WDTV Live Hub recently became unusable - no access to Local storage Options

[Sinwack0]

Hello, I have recently have been experiencing issues with my Live Hub. I have been a happy user for one year now. I have it set to automatically detect new firmware so I have decided to update to 3.05.10 last month and ever since my unit has become unusable. It compiles for several hours (more than 6) and when I come back to it, the unit is frozen and does not respond to any commands. Tried hard reboot, even reset button (paper clip hole under the unit) does not respond.The only way to get out of that cycle is to completely shut it off by pulling the plug, letting it stand for 30 seconds and replugging everything. Then it reboots, and get in compile mode again for several hours. Tried to revert back the Firmware, cannot even get the unit to have sufficient responsiveness to load the firmware screen once thumbdrive is inserted.

After a few days of trial error troubleshooting, I progressed slightly, I was able to rollback firmware to 3.03.16 and remove the Media library function, that stopped the blinking for hours. UI is pretty responsive now until I try to access the local file structure. I cannot get to browse files (from the WDTV UI or from any PC or MAC connected to my network), it freezes on me to a point I need to completely power off the unit. I suspect a Hard drive issue since I can see the WDTV from my LAN, but just can't access content from either the WDTV GUI or the LAN. Is there any way to diagnose the health of the drive?

My problem is that, eventhough the unit still is under warranty, I will lose all of its content. I have over 650GB of media files on it, unfortunately with no external backup.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

[Rev Drew]

best get a hold of WD directly and create an RMA to get the unit replaced before the warranty runs out.

[WDUser]

Accessing the data would ideally require the drive to be connected directly to a PC, but the drive's not supposed to be user-replaceable and attempting to remove it may void your warranty. Best ask WD how you can back up your precious data before sending the device back for an exchange.

[Sinwack0]

OK, here's where I'm standing. Went to Disk Manager. I can see Disk utilization is at 650GB, but the media file count is at 0 for all three categories, music, photos and videos. That could be due to the fact that Media Library function is disabled, or could indicate a faulty HD...not sure. I also cleared the media library did nothing. tried to re-enable media library and went back to the initial blinking for hours and freeze thing, so no luck there either. Resetted to factory default before, that did not help either.

The WD support swiftly replied to me yesterday and told me that my unit was defective without asking any additionnal questions...I was puzzled by the quickness of the conclusion..without any troubleshooting. They're offering a RMA for my "faulty" unit. I have asked them if there were any way to salvage the data, I doubt they will have anything positive to tell me but what the heck.

[WDUser]

The WD support swiftly replied to me yesterday and told me that my unit was defective without asking any additionnal questions...I was puzzled by the quickness of the conclusion..without any troubleshooting.

Either it's a common issue, or they can't be bothered/don't know how to troubleshoot.

Turning the Media Library on/off won't do anything obviously when it comes to accessing the internal drive directly over the network. If that's not possible and it's not a networking issue, I would suspect a faulty hard disk as well. Still who knows, it could well turn out to be something else altogether. However, in such a scenario I'm doubtful whether they'll send you back the unit after an RMA with all your data intact.

If an RMA is the only solution, I suggest you just be blunt and ask them about you turning the internal drive over to a good data recovery facility. Enquire whether there's any way they will approve this and still honor the warranty.

[johnmc58]

Not sure if this is going help as you did say you couldn't access the WDTV on a PC via the network.
But if you can revert the firmware as you did earlier and get it going, then:

Try connecting the WDTV to your router via an ethernet cable, you will then be able to check the contents of the WDTV HDD on your PC. If it is accessible, copy all your data to another HDD.
Best of luck. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Sinwack0]

Here is the support answer:

The problem with your unit is related to the firmware installation, like the firmware is not installed on the internal hard drive, all the information inside of it is safe and it can be recovered, If you need to recover the information on it, we recommend you to use our We recommend using one of our data recovery partners.

If you choose to use a non-partnered data recovery company to perform data recovery services on your drive, please notify us so that your RMA can be properly processed.

Now I did contact a WD partner for data recovery and they are charging me in the range of 500$-1300$ USD. That is completely insane.

refering to "Try connecting the WDTV to your router via an ethernet cable, you will then be able to check the contents of the WDTV HDD on your PC. If it is accessible, copy all your data to another HDD"... I'm not sure what you mean. I'm already wired connected to my router, obviously this allows me to connect to the WD but through my local network. That is one way that I've tried to copy my data but once connected to the device through my network, it stops responding once I try to access the file structure and the connection dies on me. Same behaviour from the WDTV UI. I have asked for a RMA, I've lost my data but at least I will obtain a fully functional unit. You can be certain that I will schedule a monthly backup to an external source.

[Sinwack0]

Wait a minute...just came back from work..placed a RMA with WD and figured what the heck I'll give it a last try...and wouldn't you know!! it's currently copying Media at approximately 500MB per minute over my network...I did not do anything!!! crossing my fingers..

[WDUser]

Consider yourself extremely lucky! Copy the files off, wipe the drive and RMA it.

[Burps]

Old post, but for the benefit of anyone finding this via google like I did:

I just gently tapped mine on the desk when this happen, reboot and the storage is back.

Looks like whatever WD use to connect the HDD to the internal components is fairly flaky and cheap.