little pcb which contains the power switch to the motherboard. The port that connects the hard drive to the power is beside the port that connects the hard drive for data transmission. The hard drive problem you encountered is for a different reason. I’ve read in other posts that some users also encountered this kind of problem but can’t really remember the subject of that post so I can’t tell if that problem is solved or not. Why don’t you try disconnecting and then connecting your hard drive and see what will happen.

[Teoman]

I reopened the device. Did you mean removing the hard drive completely then reinstalling it? that looks a little difficult. If that’s what you meant, any idea how it’s done? I might have to try reconnecting the red-black 3 pin power cable to the motherboard and see if there’s any change. Would be nice to know what could of possibly caused this.

Cheers.

Edit: Removing the hard drive was easier than I expected, I was fooled by all the connectors and attachings.
The hard drive is reinstalled, however nothing has changed. I see a 4 pin connector of some sort at the back of the hard drive where the transmittor is, is something suppose to be in that? I mean theres nothing attached to it.

[Teoman]

I connected the hub to the PC to access the network login area, as soon as I log in it states “Full” on space but also nothing appearing in Storage list. There is no hard drive listed… omg this is driving me crazy…

[Teoman]

Bump

[richUK]

You have made so many points / edits thats it difficult to see where you are now. Can you repost and tell us your original problem and what you have done since then. I believe that you may have started with the internal drive not being seen and then you opened the hub and for some reason removed the switch and then removed the hard-disk and perhaps other things.

[Teoman]

Appologies about that. I was transferring media files from the PC to the hub through the ethernet port and the device had crashed / frozen mid transfer, I switched off the device and the power button was supposedly stuck / not working, so the constant flashing then sudden switch off issue occured. I followed the suggestions on these forums which pointed to removing the power cable from the motherboard. This eliminated the boot issue, the interface loaded, however no internal storage appears now (I assume something went wrong during transferring of files then crashing), I was suggested to try removing the hard drive then reinserting it, which I did without hassle, however the problem persists and the device runs as if there is no hard drive (there is no warning of it being disconnected however, and in the PC webpage admin login it states the device is full) I’ve run out of ideas since.

Thank you

[TonyPh12345]

That sounds like it might be something simple.

If it shut off while it was transferring files, the partition / directory table may have been corrupted.

This can be fixed in the UI…

Go into the DISK MANAGER.    Hopefully you will see a screen just like the above.  If so, select the drive, and it will take you to another menu where you can reformat the drive.

If the drive does NOT appear in that window, then it’s very likely the HD was killed, and you’ll have to replace the unit.

[Teoman]

Thank you for your response and help. Indeed the drive does not appear in the Disk Manager. Unfortunately it seems the crash while transferring files killed it. Hopefully, there is another way around this, and the drive is still alive as I can not return the device to the online merchant.

Thanks again however,

[TonyPh12345]

If there’s no way you can return it, then pull the drive out and plug it into your PC (requires SATA ports) and run diagnostics on it.   Your PC might even be able to format it…

[Teoman]

I suppose I can look into connecting it to the PC. Does the drive require preinstalled files in order it to work properly in the hub? Maybe this issue occured after I deleted the Sample Media folder, I may have deleted folders required for it to run? I did that before starting the transfer of media files. I’m just guessing as I have no clue.

Also, I reinserted the power cable to the motherboard and tried loading it again, the power button still doesn’t work, but there is now a squeeky noise coming from the hard drive. I don’t know how that came about.

Thanks

[TonyPh12345]

No, a totally blank hard drive is fine; the Hub doesn’t NEED a hard drive for most of its functions.

Since you’ve already voided your warranty, you might consider (after diagnoising the drive, of course) just replacing it with another WD Scorpio Blue of any size.

A squeeky sound is hard to identify…   It could be normal (though the Scorpio’s are NOTORIOUSLY QUIET) or it could be yet another sign of a failed HD.   But a “normal” Scorpio will have barely audible clicking sounds as the heads move around, and you may here a tonal sound when it spins up and down.

[Teoman]

Hello, I was able to connect the Hard Drive to the Desktop quickly switching the CDROM drive’s SATA Cables over to it, and it worked ‘Perfectly’! on the PC, the error scan showed no problems, and I even tested transferring files to it. Worked great, which leads to say the problem is in the WDTV Live Hub! Good thing I did not purchase a new drive to test on it, as the price of the drive itself is nearly as much as the hub overall. The drive is definitely not failing, however that slight squeeky scratch noise is still present when connected to the PC.

[calixto]

Hello I’m having the same problem. The LIve HUB will not recognize it’s internal storage. This seems to be a common issue? Is WD aware of this, if so, is there a new update that might be released to fix this problem?

[calixto]

Restoring to Factory default setting would clear the error, however it’s just a workaround. Once a turn it off problem will happen again.