Hard Drive failure

[VJD 0]

I finally had my first hard drive failure on a customers DVR. I'm wondering what kind of lifespan you guys have been experiencing?

 

This one (DVMRE-10CT) lasted about 26 months.

[rory 0]

DSR-2000's, 3 of them going over 4 years now ..a couple storesafes doing over 2 years .. no failures on any yet actually. I put them all on Voltage Regulators though, just the regular APC 600 watt type. Ive had my Triplite 500watt from 1996 and never lost a hard drive that was on it from day 1.

 

Rory

[MetzLyov 0]

No problems reported...

 

Sounds like your product is still in warranty... Check with your supplier and have it repaired... It should have come with 3 years manuacturer warranty.

 

Levon

[G22 0]

One of our crappy Maxtor 200GB's in our GEO setup at work started acting up after a year.

[sal 0]

I would go Seagate...they are reliable and give a 5 year warranty

 

heat is the number 1 cause of drive failure (other than sticking a magnet to it of course)

 

so keep those drives and dvrs cool if you can (plenty of fans)

 

and keep them clean too...i saw one dvr in a vitamin factory that covered in debris

 

sal

http://www.digitalwatchguard.com

[VJD 0]

No problems reported...

 

Sounds like your product is still in warranty... Check with your supplier and have it repaired... It should have come with 3 years manuacturer warranty.

 

Levon

Yep, under warranty. They are actually sending a replacement.

[MetzLyov 0]

GE does take the warranty very seriously and they always there to help... Just make sure that you keep the paperwork as a proof of purchase....

 

Good luck!

 

Levon

[rory 0]

and make sure you send it back with the original hard drive

course if thats not the orig hard drive then justy change it for another one ..

[Sir Flannel 0]

I've had several hard drive failures, and so far all of them have been linked to power failures. Those UPS are worth their weight in gold

[rory 0]

Actually a UPS does nothing for brownouts, spikes, etc, need a voltage regulator for that. We get power problems daily here in the 3rd world, and ive seen UPS' totally fried, or where the spike went through the UPS and fried the PC.

[SeanMort 0]

We've installed a lot of the GE DVMRe units over the past few years and a few have had drive failures despite using UPS devices and cooled racks. The drives used in these DVRs are mostly always Maxtor. The drive failure usually exhibits a "clicking" noise and won't boot up. Depending on the DVMRe model it may have more than one drive making up the total capacity (configured as Master/Slave with jumpers on the drive). We have taken this up with our local Maxtor Agent and they came back to us and said that the problem is most likely caused by corrupted microcode (firmware) on the hard drives system controller PCB. This microcode is contained in a memory IC on this PCB and contains, among other data, a list of the defects on the drive (all drives have defects from new). This list is updated continuously as the drive ages to prevent those areas on the drives platters from being used. This list seems to get corrupted for whatever reason and causes the drive to fail. When the drive is initially powered up, a logic check ensures that the drive has attained the necessary speed before launching the heads across the platter. If the drive can not attain a 'Ready' state, the logic is repeated for a pre-determined number of times causing a clicking sound. Maxtor provided us with their PowerMax software to try repair the drive via an IDE cable hookup to a PC but since the DVMRe format is non-standard it won't work properly. What we have tried that does seem to work on a dual drive DVMRe is simply swapping the respective Master/Slave jumpers on both drives and this will force a complete reformat of both drives (All Data Is Lost Though). On a single drive unit we have tried swapping a drive from another DVMRe with the same symptoms with the same success. These actions should only be used when you don't have a new replacement drive immediately available and need a temporary solution for your customer. The first course of action always is the warranty available through GE though. Hope this helps someone in a fix !!

[Thomas 0]

It depends on the clicking noise, I've most often found that the cause of clicking is rust on the platter. The simple test for this is to take the drive and stick it in the freezer for a few hours (put it in a ziplock bag and get as much air out as you can) and see if that makes a differance. The cold causes the drive platters to shrink just a little, usually enough for the heads to pass over the platter.

[rory 0]

without a voltage regulator you may as well just jack hammer your hard drive one time . ... a UPS doesnt help.

[steve~ 0]

Rory, can you recommend a product that has both a UPS and a voltage regulator built-in? I'm looking for the most cost effective way of having reliable surge protection, and a UPS that only needs to last long enough to signal a DVR to shut itself down.

 

Thanks,

Steve

[rory 0]

Ill do some research, have always just used seperate units until now, as its all I can get down here, shipping those units from the US ends up getting costly due to weight, but I may start doing it anyway with every system and ship an alternative route .. will let yah know.

 

Rory

[Doug 0]

So could a standard IDE drive could be installed as a replacement in the GE/Kalatel and the machine will format the disk without any special preperation before installation?, if so do you know what is the maximum hard drive size that could be installed in a GE DVMR ?

 

Doug

 

We've installed a lot of the GE DVMRe units over the past few years and a few have had drive failures despite using UPS devices and cooled racks. The drives used in these DVRs are mostly always Maxtor. The drive failure usually exhibits a "clicking" noise and won't boot up. Depending on the DVMRe model it may have more than one drive making up the total capacity (configured as Master/Slave with jumpers on the drive). We have taken this up with our local Maxtor Agent and they came back to us and said that the problem is most likely caused by corrupted microcode (firmware) on the hard drives system controller PCB. This microcode is contained in a memory IC on this PCB and contains, among other data, a list of the defects on the drive (all drives have defects from new). This list is updated continuously as the drive ages to prevent those areas on the drives platters from being used. This list seems to get corrupted for whatever reason and causes the drive to fail. When the drive is initially powered up, a logic check ensures that the drive has attained the necessary speed before launching the heads across the platter. If the drive can not attain a 'Ready' state, the logic is repeated for a pre-determined number of times causing a clicking sound. Maxtor provided us with their PowerMax software to try repair the drive via an IDE cable hookup to a PC but since the DVMRe format is non-standard it won't work properly. What we have tried that does seem to work on a dual drive DVMRe is simply swapping the respective Master/Slave jumpers on both drives and this will force a complete reformat of both drives (All Data Is Lost Though). On a single drive unit we have tried swapping a drive from another DVMRe with the same symptoms with the same success. These actions should only be used when you don't have a new replacement drive immediately available and need a temporary solution for your customer. The first course of action always is the warranty available through GE though. Hope this helps someone in a fix !!

[rory 0]

Yes IDE, number of HDDs depends on the version of the DVMRe. Let me know what version it is and ill check for you. And yes, HDD must be unpartitioned and unformated. The OS is non PC so it handles it different, it's RTOS Embedded Nucleus.

 

There is also some extra software for the DVMRe's for upgrading them, but that also depends on the version.