I know this isn't a warranty issue since I've mucked about with the player innards, but I'd like to see if anyone has any advice on how I should proceed.

Today at lunch I noticed my Mk1 playback skipping. So I rebooted the player (pull out of dash and re-insert) and it wouldn't boot. Bring it back to the office, hook up hyperterminal, and I get:

Probing primary interface...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
hda: TOSHIBA MK4309MAT, ATA DISK drive
hdc: TOSHIBA MK6014MAP, ATA DISK drive
Registering drives...
ide0 at 0x040-0x047,0x078 on irq 7
ide1 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: TOSHIBA MK4309MAT, 4126MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=8944/15/63
hdc: TOSHIBA MK6014MAP, 5729MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=12416/15/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdc: hdc1 < hdc5 hdc6 > hdc2 hdc3 hdc4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 8k inithda: read_intr: status=0x59DriveReady SeekC
omplete DataRequest Error hda: read_intr: error=0x01AddrMarkNotFound , LBAsect=6
88, sector=562hda: read_intr: status=0x59DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Err
or hda: read_intr: error=0x01AddrMarkNotFound , LBAsect=688, sector=562hda: irq
timeout: status=0xd0Busy ide0: reset: success
hda: irq timeout: status=0xd0Busy ide0: reset: success
hda: read_intr: status=0x59DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error hda: read_i
ntr: error=0x10SectorIdNotFound , LBAsect=688, sector=562end_request: I/O error,
dev 03:05 (hda), sector 562
Warning: unable to open an initial console.
hda: irq timeout: status=0xd0Busy ide0: reset: success

The "no drives found- retrying" went on for longer than it usually does.

During this entire time, strange noises were emanating from the primary disk drive. I did this with the player opened and the drives loosely tethered (I had already checked to see if there was anything physical inside the case) which could have caused the problem. I even tried swapping disk drive cables (using the secondary cable on the primary drive and leaving the secondary drive disconnected).

Plugging the secondary drive into the primary drive controller boots the player (although with an old version of the player software from when I first formatted the secondary drive).

So, does anyone have any advice to offer? Is there any chance I might ever be able to recover some of the fids on the primary disk drive, or am I going to be resigned to reloading my music/playlists all over again?

___________
Tony Fabris

Too bad, Tony. I hope its correctable

anyone have any advice to offer?
Just a wild guess: Have you thought about running a disk check after booting from your second drive?

on saving what you've got:
I saved all my Mk1 music and playlists onto the second drive, before mounting it in the Mk2. With an empty primary disk in the Mk2, the software completely rebuilt the playlists without a glitch. It appears that all the info is in /drive0/fids/.
If you'd manage to copy these somehow . . .
(see here )

Good luck


Henno
mk2 6 nr 6

Thanks, Henno. I'm installing a developer image onto the working (6g) drive now, in hopes that I can use it as the primary drive and copy the remaining fids over from the bad disk on the secondary controller. I think there's enough space on the 6g drive to hold everything for now, until I get another disk upgrade.

Ah well, I should look at the bright side. When I'm done, I'll have even more total disk space. I just was hoping I wouldn't have to upgrade the drives so soon.

So, assuming that I can even get the bad drive to boot at all, will I be endangering any files by trying to copy the fids from drive 1 to drive 0?

In other words, do any of the file names correspond, or are they deliberately different, just for situations like this?

(You'd think the guy who wrote the disk drive FAQ would know this answer, huh?)

___________
Tony Fabris

will I be endangering any files by trying to copy the fids from drive 1 to drive 0?

I don't think you'll loose anything if you manage to get all fids onto you sound (sic) drive. As I posted earlier, it worked fine for me. When Mike sent the instructions he stressed that I needed to delete all fids on the other drive (the primary on my Mk2) before trying to rebuild the list, though. He also said that fids are stored on the drive that holds the most empty space, so I guess that all fids are sequentially numbered and allocated to either of the drives.

I bet you're OK if you manage to copy them onto your other drive.

BTW: Once the fids are safe, I'd run empeg's formatting/stress test utility on the bad drive before I'd ditch it . . .

Henno
mk2 6 nr 6

Well, I can't even get the unit to boot when the bad drive is plugged in- on either controller. If I just have the 6gb drive plugged into the primary controller, then all is well. But the system won't even boot at all with the other drive plugged in. I was hoping I could at least boot the system and try to recover some of the files from the failing drive.

When I open up Emplode with only the 6gb disk installed, it's a sad, sad sight. Most of the playlists show up in boldface type, and all of the playlists contain only scattered songs left over. It's like the emplode equivalent of the aftermath of a bombing raid or something.

Ah well. At least I still have the files on my PC's hard disk. All I've lost is playlist-creation time.

Oh [censored], I just realized that I lost all my EQ presets, too, didn't I?

CRAP. CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP.

And I have a long trip coming up in a little over a week. I'm going to have to work hard to reorganize my music in that time.

___________
Tony Fabris

Tony; here's what I would do... if you don't already have one, buy a 2.5" <--> 3.5" cable adapter for your drive and try to boot your drive in your PC; that way you can try and run diagnostics on it...

Let me know if you can't get ahold of those cables and I'll buy/ship one to you; they sell them here at a local store..
-mark

MK2: 36gb
Tivo: 90gb
CPU: 120gb
...I think drive manufacturers love me!

Wait- I tried again and I got the unit to boot. I can get a shell prompt it says:

empeg-car v0.04 19990121 (altman@empeg.com)
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux....................... done, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg36 (mac@fatboy.internal.empeg.com) (gcc vers
ion 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #34 Wed Sep 6 15:39:22 BST 2000
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 9
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 4, serial number 00144)
Command line: mem=8m temp=31
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 7348k/8M available (592k code, 20k reserved, 224k data, 8k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 1024 (order 1, 8k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 8192 (order 3, 32k)
Page cache hash table entries: 2048 (order 1, 8k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
empeg display initialised.
empeg dspaudio driver initialized
empeg infra-red support initialised (Using FIQs).
empeg usb initialised, USBN9602 revision 1
empeg state support initialised 0089/8893 (save to d0004f00).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power state driver initialised
Linux video capture interface: v1.00
empeg FM radio driver (Philips).
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg dual channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
hda: TOSHIBA MK6014MAP, ATA DISK drive
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
No drives found, retrying...
Registering drives...
ide0 at 0x040-0x047,0x078 on irq 7
hda: TOSHIBA MK6014MAP, 5729MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=12416/15/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 8k initI see this is a developer image!
Mounting proc
Mounting first music partition
Mounting second music partition
Tried to mount /dev/hdc4 but got error 15
Error mounting partitions (possibly already mounted)
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To Comply.Start
ing player
empeg-car 1.01-beta3.
q
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Player exited normally: 0
Switching to shell-player loop
Starting bash.
empeg:/empeg/bin#


So it doesn't appear to be even seeing the bad hard disk at all. Hmm. Is there any chance I can get to any of the second hard disk?


___________
Tony Fabris

Hi,

I'm just wondering what it was that caused to disk to fail. Perhaps, the few weeks that it wasn't on the shock mount?? Maybe, when you send it back to the manufacturer they will tell you what went wrong. That information could help empeg design better shock mounts in the future. Although I think the current design must be pretty good.

Tom

Reg #2845: Mark 1 #00173, Mark 2 #119

That information could help empeg design better shock mounts in the future.

Actually, since I have a Mark 1, they already did improve the shock mounts on the Mark 2's. The problem with the Mk1 shock mounts is that the rubber bits tended to pop out of the mounting holes. This doesn't happen on the Mk2s.

I agree that there's a possibiliy that the disk failed because it's spent a portion of its life without shock protection. But I'm not concerned with the loss of the disk drive at all. Small disk drives like that are cheap and very easy to replace. My only concern is trying to rescue what files I can off of that hard disk, if that's even possible. Anyone have any more tips on what I should be trying?

I attempted to get to the "bad" drive1 from the shell prompt, no go. It lets me "cd /drive1" but there's no files or folders in it.

Wow, I only have 357 songs on the player now- less than a quarter of its original files. This is rather sad. Oh well, that's 297 more songs for the trip home tonight than I would have had with a CD changer.



___________
Tony Fabris

Hmmm, in my experience it is very unusual for a hard drive to not even show up like that. If the drive does not get registered at boot up, I am pretty sure you won't be able to run an fsck on it. You are in IT right? This is equivelant to fdisk not even seeing the drive (as opposed to reporting a physical size of 0Megs as caused by many media failures).

A few things to try are verifying all your connections, reseating cables, and just rebooting a bunch of times to see if it ever finds the drive. As a last resort you may even want to try dropping the drive (without empeg attached) a few inches (yes I have seen that work temporarily). Also, as someone mentioned, try putting the drive in another machine (you would need a machine that could read an ext2 filesystem, got linux?).

If you can get it to the point where the drive is showing up again, you should be able boot from the good drive and try to fsck the partitions on the bad drive (will probably make things worse if you have a hardware problem) or use dd to try and copy the whole drive to a file on the good drive (and then back to a new drive later).

-Mike

Follow up:

No coaxing or black magic of any kind would allow that disk drive to boot. Something was seriously mechanically wrong with that disk drive. It made some of the worst noises I've ever heard a disk drive make.

I don't think I'll ever know what caused the drive to fail, I have no way of analyzing it. For now, it's a small paperweight.

Fortunately, I have all my MP3 files organized on my PC's hard disk, so all I had to do was put my secondary disk drive onto the primary controller, install the latest player software, and upload my songs again. The secondary disk drive has enough space to hold my current collection, and I'll go shopping for a new secondary disk drive next month.

This actually had the benefit of allowing me to test the latest 1.01 release candidate on a huge upload. Suffice it to say that Empeg is going through the USB driver with a fine-toothed comb once more before releasing it.

___________
Tony Fabris

Sounds like a bad controller chip on the drive itself. But if its making noises like you say it is, its ruined. Sorry :-(

Sean