Second hard drive

[nwwoods]

I have a Flex 4k with a 1 TB hard drive connected to the USB port. It works great.

I know I can replace the hard drive with a larger one to get more capacity. But I already have another 1 TB drive that I would like to connect to double capacity. I could simply use a USB hub to connect the hardware. But the question is whether the HDHomeRun system will deal with this.

Will connecting a second hard drive work?

[nickk]

I know I can replace the hard drive with a larger one to get more capacity. But I already have another 1 TB drive that I would like to connect to double capacity. I could simply use a USB hub to connect the hardware. But the question is whether the HDHomeRun system will deal with this.

Will connecting a second hard drive work?

One FLEX with a USB hub and two drives won't work.

Two FLEX units each with their own USB drive will work - the FLEX units will work together so you have double the space (with two FLEX units the combined system can record from any tuner on any FLEX to any hard drive on any FLEX).

Another option is to use a supported NAS box. The NAS drives and the USB drive on the FLEX will combine as a pool.

[nwwoods]

Thanks, that's too bad, it would be nice to reuse old drives to add to storage. I don't want to use NAS storage for media and in any event with ATSC 3.0, storage requirements increase significantly regardless. If I have a pair of mirrored 1 TB drives on my legacy NAS, I'm still short.

So it seems the typical user needs to go to a larger hard drive. I don't suppose there's any migration capability to preserve existing content when migrating to a new spindle? I guess this would presume two drives would work as well, or is there some other migration path?

[Señor Bob]

Thanks, that's too bad, it would be nice to reuse old drives to add to storage. I don't want to use NAS storage for media and in any event with ATSC 3.0, storage requirements increase significantly regardless. If I have a pair of mirrored 1 TB drives on my legacy NAS, I'm still short.

You don't necessarily need Network Attached Storage (NAS), just one of those USB boxes that lets you do RAID concatenation or striping. The firmware on the box will make the two (or more) drives look like a single device to the Flex. Just search for "raid enclosure" on someplace like Amazon and you'll find a variety of options.

So it seems the typical user needs to go to a larger hard drive. I don't suppose there's any migration capability to preserve existing content when migrating to a new spindle? I guess this would presume two drives would work as well, or is there some other migration path?

To use a larger drive, while preserving the contents of the original, you'd need to hook both drives up to a system that understands the XFS filesystem, and then copy the contents from the original to the new drive with something like rsync. That's going to mean a Linux based system. I have no idea if other operating systems have the facility to work with XFS. If you're not all ready familiar with what's needed to partition and then create a new XFS filesystem, you'd probably be able to get away with disconnecting the original drive, then hook up the new/larger drive to the Flex and it should take care of that for you. Then you'd be able to replicate the contents from the original to the new drive, on a Linux system.

[nickk]

Good thinking... a USB RAID enclosure that makes it look like one drive should work.

The only limitation is if you have more than 18TB of USB storage the HDHomeRun FLEX will only use the first 18TB of space.

[nwwoods]

Thanks for the Linux suggestion, I have an Ubuntu box I use for MythTV so I can mount old and new (after initializing the new on Flex 4k) and copy across there, then put the larger drive back on the Flex 4k and hopefully all will be good.

[nwwoods]

I've verified I can see the current hard drive on my Ubuntu box, the directory organization is straightforward. So copying from old to new on that box would seem to be pretty simple.

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you'd probably be able to get away with disconnecting the original drive, then hook up the new/larger drive to the Flex and it should take care of that for you. Then you'd be able to replicate the contents from the original to the new drive, on a Linux system.

I added the new hard drive to the Flex 4K to let it initialize it, but nothing seems to be happening. I guess I can format it to xfs on the Ubuntu box and copy everything across but am a little skeptical if the Flex 4K is going to recognize it afterwards.

Opened a trouble ticket on this as well to better understand what one should expect when connecting a new hard drive (and you don't see the Format menu choice and the log indicates nothing).

[nickk]

You are doing it right - have the FLEX initialize the new drive so you know it is the right version of XFS with the right mkfs options.

The you can use a Linux machine to copy the contents of the HDHomeRun folder from the old drive to the new drive. Each file is one recording / each recording is one file.

[nwwoods]

Experimenting with the FLEX, it sees a bare 1TB or 2TB drive just fine and offers to format, but on a larger drive it is silent. Larger drive works just fine on a Linux or Windows system. I sure hope there's a software fix for this. If it's not going to let me set expirations or episode keep limits (like MythTV) on recordings, then I need to be able to use a larger hard drive.

[signcarver]

What drive and if it was a bare drive that you provided enclosure/dock, what enclosure/dock.

First off it only supports the first 18TB so it probably shouldn't be larger than that. I believe there is also a requirement that it only works on the first partition and I've seen a few drives that hadn't worked because of that (basically promotional software was fixed in that and couldn't be deleted without special tools). I've also seen some shucked drives not properly work in alternative docks/enclosures and if a dock I've seen some that are very picky about startup sequence and wont survive a reboot. Many drives require additional power.

[nickk]

There is no limit to the size of hard drive you can attach.
If the drive is more than 18TB it will create an 18TB partition leaving any remaining space unused.

If the drive is blank it will automatically be formatted. If the drive is not blank it will ignore the drive (to protect the contents) until you click the Format button on the HDHomeRun device webpage.

If the drive is not detected at all please enable "send diagnostic information" and post the Device ID of your HDHomeRun.

[nwwoods]

Drive is an 8TB HGST Ultrastar He8 SATA drive from here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W1PRTNJ

in an external USB enclosure that has its own power from a wall wart from Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RH6JBH

Drive is not detected and I have already enabled Send Diagnostic Information. As previously mentioned I can see it from a Windows 11 box and from an Ubuntu 24.04.2 box.

HDHomeRun FLEX 4K
Model: HDFX-4K
Device ID: 10A2ED19
Firmware: 20250506

[nickk]

The diagnostics show using a 1TB drive that was confirmed for recordings. Then a 2TB drive was connected which detected fine but it wasn't blank so the HDHomeRun needs your permission to format it.

No record on an 8TB drive being connected.

It looks like the enclosure has a touch power button and reviews complain it needs to be turned on any time the computer is restarted. Can you please connect again and press the power button.

[nwwoods]

Yes the diagnostics confirm the original 1TB drive and a 2TB drive I connected to test. Apparently they are not showing my connecting the 8TB drive several times. A reminder I can connect it to an Ubuntu box and a Windows box and all is well on each.

I have reconnected as requested. Also tried swapping the cable. Don't have a spare enclosure to try swapping that as the older ones I have on hand don't support large drives. If there's an enclosure you recommend, kindly share.

With regard to the power button, there is a blue LED surrounding the power button and it is lit whenever the USB cable is connected. I can put my ear to the enclosure and can easily tell the drive is spinning.

[nickk]

Drive is not being detected. It is possible the enclosure doesn't support USB 2.0... you may need to try a different enclosure.