Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 9th, 2014, 11:27
Not sure what to call it.
On a filmshoot, all the material was shot/recorded on 6 different SxS cards, same camera. The content was transfered from a thunderbolt sxs card reader to a WD green 2TB, connected by usb through a harddrive dock. I checked all the card transfers size-wise, to the byte. It was done on a macbook pro. Two different locations shot, meaning the "transfer station" was packed on a bag at lunch time, and set up again on a different location. (So less chances of a bad cable connection)
Anyway, a couple days later, the post-production house calls me telling me that all the videoclips had problems, all over, in all the frames of all the videoclips. I checked the camera and the still unformatted sxs cards and the material was fine. To confirm it was the hard drive faulting, I checked the sound recording on the hard drive, recorded with a sound device on a cf card and copied to the wd green, they had a sort of stuttering throughout the sound. Recopying the content of the cards to a different hard drive seemed to playback fine.
Here's what it looks like:
The hard drive doesn't seem damaged, as the files are able to be copied to another medium. In fact, this image was taken from one videoclip being copied to another computer (windows) and played on it, different players.
It's not a codec problem, as the same files copied from the sxs cards to a different hard drive play fine.
Do you have any idea why and how this might have happened?
On a filmshoot, all the material was shot/recorded on 6 different SxS cards, same camera. The content was transfered from a thunderbolt sxs card reader to a WD green 2TB, connected by usb through a harddrive dock. I checked all the card transfers size-wise, to the byte. It was done on a macbook pro. Two different locations shot, meaning the "transfer station" was packed on a bag at lunch time, and set up again on a different location. (So less chances of a bad cable connection)
Anyway, a couple days later, the post-production house calls me telling me that all the videoclips had problems, all over, in all the frames of all the videoclips. I checked the camera and the still unformatted sxs cards and the material was fine. To confirm it was the hard drive faulting, I checked the sound recording on the hard drive, recorded with a sound device on a cf card and copied to the wd green, they had a sort of stuttering throughout the sound. Recopying the content of the cards to a different hard drive seemed to playback fine.
Here's what it looks like:
The hard drive doesn't seem damaged, as the files are able to be copied to another medium. In fact, this image was taken from one videoclip being copied to another computer (windows) and played on it, different players.
It's not a codec problem, as the same files copied from the sxs cards to a different hard drive play fine.
Do you have any idea why and how this might have happened?
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 9th, 2014, 21:52
After you copy the files from the suspect hard drive to another medium, do they play fine?
If so, I suspect there could be Cache issues/firmware issues or even Media damage where the HDD is working overtime to correct errors, decreasing performance.
I would think a pro would need to assess the HDD physically though. BTW, I wouldnt use a WD Green for video stuff, I would go Black or even a "server" HDD like a Red or Blue if you want to stick with WD.
If so, I suspect there could be Cache issues/firmware issues or even Media damage where the HDD is working overtime to correct errors, decreasing performance.
I would think a pro would need to assess the HDD physically though. BTW, I wouldnt use a WD Green for video stuff, I would go Black or even a "server" HDD like a Red or Blue if you want to stick with WD.
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 10th, 2014, 3:39
reppel wrote:Not sure what to call it.
On a filmshoot, all the material was shot/recorded on 6 different SxS cards, same camera. The content was transfered from a thunderbolt sxs card reader to a WD green 2TB, connected by usb through a harddrive dock. I checked all the card transfers size-wise, to the byte. It was done on a macbook pro. Two different locations shot, meaning the "transfer station" was packed on a bag at lunch time, and set up again on a different location. (So less chances of a bad cable connection)
Anyway, a couple days later, the post-production house calls me telling me that all the videoclips had problems, all over, in all the frames of all the videoclips. I checked the camera and the still unformatted sxs cards and the material was fine. To confirm it was the hard drive faulting, I checked the sound recording on the hard drive, recorded with a sound device on a cf card and copied to the wd green, they had a sort of stuttering throughout the sound. Recopying the content of the cards to a different hard drive seemed to playback fine.
Here's what it looks like:
The hard drive doesn't seem damaged, as the files are able to be copied to another medium. In fact, this image was taken from one videoclip being copied to another computer (windows) and played on it, different players.
It's not a codec problem, as the same files copied from the sxs cards to a different hard drive play fine.
Do you have any idea why and how this might have happened?
For some reason i do believe that the problem is the "SxS cards"
while recording FRAMES DROPs Specially with this High-End Memory cards ( i believe TV Level Recording )
As you mentioned all 6 cards are the same, the Question is: Same Brand?
as far as i know, those video`s are NOT SHORT like 10min++
Advice: change Brand, change Card, record a sample of 10min and view it on your PC and see how it goes
good luck
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 10th, 2014, 3:40
forgot to mention, once resolved plz confirm
thank you
thank you
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 10th, 2014, 4:06
I would compare a file on your SxS card against the same file on your hard drive. The differences might help us determine the nature of the problem.
In a DOS windows you could type the following:
FC /B x:file1 y:file2
where "x" and "y" are your two drives.
In a DOS windows you could type the following:
FC /B x:file1 y:file2
where "x" and "y" are your two drives.
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 10th, 2014, 5:38
einstein9 wrote:reppel wrote:
...... Recopying the content of the cards to a different hard drive seemed to playback fine.
snip
......
It's not a codec problem, as the same files copied from the sxs cards to a different hard drive play fine.
For some reason i do believe that the problem is the "SxS cards"
while recording FRAMES DROPs Specially with this High-End Memory cards ( i believe TV Level Recording )
As you mentioned all 6 cards are the same, the Question is: Same Brand?
as far as i know, those video`s are NOT SHORT like 10min++
Advice: change Brand, change Card, record a sample of 10min and view it on your PC and see how it goes
good luck
Not sure about that as the files seem to be ok on other drives aside from the WD Green, if I have it correct from OP.
I had 1 WD green and it was doing similar things, slowing down, taking along time to copy etc, it was around 6 months old when I ditched it. To be fair, I never looked into it, but once a hard disk misbehaves, and I am sure enough it IS the HDD, it is dead to me.
Still wouldn't hurt to follow Einstein9's suggestion to see the result, but could be expensive and really what else are these cards used for? they should be fine.
cheapest easiest test IM(extremely)HO is swap the Hard Disk for something with a decent cache and specs.
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 10th, 2014, 9:13
Thx for your replies.
I don't think it's the Sony sxs cards. They are extremely expensive, and out of a sudden all of them with the same problem would be unlikely. And I tried copy those same files to a different hdd and they play fine, it's only on the wd green that they have all those artifacts. And by the fact that the sound files copied from a different recorder with a CF card, also having the same problem. The camera is an Arri Alexa, cinema camera.
By the nature of the picture, and that all the frames have those same things, in different places, I don't know if it was a whole sector/zone of the harddrive that out of a sudden got damaged, of if something was overwritten on it, which would be strange. The fact that the file can be copied from the hdd to another medium at normal speeds also makes me think that the hard drive is not damaged in the physical kind of way, or maybe it is, i don't know.
I forgot to mention that the hard drive is formatted as exFAT, I don't know if that matters.
But, in theory, if the hard drive is not damaged, when a file is copied, isn't there some sort of verification during the copying process to make sure that every byte is well copied without mistake?
And if it was damaged, shouldn't it lag a lot or even give an error?
I'll try doing the file verification using the FC command later on.
I don't think it's the Sony sxs cards. They are extremely expensive, and out of a sudden all of them with the same problem would be unlikely. And I tried copy those same files to a different hdd and they play fine, it's only on the wd green that they have all those artifacts. And by the fact that the sound files copied from a different recorder with a CF card, also having the same problem. The camera is an Arri Alexa, cinema camera.
By the nature of the picture, and that all the frames have those same things, in different places, I don't know if it was a whole sector/zone of the harddrive that out of a sudden got damaged, of if something was overwritten on it, which would be strange. The fact that the file can be copied from the hdd to another medium at normal speeds also makes me think that the hard drive is not damaged in the physical kind of way, or maybe it is, i don't know.
I forgot to mention that the hard drive is formatted as exFAT, I don't know if that matters.
But, in theory, if the hard drive is not damaged, when a file is copied, isn't there some sort of verification during the copying process to make sure that every byte is well copied without mistake?
And if it was damaged, shouldn't it lag a lot or even give an error?
I'll try doing the file verification using the FC command later on.
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 10th, 2014, 9:44
Ok, it's resolved now 
Kind of unpredictable but makes sense.
It was the harddrive dock.
All the files were copied fine, but when they were read or copied somewhere else, the dock copying false information, pretty wicked. Changed dock, everything was fine.
That's why all the files were able to be copied fine, just that the dock was changing information that was passing by...
Thanx for all your helps.
Kind of unpredictable but makes sense.
It was the harddrive dock.
All the files were copied fine, but when they were read or copied somewhere else, the dock copying false information, pretty wicked. Changed dock, everything was fine.
That's why all the files were able to be copied fine, just that the dock was changing information that was passing by...
Thanx for all your helps.
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 10th, 2014, 17:39
Was the dock based on a JMicron chipset? I posted something a while ago that outlined how a certain Jmicron chipset USB-SATA adapter would give blind data copying corruption.
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 10th, 2014, 17:48
reppel wrote:It was the harddrive dock.
What was the make/model of the dock, please, so it can be avoided.
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 11th, 2014, 4:11
reppel wrote:Thx for your replies.
I don't think it's the Sony sxs cards. They are extremely expensive, and out of a sudden all of them with the same problem would be unlikely. And I tried copy those same files to a different hdd and they play fine, it's only on the wd green that they have all those artifacts. And by the fact that the sound files copied from a different recorder with a CF card, also having the same problem. The camera is an Arri Alexa, cinema camera.
By the nature of the picture, and that all the frames have those same things, in different places, I don't know if it was a whole sector/zone of the harddrive that out of a sudden got damaged, of if something was overwritten on it, which would be strange. The fact that the file can be copied from the hdd to another medium at normal speeds also makes me think that the hard drive is not damaged in the physical kind of way, or maybe it is, i don't know.
I forgot to mention that the hard drive is formatted as exFAT, I don't know if that matters.
But, in theory, if the hard drive is not damaged, when a file is copied, isn't there some sort of verification during the copying process to make sure that every byte is well copied without mistake?
And if it was damaged, shouldn't it lag a lot or even give an error?
I'll try doing the file verification using the FC command later on.
Glad you found it
I was thinking out of the box, since i had this problem few months back
and thx for the update
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 11th, 2014, 10:22
I believe it was a Deltaco Usb 2.0 dock. (SI-7908US)
You probably won't find them that easily outside scandinavia, don't think they are that big. I believe it goes for about 25-30$, the usb3 version goes for around 35$. Don't even think they have information in English.
You probably won't find them that easily outside scandinavia, don't think they are that big. I believe it goes for about 25-30$, the usb3 version goes for around 35$. Don't even think they have information in English.
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 11th, 2014, 11:48
Anything can be found my friend
http://www.comix.com.tw/?page=product&s ... D=si7908us
From China, the Good or Cheap Quality stuff
i had one of those some time ago which supports 2 drives USB3 the problem with it is that it goes for Standby after 30min
no option to disable
Annoying option really, then i through it out
http://www.comix.com.tw/?page=product&s ... D=si7908us
From China, the Good or Cheap Quality stuff
i had one of those some time ago which supports 2 drives USB3 the problem with it is that it goes for Standby after 30min
no option to disable
Annoying option really, then i through it out
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 12th, 2014, 17:11
What does USBDeview report for the VID and PID of the device? Perhaps that will identify the bridge IC.
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 12th, 2014, 19:39
einstein9 wrote:Anything can be found my friend
http://www.comix.com.tw/?page=product&s ... D=si7908us
From China, the Good or Cheap Quality stuff
i had one of those some time ago which supports 2 drives USB3 the problem with it is that it goes for Standby after 30min
no option to disable
Annoying option really, then i through it out
As far as "Specs" go, there isnt much around for that dock. Doesnt list the chipset. Wonder if the OP could unscrew it and have a look?
Re: Random over-writes across the harddrive
February 13th, 2014, 10:58
have the 1 drive and 4 drive version- usb connector has gone intermittent on 1 drive unit as it is not well supported. Binned it- cheaply made. 4 drive is still in use- I use it for target drive data storage of image files and find it convenient.
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