**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Fri Mar 07 10:59:56 2008 Mar 08 03:46:34 tonymy01, did you get your 500G AV drive? Mar 08 04:59:20 yep, it was a dud Mar 08 04:59:37 really cheesed off by the whole experience now Mar 08 05:15:25 Sounds similar to my experience with Maxtor Mar 08 05:16:16 Who did you buy the drive from? Mar 08 05:17:29 Sounds like the retailer is screwing you around. If they can't replace a DOA drive, they must give you a refund. Mar 08 05:56:25 bummer :( Mar 08 08:23:07 the retailer just didn't have any stock to replace it with, they said I should RMA it with Western Digital as it may be quicker for me to do this than "Mwave" having to get it replaced. Mar 08 08:23:41 So I persued this option, thinking "why not" and the WD instructions to package and send is crazy, it has to go to Singapore Mar 08 08:24:21 Will they ship an advance replacement? Mar 08 08:24:29 so now I have left it up to Mwave to source me another one, I cannot fullfill the packaging requirements for WD Mar 08 08:24:40 no, only to US and Canadian customers. Mar 08 08:25:02 The drive sounded like a ticking time bomb Mar 08 08:25:34 I thought "for an AV drive, this is quite loud" and the wiz kept hanging during or after the format, and wouldn't power down etc. Mar 08 08:26:03 So tried it in an enclosure into the PC, and it took 1hour to format 1% Mar 08 08:26:07 Bloody windows sux Mar 08 08:26:20 it should have known there was a big problem, and indicated as such Mar 08 08:26:49 when I directly connected it to my motherboard IDE bus, the bios reported it failed SMART tests. Mar 08 08:28:20 Sounds like quality control doesn't have much value with manufacturers anymore Mar 08 08:28:40 and neither does customer service Mar 08 08:28:42 All drive manufacturers have some mortality rate, that's not really a problem. What is a problem is the way customers are treated when the drive dies. Mar 08 08:28:43 I fired up the WD diagnostics s/w (which would also only work for a directly connected drive, not firewire/usb) and it fails on the "re-allocated sector count" which is apparently where the drive hardware tries to re-allocate some spare sectors for duds Mar 08 08:29:47 I got screwed over by Maxtor and to a certain extent by AusPC Market. Mar 08 08:29:49 if the retailer had stock, it would have been fine, but the retailer was saying they would have to RMA it to get a replacement anyway, so may be quicker for me to do this personally Mar 08 08:30:09 but I would have been a heap out of pocket to send that the way they wanted it packaged to singapore Mar 08 08:30:14 Simples solution would be to refund your money. Mar 08 08:30:42 i am wondering whether i did a bad thing.... i drove it to Lidcombe and handed it to them to sort out getting it replaced Mar 08 08:30:57 because I actually do want this drive Mar 08 08:31:08 it sounds good on paper Mar 08 08:32:14 what was the model? Mar 08 08:32:21 the WD5000AV Mar 08 08:33:49 They sell a seagate AV drive also, but the description hardly indicates it is suitable in a quiet/PVR environ, where as WD really go out of their way to describing all the sound/heat/etc advantages of using the AV drive in a PVR environ. Mar 08 08:35:04 And I can't compare sound or power or anything which is annoying, one uses dB, one uses SON, one uses current Amps per voltage, the other just quotes total power in Watts. Mar 08 08:36:55 it does seem good on paper Mar 08 08:37:42 apparently is used in the Topfield... but I didn't know the topfield had a 500G drive... or maybe it was a lesser cap but same type drive? Mar 08 08:40:00 the last one I got for a PVR was a samsung 300OLD I think Mar 08 08:40:55 that went in the topfield Mar 08 08:41:35 yeah, 500G in my toppy would be great too, but the wiz is needing that cap a whole lot more than the toppy, esp as I am slowly watching the wiz more than the 5K Mar 08 08:46:40 I find that often the show I want to rec is only in HD, so the cap get eaten up quicker Mar 08 08:47:24 if a show has either format, I am going to choose HD, as my Samsung M81 40" looks superb for true HD. Mar 08 08:53:03 Does anyone know what the "stat" file is all about? Mar 08 08:53:49 it seems some of the "unsupported format" errors on existing recordings that people have is due to that not getting written properly, and being 0bytes. Mar 08 09:13:42 The stat file is an index into the 0000 files Mar 08 09:31:40 I'm off, enjoy your evening all Mar 08 09:41:48 but you can copy any old stat file in and it works fine? Mar 08 09:42:55 Not quite. Both files should be unedited and the replacement stat file should come from a recording that is at least as long as the one that you are "fixing" Mar 08 09:43:40 yeah, i did that anyway, but am going to experiment to see if I can find out exactly what it represents, to be able to make an app to repair it Mar 08 09:44:23 It's quite trivial. Just a load of 64 bit offsets into the file, sizes of chunks and sequence numbers of the 0000 files. Mar 08 09:45:22 no, the stat file has only 2 long entries (some only have one) Mar 08 09:45:45 it is the TVWiz file with the load of offsets Mar 08 09:45:51 i think Mar 08 09:46:21 Oh, in that case it may be flags like "is the file locked" Mar 08 09:46:38 I got the two file types mixed up. Mar 08 09:47:53 I'd better get going, the ladies want my attention now! ;-) Mar 08 09:48:04 hehe Mar 08 09:48:04 Catch you later... Mar 08 09:48:08 cu **** ENDING LOGGING AT Sat Mar 08 10:59:56 2008